"Coast of Dreams"

Kevin Starr is one of my favorite historians. Yesterday, I finished the most recent and probably last book in his series on the history of California. It covers the period 1990 to 2003. Starr says that it is not a history because the events are too recent to be understood in perspective. He says that it should be regarded more like a journal.

This book was given to me for Christmas. It has the most attractive and apt dust jacket of any of the books in the series. I started reading it eagerly. After one chapter, I bogged down. It was so depressing that I could hardly read more than a few pages a day. It chronicles in exquisite detail the decline in California since we left the state in 1989—the destruction of the school system, the rise in crime to the point that more money is spent on prisons than the state college system, etc., etc.

There are a few items on the positive side: the rise of the organic food movement and Alice Waters' influence on America's restaurants for example. Nothing evades Starr's grasp. Nevertheless, this is a good book on a depressing subject. After taking over three months to read it, I feel like a survivor. My recommendation: Read every book in his series except this one.