Native State: A Memoir

by Tony Cohan

A captivating, deeply affecting memoir chronicling a journey from a Hollywood childhood as the son of a fading show business figure to a bohemian life in Europe and back to his native state of California, where the author must face the man who had driven him away.


Summoned from abroad to attend to the ninety-four-year-old father he’s never been close to, writer and musician Tony Cohan finds himself reliving his own peripatetic life—a kaleidoscopic odyssey from California’s sunny postwar promise through the burnt end of the 1960s to the final days of the last century.
An engrossing investigation of memory and identity, love and desire, art and fate, Native State vividly portrays the author’s attempts to escape the confines of a celebrity-filled, alcoholic family through music, writing, and travel. His descent into the colorful milieus of musical and literary geniuses and lowlifes, divas and crooks, fortune tellers and culture gods in Paris, Tangier, London, Copenhagen, Barcelona, San Francisco, Kyoto, and Los Angeles coalesces into a distinctive, intimate depiction of a pivotal cultural era. Throughout, Cohan brilliantly interweaves and contrasts his past experiences with his present-day reflections on the universal youthful desire to flee home and family, and the simultaneous “undertow of origins” urging a return. The result is a work that combines unusually rich storytelling with extraordinary literary quality.
Poignant, elegantly crafted, and often funny, Native State is an indelible portrait of the artist as a young man, and—as son and dying father grope toward acceptance—a coming-to-terms with self, family, origins, and the elusive American idea of home.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Tony Cohan grew up in Manhattan and Los Angeles, where at the age of fourteen he made his debut as a jazz musician. After attending Stanford and the University of California he spent two years in Europe and North Africa, performing with jazz artists Dexter Gordon, Bud Powell and blind Catalan pianist Tete Monteliu. Returning to San Francisco, he worked briefly at the University of California Press before moving to Kyoto, Japan for two years to teach and write. Back in California, he wrote an unpublished first novel (and a published erotic novel) and worked as a studio musician with Lowell George, Ry Cooder, and others. During the 1970s he designed media campaigns for musical artists including Van Morrison, Pink Floyd, and Prince. In 1975 he founded the long-running independent press Acrobat Books, publishing nonfiction books in the arts. His 1981 novel Canary (Doubleday) was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, his 1984 novel Opium (Simon and Schuster) a Literary Guild selection. His bestselling travel narrative On Mexican Time (Random House, 2001) was followed by an autobiographical memoir, Native State (Random House, 2003), a Los Angeles Times Notable Book of the Year, and a second travel narrative, Mexican Days (Random House, 2007). His collaborations as lyricist with pianist and composer Chick Corea include the jazz classic High Wire. His essays, stories, articles, songs and reviews have appeared in a variety of media worldwide. His most recent novel is Valparaíso.

Reviews

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most well written and interesting memoirs I have read by a contemporary writer.A fascinating , very personal , seemimgly honest descriptive journey of art, longing, music , family and relationships.

[James Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

he’s saving the best for next…

book ends too soon… there are other stories to tell. Distinctive style, will look at some of this other works

[Rick Bavera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of Tony Cohan before seeing this book, and deciding to read it.

The title and cover caught my eye.

Interesting life he has had. He is about a half-generation older than I am, and while I remember some of the era he talks about, my experiences were far far different. So, in that sense, I learned a lot about the life of a Californian who became a transient....and how his life had a little in common with mine (the rootlessness), but he actually did have some, more so in many ways than I did.

But his vocation of musician and writer, and entertainment father led him into stuff that doesn't touch my life at all--most especially the drinking and the drugs.

Interesting read.

[Brad Erickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Not only is/was the author's life fascinating, but his writing ability is first-rate. I was thinking of quoting some of my favorite lines, but I'd be here all day. I picked up this book randomly; now I really want to read his other books.
Only one quibble: Why would anyone SO intelligent pay any attention to a palm reader??