The plot of Southland is well crafted and held my interest - I thought it was predictable but there were surprising plot twists at the end that I hadn't foreseen. The past and present are interwoven when Jackie Ishida, a young Japanese American, tries to fulfill a request from her grandfather's hidden will and starts to uncover secrets of his past. I learned a lot about Los Angeles - especially the black and Japanese communities there in the 1940's and 1960's. Some passages are so beautifully and descriptively written that I had to stop and re-read them, but overall I feel the book would have benefitted from a good editor. Much of it rambles and takes away from the story. That being said, I still really enjoyed Southland - it's definitely a good read.
A good picture of a place(the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles) and a time between the 1940 s and the Watts riots. Very interesting insight into the complexities of race relations and the horror of racial prejudice against both blacks and Japanese. Kind of a companion piece to Walter Mosely's Easy Rawlins novels. Oh and it is also a murder mystery.
I really enjoyed this book. It is filled w/ history, murder and love. It is set in Los Angeles and covers the period from pre-WWII to 1994 after the Northridge earthquake. Jackie Isida explores a mystery which she uncovers when her beloved grandfather dies. In the process we learn a lot about the history of race relations in mid 2oth century Los Angeles.
