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Love and War in California
The Sweeping Novel of a Twentieth-Century California Life
Love and War in California tells the story, through the eyes of Payton Daltrey, of the last sixty years of an evolving America.
The award-winning author Oakley Hall begins his newest work in 1940s San Diego, where his endearing, wide-eyed narrator must define his identity in terms of self, family, and World War II. As his classmates disappear into the war one by one, he becomes obsessed with abuses of power and embroiled with the charming, dangerous Errol Flynn; with the Red Baiting of the American Legion; with the House Un-American Activities Committee; and with the Japanese interment at Manzanar. Nevertheless, Payton, too, must go to the war, where he is a part of the invasion of Europe and that proving of the American the Battle of the Bulge. After war's end and time in New York, he returns to California as a writer and a seeker, whose old, long-lost love rises from the ashes to show him who he really is.
Hall has been called a "master craftsman" (Amy Tan) with "one of the finest prose styles around" (Michael Chabon), and he has received the PEN Center USA West Award of Honor and the P&W Writers for Writers Award. Coming on the heels of Hall's San Francisco Chronicle bestseller (a reissue of his classic Western, Warlock ), Love and War in California is more than a novel about a young boy who grows old. It's about how the passions of youth become the verities of age, and how we evolve as a nation, a country, and a people during times that are all at once turbulent, dangerous, and stirring.
Love and War in California tells the story, through the eyes of Payton Daltrey, of the last sixty years of an evolving America.
The award-winning author Oakley Hall begins his newest work in 1940s San Diego, where his endearing, wide-eyed narrator must define his identity in terms of self, family, and World War II. As his classmates disappear into the war one by one, he becomes obsessed with abuses of power and embroiled with the charming, dangerous Errol Flynn; with the Red Baiting of the American Legion; with the House Un-American Activities Committee; and with the Japanese interment at Manzanar. Nevertheless, Payton, too, must go to the war, where he is a part of the invasion of Europe and that proving of the American the Battle of the Bulge. After war's end and time in New York, he returns to California as a writer and a seeker, whose old, long-lost love rises from the ashes to show him who he really is.
Hall has been called a "master craftsman" (Amy Tan) with "one of the finest prose styles around" (Michael Chabon), and he has received the PEN Center USA West Award of Honor and the P&W Writers for Writers Award. Coming on the heels of Hall's San Francisco Chronicle bestseller (a reissue of his classic Western, Warlock ), Love and War in California is more than a novel about a young boy who grows old. It's about how the passions of youth become the verities of age, and how we evolve as a nation, a country, and a people during times that are all at once turbulent, dangerous, and stirring.
- GenresFiction
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Oakley Hall
35 books103 followersOakley Hall also wrote under the nom de plume of O.M. Hall and Jason Manor.
Oakley Maxwell Hall was an American novelist. He was born in San Diego, California, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the Marines during World War II. Some of his mysteries were published under the pen names "O.M. Hall" and "Jason Manor." Hall received his Master of Fine Arts in English from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.
Oakley Maxwell Hall was an American novelist. He was born in San Diego, California, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the Marines during World War II. Some of his mysteries were published under the pen names "O.M. Hall" and "Jason Manor." Hall received his Master of Fine Arts in English from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.
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May 8, 2012 I once heard Oakley Hall say that (I’m paraphrasing) he likes to write about things that piss him off.
I don’t know enough about his life to know how autobiographical Love and War in California is, but if Payton Daltry is even a semi-approximate match for his creator, Hall is plenty pissed and has been for quite a while. His targets include a worthy roster of villains--the HUAC (House UnAmerican Activities Committee), the Japanese Internment, bigotry, and overweening authority figures of all kinds. Daltry encounters all of these forces and many more during his late adolescence, which coincides with the eruption of World War II. The “many more” include the corrupting influences of wealth and fame in the form of Errol Flynn and various shenanigans of the Hollywood hoi polloi.
Hall’s deftly constructed situation posits Daltry as a member of an integrated San Diego high school’s football team, then follows the fortunes of a multi-racial group of that team through the tribulations of the buildup to and beginnings of the conflagration. Daltry’s sensitivities build and ignite along with the injustices visited upon his non-white friends and as the bigotry of some of his white friends increases. The plot also includes plenty of intriguing short- and long-term romance. One key incident during a late-night pacific highway late-night drive is among the most vivid love scenes I’ve ever read.
Love and California is more than a coming-of-age novel, though, for it follows its protagonist through a successful, if offbeat, career into some unexpected middle-aged fame. I don’t want to give away too much, but suffice it to say that the young man’s principles do not erode over the years, even though their form and expression change. If that sentence seems oxymoronic on the page, you’d better read the novel. In Oakley Hall’s hands the experience of it makes sense.
Though the book stands on its own, I have to say that it is an even more remarkable achievement for a man in his eighties who has had both knees replaced and still gets out on the tennis court regularly, still plays an active role in one of the most respected writer’s workshops in the country (The Squaw Valley Community of Writers, which he founded), and has fostered the careers of so many fine authors (try Alice Siebold, Michael Chabon, Amy Tan for starters) to still turn out writing of this quality on a regular basis. In a book jacket blurb, Chabon calls him “our greatest living master” of “that epic romance of disillusion and of promise betrayed.” I have a list of people I want to be like when I get old(er). He’s at the top.
WHOSE LOVE AND WHOSE WAR? OAKLEY HALL’S WWII CA
Saturday, December 29, 2007
I don’t know enough about his life to know how autobiographical Love and War in California is, but if Payton Daltry is even a semi-approximate match for his creator, Hall is plenty pissed and has been for quite a while. His targets include a worthy roster of villains--the HUAC (House UnAmerican Activities Committee), the Japanese Internment, bigotry, and overweening authority figures of all kinds. Daltry encounters all of these forces and many more during his late adolescence, which coincides with the eruption of World War II. The “many more” include the corrupting influences of wealth and fame in the form of Errol Flynn and various shenanigans of the Hollywood hoi polloi.
Hall’s deftly constructed situation posits Daltry as a member of an integrated San Diego high school’s football team, then follows the fortunes of a multi-racial group of that team through the tribulations of the buildup to and beginnings of the conflagration. Daltry’s sensitivities build and ignite along with the injustices visited upon his non-white friends and as the bigotry of some of his white friends increases. The plot also includes plenty of intriguing short- and long-term romance. One key incident during a late-night pacific highway late-night drive is among the most vivid love scenes I’ve ever read.
Love and California is more than a coming-of-age novel, though, for it follows its protagonist through a successful, if offbeat, career into some unexpected middle-aged fame. I don’t want to give away too much, but suffice it to say that the young man’s principles do not erode over the years, even though their form and expression change. If that sentence seems oxymoronic on the page, you’d better read the novel. In Oakley Hall’s hands the experience of it makes sense.
Though the book stands on its own, I have to say that it is an even more remarkable achievement for a man in his eighties who has had both knees replaced and still gets out on the tennis court regularly, still plays an active role in one of the most respected writer’s workshops in the country (The Squaw Valley Community of Writers, which he founded), and has fostered the careers of so many fine authors (try Alice Siebold, Michael Chabon, Amy Tan for starters) to still turn out writing of this quality on a regular basis. In a book jacket blurb, Chabon calls him “our greatest living master” of “that epic romance of disillusion and of promise betrayed.” I have a list of people I want to be like when I get old(er). He’s at the top.
WHOSE LOVE AND WHOSE WAR? OAKLEY HALL’S WWII CA
Saturday, December 29, 2007
January 9, 2013
2nd from hall for me...the 1st his Warlock...within the last year or so. hardcover, this, 280 pages
2006...copyright
a dedication: this book is for barbara
book one: gates of bone
begins:
the first time i saw bonny, the first time i paid attention to her, anyway, was december 8, 1941. we were all in the caff at san diego state college that monday morning, listening to the terrible news on the radio, the losses, the deaths, the day of infamy, the declaration of war. the japs! we drank coffee or cokes and listened to the bad news. no one knew then how much more bad news we were going to hear before some good news began to filter through.
the college junior i was then sat at a tile-topped table with some of my fraternity brothers, including pogey, my best friend, and johnny pierce, a senior.
onward & upward.
time & place...scene/setting
*december 8, 1941 & on, w/i the 1st few pages, they are "months past pearl harbor"
*san diego state college
*cafeteria
*narrator's place: on meade street (san diego?)...rents a room in the cottage of an indian barber and his redheaded wife...normal heights
*narrator delivers groceries for perry's fine foods, works for a weekly newspaper called the brand
*the hotel del coronado...dancing...and a bit of trivia--the del was inspiration for ole frank--he saw the emerald city when it was lit at night
*bonny lives mission hills
*mission beach
*a girl's room where he lost his cherry
*presidio drive...where payton daltrey lived w/his family before the depression
*ol paint...payton's vehicle...dunno as yet whether it is a car or truck...i drive a truck, so that's what it is, for me. you drive a car w/an extension cord, that's what it is...for you.
*a water-taxi in san diego bay
*sirocco errol flynn's yacht
*hoover high, a rival high school to san diego high
*albatross street, in hillcrest, maternal grandmother lives here
*edmund daltrey, the father & weezie's mission beach bungalow
*mother's place in logan heights
*fremont bar
*south of broadway
*benford hotel
*white castle hamburger stand
*navy's san diego recruit depot
*the alley past ranked trash cans
*the quad at state (sdsc)
*professor chapman's office
*the brand's offices...newspaper where payton works...perceived as a commie rag
*chrysie-car...calvin's car
*tijuana expedition
*small towns between san diego & the border, san ysidro the last
*molino rojo, huge tijuana whorehouse
*clinica orozco...for the abortion for bonny
*avenida revolucion, in tijuana
*caesar's hotel & the foreign club, tijuana
*a theatre...for the dog and pony show
*pt loma (a kind of lover's lane)
*perry's basement, the grocery store place
*camp kearny mesa...for the dirigible accident
*navy dirigible, canton
characters
*eye-narrator, payton daltrey, is attending college, is in a midshipman's program, will "go in" after he graduates, is a college junior when the story opens, called "brud" by big brother richie, studies english literature, writes when he can, sends stories out, born on july 5, 1921, he is an alpha beta, although he has been avoiding the tong...a new word, me...something to do w/the frat...meetings or something...he is twenty years old.
*bonny...barbara bonington, a sophomore, is the girlfriend of johnny pierce when story opens. she is in a sorority & she is called "bonny" because there are four other barbaras at the sorority
*pogey malcolm, payton's best friend, lives on wisteria street
*johnny pierce, a senior, two whole years older than bonny, enlisted in the air corps the week of pearl harbor and was gone...later, we learn that he is killed in a training accident in april
*payton's friend harrison's sister, w/whom he lost his cherry, her on top, when he was a junior in high school, may it do ya fine
*richie daltrey, payton's older brother, in pensacola, is a jg in naval air, called a "throat-cutting studio cocksucker" by hagen, is engaged to
*liz fletcher, richie's fiancee, 23-yr-old, her father is in the navy
*tim eaton, a friend of payton's who set them up w/2 dates at mission beach
*martha bailey, a necking friend, nothing below the neck, now & forevermore, hallelujah & amen
*charley, bonny's brother, flunking out of standford, enlisted coast guard to beat the draft, is stationed on north island, part of the san diego harbor geography
*bob-o, peyton's friend, robert o'connor, will be going into the marines
*men in uniform
*girls sleek in thick formals w/bright lipstick smiles
*amy perrine...bob-o's date for the dance at the hotel del
*val, a starlet at usc, & alas, she is a suicide
*david lubin, a dicrector, mentioned in connection w/richie's time in los angeles
*errol flynn, the actor, owner of the sirocco a yacht, has a place near los angeles called mulholland farm
*the beta epsilon sorority from state...sdsc, i assume, invited to flynn's yacht, some apparently left w/stories to tell only their bestest friends
*a broad-shouldered guy in a checked jacket, wally toland, errol's friend on the yacht and a stuntman
*pancho hagen, another stuntman on the yacht
*amy's father, who owned a couple shoe repair stores
*the water-taxi driver
*a deckhand
*a student (flight) & instructor/ richie/ they died in a crash
*maternal grandmother of payton, from richmond?...indiana, she moved w/payton's mother and his uncle faye to san diego, & her name was payton, looks like
*aaron, the grandfather, died in the phillipines during the spanish-american war
*dr. bell...family doc
*ellen...is payton's mother
*uncle faye, his uncle
*edmund daltrey, father of payton, over 44 (ineligible for the draft, 20-44) now married to
*weezie, who has a job in the school district
*bill hutchinson, a big shot in the teamster's union...diddled payton's mother, payton was crouched under the kitchen table, viewing the scene
*frank tully, payton's boss at the brand, and one of his mother's boyfriends
*jack...mentioned by richie, a friend of his in l.a.
*captain fletcher, liz's father
*admiral swenson, buddies with the captain
*calvin king, halfback to payton's quarterback during their high school days, part of the "tutti-frutti backfield"...calvin caught the winning touchdown, on his back, against rival hoover high. he is black...is a pimp now in san diego
*stan takahashi, john rodrigues, and buddy ruger, other members of the tutti-frutti backfield, san diego high football team...later we learn that he is pre-med ucla
*zoot-suited on 3rd street
*coach garland...football/payton/san diego high
*platinum blonde, big-assed in her tight red dress
*a colored bartender w/a face like a slab of brown beef
*dessy, one of calvin's hookers, born on april 11, 1920
*professor chapman, payton's english professor
*an expanse of uniform backs
*the bartender
*some bad men down the bar
*a brown-uniformed mexican officer in a salty cap
*meskin, a friend of uncle red's (calvin)
*peggy fleming...probably not the figure skater
*his cheerleader/buddy ruger
*a japanese girl/stan
*her boss/dessy/up in san francisco, where she had to put out to keep her job, oh la
*mr perkins...payton's mother's friend...some guy he wonders if she had to put out for to keep her job
*cops directing traffic
*servicemen in civilian clothes...identified by their haircuts
*a sour-faced mexican woman
*groups of pedestrians
*men w/harsh american voices (this ought to appeal to the america-haters, the ameri-phobes)
*wo soldiers w/rifles lounged
*a mariachi group
*gringos
*a naked woman
*a man near us commented
*a dog & a pony...for the entertainment...this was before the establishment media began to appeal to the masses w/their nightly entertainment, oh la
*another naked woman
*white-clad attendant
*senor carlos rodriguez
*an older woman, palm reader
*sacco & vancetti, trotsky, mentioned for effect, national color
*tom mooney & a policeman...pics/column...the brand
*spanish civil war soldier...same
*john reed...same
*some strikers in yolo county...same
*huac, teeney committee (california)...same
*dutchman-printer tee-john
*charlotte, personified, the press machine at the paper, likened to a grizzly bear
*youth & a judge in altadena...article payton writes up, the youth is an 11-yr-old, the judge molested the youth...there is a sense the youth is a boy, but i don't recall exactly
*the attorney for the judge...innocent until proven otherwise, you may recall, but why get hung up on the constitution?
*a times writer...for the original piece on the above
*mrs grooms, widow of erwin j grooms, founder of the paper
*lois meader, dispatcher for perry's grocery, a kind of mrs. robinson to payton's graduate
*her husband, ray
*old mrs. blair on the rim over the mission valley, grocery customer
*emmett's...
*bitsy, their mutt
*mrs sims, their cook
*pogey's step-mother, beth (seems strange, reading about more than a few--payton and now pogey--w/step-mothers, other parents...not a word really, that payton's folks were divorced...and nothing here to indicate why a step, and not the natural/initial parent
*a nice man (for the abortion in tijuana)
*connie roberts's sister...suidice...the second now we read about
*customs officer
*herb brownell, 28-yr-old
*ted sparks, 29-yr-old
*chuck-the-checker, drafted...younger...the other two above, drivers for grocery delivery
**westbrook pegler
*henry mclemore...the two names mentioned by payton in the perry basement scene
*pr...p d ratner, editor, black mask
*le cric...character of pogey and payton, based on jean valjean of les miserables
*ellie minton, a girlfriend of payton's at one point in his life
*rep. dies...will be informed about the rats at the paper
*american legion, huac, silver shirts, father coughlin
*dessy's pa...died in a fall in a hunting accident
*sailors directed them into rows
*people wandered among the cars
*people pointing
*bonny's pa, an ophthalmologist in mission hills
*glances from the surrounding cars
*sailors were also peering
some americana, folklore, what have you
apparently...& i've seen this before...but during the depression, those on the road would "mark" a house where they received kindness...and at payton's grandmother's place, he notices two bricks, one placed crosswise over the other. he moves the brick...the implication that the house is no longer "marked"
some of payton's stories, titles
"on the dodge"...sent to black mask
"essential parts"
my breadcrumbs
there is a short...one/two sentence...a character, payton, using his imagination on the water taxi to the yacht...and another time, this one a bit longer, in the brand's offices...as he begins to write the piece on the youth and the judge...
linked back to the others...ummmm...Out of Sight...From Here to Eternity...Look Homeward, Angel...Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me
perhaps a theme...motif...what you will
payton...and then bonny, too...conclude that things get all hooked together.
a quote or two three
sometimes it is possible for the wise to transcend their gender.
some children can be very severe when they discover evidence of human nature in their parents.
some thoughts as i read
people are defined as much as who they are by where they live in san diego...payton, ashamed somewhat, of having fled the better part of town.
update, finished, 3:11 p.m. e.s.t. friday afternoon, 11 jan 13
a good read.
book two is called "staying alive"...and book three is called "love and war in california".
by story end, the time is 1986 or later...staying alive concerns the war in europe, payton's activity there, the telling fast, hitting some high points, or low...or whatever. there's a few surprises there...war...how many millions of stories can be told? different things, like payton meets calvin there, payton almost awol...calvin is...and a number, 15,000. whoa? really? i guess it is possible, black soldiers the number. the camps...a little taste of the whole theater of war.
and then the final book of the story moves even faster, one sentence we're in paris, the next in new york, another is in timor or the sudan, things happening quickly. to the end...payton a successful novelist/writer, reading his novel, the title of book one, gate of bones, the first sentence the sentence of this story, "lyn burton" in place of barbara bonington.
ummmm.
the character/place lists above are not complete. maybe later
2006...copyright
a dedication: this book is for barbara
book one: gates of bone
begins:
the first time i saw bonny, the first time i paid attention to her, anyway, was december 8, 1941. we were all in the caff at san diego state college that monday morning, listening to the terrible news on the radio, the losses, the deaths, the day of infamy, the declaration of war. the japs! we drank coffee or cokes and listened to the bad news. no one knew then how much more bad news we were going to hear before some good news began to filter through.
the college junior i was then sat at a tile-topped table with some of my fraternity brothers, including pogey, my best friend, and johnny pierce, a senior.
onward & upward.
time & place...scene/setting
*december 8, 1941 & on, w/i the 1st few pages, they are "months past pearl harbor"
*san diego state college
*cafeteria
*narrator's place: on meade street (san diego?)...rents a room in the cottage of an indian barber and his redheaded wife...normal heights
*narrator delivers groceries for perry's fine foods, works for a weekly newspaper called the brand
*the hotel del coronado...dancing...and a bit of trivia--the del was inspiration for ole frank--he saw the emerald city when it was lit at night
*bonny lives mission hills
*mission beach
*a girl's room where he lost his cherry
*presidio drive...where payton daltrey lived w/his family before the depression
*ol paint...payton's vehicle...dunno as yet whether it is a car or truck...i drive a truck, so that's what it is, for me. you drive a car w/an extension cord, that's what it is...for you.
*a water-taxi in san diego bay
*sirocco errol flynn's yacht
*hoover high, a rival high school to san diego high
*albatross street, in hillcrest, maternal grandmother lives here
*edmund daltrey, the father & weezie's mission beach bungalow
*mother's place in logan heights
*fremont bar
*south of broadway
*benford hotel
*white castle hamburger stand
*navy's san diego recruit depot
*the alley past ranked trash cans
*the quad at state (sdsc)
*professor chapman's office
*the brand's offices...newspaper where payton works...perceived as a commie rag
*chrysie-car...calvin's car
*tijuana expedition
*small towns between san diego & the border, san ysidro the last
*molino rojo, huge tijuana whorehouse
*clinica orozco...for the abortion for bonny
*avenida revolucion, in tijuana
*caesar's hotel & the foreign club, tijuana
*a theatre...for the dog and pony show
*pt loma (a kind of lover's lane)
*perry's basement, the grocery store place
*camp kearny mesa...for the dirigible accident
*navy dirigible, canton
characters
*eye-narrator, payton daltrey, is attending college, is in a midshipman's program, will "go in" after he graduates, is a college junior when the story opens, called "brud" by big brother richie, studies english literature, writes when he can, sends stories out, born on july 5, 1921, he is an alpha beta, although he has been avoiding the tong...a new word, me...something to do w/the frat...meetings or something...he is twenty years old.
*bonny...barbara bonington, a sophomore, is the girlfriend of johnny pierce when story opens. she is in a sorority & she is called "bonny" because there are four other barbaras at the sorority
*pogey malcolm, payton's best friend, lives on wisteria street
*johnny pierce, a senior, two whole years older than bonny, enlisted in the air corps the week of pearl harbor and was gone...later, we learn that he is killed in a training accident in april
*payton's friend harrison's sister, w/whom he lost his cherry, her on top, when he was a junior in high school, may it do ya fine
*richie daltrey, payton's older brother, in pensacola, is a jg in naval air, called a "throat-cutting studio cocksucker" by hagen, is engaged to
*liz fletcher, richie's fiancee, 23-yr-old, her father is in the navy
*tim eaton, a friend of payton's who set them up w/2 dates at mission beach
*martha bailey, a necking friend, nothing below the neck, now & forevermore, hallelujah & amen
*charley, bonny's brother, flunking out of standford, enlisted coast guard to beat the draft, is stationed on north island, part of the san diego harbor geography
*bob-o, peyton's friend, robert o'connor, will be going into the marines
*men in uniform
*girls sleek in thick formals w/bright lipstick smiles
*amy perrine...bob-o's date for the dance at the hotel del
*val, a starlet at usc, & alas, she is a suicide
*david lubin, a dicrector, mentioned in connection w/richie's time in los angeles
*errol flynn, the actor, owner of the sirocco a yacht, has a place near los angeles called mulholland farm
*the beta epsilon sorority from state...sdsc, i assume, invited to flynn's yacht, some apparently left w/stories to tell only their bestest friends
*a broad-shouldered guy in a checked jacket, wally toland, errol's friend on the yacht and a stuntman
*pancho hagen, another stuntman on the yacht
*amy's father, who owned a couple shoe repair stores
*the water-taxi driver
*a deckhand
*a student (flight) & instructor/ richie/ they died in a crash
*maternal grandmother of payton, from richmond?...indiana, she moved w/payton's mother and his uncle faye to san diego, & her name was payton, looks like
*aaron, the grandfather, died in the phillipines during the spanish-american war
*dr. bell...family doc
*ellen...is payton's mother
*uncle faye, his uncle
*edmund daltrey, father of payton, over 44 (ineligible for the draft, 20-44) now married to
*weezie, who has a job in the school district
*bill hutchinson, a big shot in the teamster's union...diddled payton's mother, payton was crouched under the kitchen table, viewing the scene
*frank tully, payton's boss at the brand, and one of his mother's boyfriends
*jack...mentioned by richie, a friend of his in l.a.
*captain fletcher, liz's father
*admiral swenson, buddies with the captain
*calvin king, halfback to payton's quarterback during their high school days, part of the "tutti-frutti backfield"...calvin caught the winning touchdown, on his back, against rival hoover high. he is black...is a pimp now in san diego
*stan takahashi, john rodrigues, and buddy ruger, other members of the tutti-frutti backfield, san diego high football team...later we learn that he is pre-med ucla
*zoot-suited on 3rd street
*coach garland...football/payton/san diego high
*platinum blonde, big-assed in her tight red dress
*a colored bartender w/a face like a slab of brown beef
*dessy, one of calvin's hookers, born on april 11, 1920
*professor chapman, payton's english professor
*an expanse of uniform backs
*the bartender
*some bad men down the bar
*a brown-uniformed mexican officer in a salty cap
*meskin, a friend of uncle red's (calvin)
*peggy fleming...probably not the figure skater
*his cheerleader/buddy ruger
*a japanese girl/stan
*her boss/dessy/up in san francisco, where she had to put out to keep her job, oh la
*mr perkins...payton's mother's friend...some guy he wonders if she had to put out for to keep her job
*cops directing traffic
*servicemen in civilian clothes...identified by their haircuts
*a sour-faced mexican woman
*groups of pedestrians
*men w/harsh american voices (this ought to appeal to the america-haters, the ameri-phobes)
*wo soldiers w/rifles lounged
*a mariachi group
*gringos
*a naked woman
*a man near us commented
*a dog & a pony...for the entertainment...this was before the establishment media began to appeal to the masses w/their nightly entertainment, oh la
*another naked woman
*white-clad attendant
*senor carlos rodriguez
*an older woman, palm reader
*sacco & vancetti, trotsky, mentioned for effect, national color
*tom mooney & a policeman...pics/column...the brand
*spanish civil war soldier...same
*john reed...same
*some strikers in yolo county...same
*huac, teeney committee (california)...same
*dutchman-printer tee-john
*charlotte, personified, the press machine at the paper, likened to a grizzly bear
*youth & a judge in altadena...article payton writes up, the youth is an 11-yr-old, the judge molested the youth...there is a sense the youth is a boy, but i don't recall exactly
*the attorney for the judge...innocent until proven otherwise, you may recall, but why get hung up on the constitution?
*a times writer...for the original piece on the above
*mrs grooms, widow of erwin j grooms, founder of the paper
*lois meader, dispatcher for perry's grocery, a kind of mrs. robinson to payton's graduate
*her husband, ray
*old mrs. blair on the rim over the mission valley, grocery customer
*emmett's...
*bitsy, their mutt
*mrs sims, their cook
*pogey's step-mother, beth (seems strange, reading about more than a few--payton and now pogey--w/step-mothers, other parents...not a word really, that payton's folks were divorced...and nothing here to indicate why a step, and not the natural/initial parent
*a nice man (for the abortion in tijuana)
*connie roberts's sister...suidice...the second now we read about
*customs officer
*herb brownell, 28-yr-old
*ted sparks, 29-yr-old
*chuck-the-checker, drafted...younger...the other two above, drivers for grocery delivery
**westbrook pegler
*henry mclemore...the two names mentioned by payton in the perry basement scene
*pr...p d ratner, editor, black mask
*le cric...character of pogey and payton, based on jean valjean of les miserables
*ellie minton, a girlfriend of payton's at one point in his life
*rep. dies...will be informed about the rats at the paper
*american legion, huac, silver shirts, father coughlin
*dessy's pa...died in a fall in a hunting accident
*sailors directed them into rows
*people wandered among the cars
*people pointing
*bonny's pa, an ophthalmologist in mission hills
*glances from the surrounding cars
*sailors were also peering
some americana, folklore, what have you
apparently...& i've seen this before...but during the depression, those on the road would "mark" a house where they received kindness...and at payton's grandmother's place, he notices two bricks, one placed crosswise over the other. he moves the brick...the implication that the house is no longer "marked"
some of payton's stories, titles
"on the dodge"...sent to black mask
"essential parts"
my breadcrumbs
there is a short...one/two sentence...a character, payton, using his imagination on the water taxi to the yacht...and another time, this one a bit longer, in the brand's offices...as he begins to write the piece on the youth and the judge...
linked back to the others...ummmm...Out of Sight...From Here to Eternity...Look Homeward, Angel...Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me
perhaps a theme...motif...what you will
payton...and then bonny, too...conclude that things get all hooked together.
a quote or two three
sometimes it is possible for the wise to transcend their gender.
some children can be very severe when they discover evidence of human nature in their parents.
some thoughts as i read
people are defined as much as who they are by where they live in san diego...payton, ashamed somewhat, of having fled the better part of town.
update, finished, 3:11 p.m. e.s.t. friday afternoon, 11 jan 13
a good read.
book two is called "staying alive"...and book three is called "love and war in california".
by story end, the time is 1986 or later...staying alive concerns the war in europe, payton's activity there, the telling fast, hitting some high points, or low...or whatever. there's a few surprises there...war...how many millions of stories can be told? different things, like payton meets calvin there, payton almost awol...calvin is...and a number, 15,000. whoa? really? i guess it is possible, black soldiers the number. the camps...a little taste of the whole theater of war.
and then the final book of the story moves even faster, one sentence we're in paris, the next in new york, another is in timor or the sudan, things happening quickly. to the end...payton a successful novelist/writer, reading his novel, the title of book one, gate of bones, the first sentence the sentence of this story, "lyn burton" in place of barbara bonington.
ummmm.
the character/place lists above are not complete. maybe later
May 21, 2007
The brilliance of this book is how Hall takes the overly-saturated topic of World War II and analyzes it from a fairly unique standpoint--through the eyes of an incredulous and rather tortured college student, whose personal conflicts often seem to outweigh the conflicts of the war and America in the 40s. Or, do they? Actually, Hall very deftly shows that the personal and the global are irrevocably enmeshed:
"I manipulated my father into sounding like a bigot, and then jerked off into a phony fit of righteousness. We hadn't even been disputing over Jews, or about American Legion Post 5 and the First Amendement and Commie rags. No, we were talking about my father going broke in the Depression so the house in Mission Hills was lost; we were talking about Richie Daltrey of the Great Expectations, the drowned suicide girlfriend and the scarred thumb. 'I don't see you fighting it,' my father had said, meaning another disappointment in his younger son the slacker."
Add to this a beautifully fractured tableau of the war (Part II) and a very honest recollection of what quickly becomes the past (Part III) and you have a magnificent book. Hall is a narrative guru and he even tosses in a bit of a plot twist--for lack of a better term--at the end. An astounding amount of experience, feeling, and thematic material resides in this short but brilliant novel.
"I manipulated my father into sounding like a bigot, and then jerked off into a phony fit of righteousness. We hadn't even been disputing over Jews, or about American Legion Post 5 and the First Amendement and Commie rags. No, we were talking about my father going broke in the Depression so the house in Mission Hills was lost; we were talking about Richie Daltrey of the Great Expectations, the drowned suicide girlfriend and the scarred thumb. 'I don't see you fighting it,' my father had said, meaning another disappointment in his younger son the slacker."
Add to this a beautifully fractured tableau of the war (Part II) and a very honest recollection of what quickly becomes the past (Part III) and you have a magnificent book. Hall is a narrative guru and he even tosses in a bit of a plot twist--for lack of a better term--at the end. An astounding amount of experience, feeling, and thematic material resides in this short but brilliant novel.
July 25, 2023
As a California native who writes books and stories set in California, I’ve recently been on a California reading binge. I remember that, some years ago, I picked up the title I just finished,
Love & War in California
by Oakley Hall, solely for its title. I may have glanced at the flap copy, and I may have opened to a random page in the middle to get a sense of the prose, but I surely had no idea what the book was actually about or where, specifically, it was set.
The pleasant experience that greeted me as I entered the book’s pages cannot be overstated. It turns out the book is set in San Diego, where I first went to university in 1979. The protagonist, Payton Daltrey, is a student at San Diego State College (now University), where I completed my B.A. in journalism in 1983. Payton is also working his way through college by holding down several jobs, as I did, and one of those jobs is at a small newspaper, as one of mine was. And finally, in perhaps the most surprising parallel between my own life and the one depicted in the book, Payton lives in an apartment in the Normal Heights section of San Diego, which is—you guessed it—the exact neighborhood I lived in during my four years there.
Despite all these parallels, Love & War in California is decidedly not the story of my college years in San Diego. It kicks off in December 1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbor and follows Payton through his college years and a somewhat tortured love affair. It then takes the reader to France and Germany to relive Payton’s disturbing and difficult service in World War II, and then, finally, back to California to trace his long, sometimes painful life as a marginally successful author.
Still, the similarities that kept cropping up made an incredibly rich reading experience even richer for me personally. Most of the book’s pages cover those early years when Payton was a working student at San Diego State and a writer for a small left-wing newspaper called the brand. He was also, during this period, completely obsessed with a fellow student named Barbara Bonington, or “Bonny.” Apart from this obsession with Bonny and the associated carnal stirrings, the 40 years that separated Payton’s experiences from my own barely dimmed the equivalent emotions I had felt during my own Normal Heights period. Payton’s colleagues at the brand were Communists, who were misunderstood and demonized for their politics at the time, while my colleagues at the Asian American Press in 1980 were newly arrived Vietnamese refugees, who experienced similar enmity. Payton was too young to have developed ardent Communist sympathies at the time, just as I was too young to have entrenched views on the Vietnam War and its flood of refugees, but we both had principles that Hall expresses beautifully using Payton’s voice. Asked directly by Bonny’s parents what his politics are, Payton responds by invoking his father, who is a Republican:
The threads of a country scarred by warfare on distant shores, and by the political and social turmoil that emanate from such warfare, stretch taut across the decades. It’s therefore unremarkable that a 2006 novel about the anti-communist, anti-immigrant fervor of the World War II era would resonate with an observer of the anti-communist, anti-immigrant fervor of the post-Vietnam era. What is remarkable, though, is that such a novel would be set in nearly the exact place and circumstances of one particular observer—namely, me. So, while I recognize without apology that Love & War in California will not hit all readers the same way it hit me, I still recommend the book to anyone for its literary quality and rich storytelling.
I knew nothing about Oakley Hall before I picked up this book, but I now know that it was essentially his literary swan song. The author passed away in 2008, less than two years after the release of Love & War, which was his 26th novel, and his 28th book. Without spoilers, the book has many autobiographical elements, including both the protagonist’s service in World War II and his long career as an author. I personally found the characters’ preoccupation with sex in the book’s early pages to be somewhat distracting, but in retrospect, one can excuse an octogenarian author a few salacious forays into sexual exploits and frustrations that were, at the time of the writing, many, many years behind him. One might even consider him brave to have put it all on the page at that advanced age.
But however one feels about the details, the story itself is a rich portrayal of a complicated life well-led.
The pleasant experience that greeted me as I entered the book’s pages cannot be overstated. It turns out the book is set in San Diego, where I first went to university in 1979. The protagonist, Payton Daltrey, is a student at San Diego State College (now University), where I completed my B.A. in journalism in 1983. Payton is also working his way through college by holding down several jobs, as I did, and one of those jobs is at a small newspaper, as one of mine was. And finally, in perhaps the most surprising parallel between my own life and the one depicted in the book, Payton lives in an apartment in the Normal Heights section of San Diego, which is—you guessed it—the exact neighborhood I lived in during my four years there.
Despite all these parallels, Love & War in California is decidedly not the story of my college years in San Diego. It kicks off in December 1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbor and follows Payton through his college years and a somewhat tortured love affair. It then takes the reader to France and Germany to relive Payton’s disturbing and difficult service in World War II, and then, finally, back to California to trace his long, sometimes painful life as a marginally successful author.
Still, the similarities that kept cropping up made an incredibly rich reading experience even richer for me personally. Most of the book’s pages cover those early years when Payton was a working student at San Diego State and a writer for a small left-wing newspaper called the brand. He was also, during this period, completely obsessed with a fellow student named Barbara Bonington, or “Bonny.” Apart from this obsession with Bonny and the associated carnal stirrings, the 40 years that separated Payton’s experiences from my own barely dimmed the equivalent emotions I had felt during my own Normal Heights period. Payton’s colleagues at the brand were Communists, who were misunderstood and demonized for their politics at the time, while my colleagues at the Asian American Press in 1980 were newly arrived Vietnamese refugees, who experienced similar enmity. Payton was too young to have developed ardent Communist sympathies at the time, just as I was too young to have entrenched views on the Vietnam War and its flood of refugees, but we both had principles that Hall expresses beautifully using Payton’s voice. Asked directly by Bonny’s parents what his politics are, Payton responds by invoking his father, who is a Republican:
“I guess [my views] are about halfway between my father’s and the brand’s… I believe in liberty and justice for all… But not just for people who can afford it. Poor people, too. The tramps my grandmother feeds at her back door, too! I don’t think people should lose their farms and houses and jobs in a depression. I don’t think farmers ought to lose their farms in any Dust Bowl thing, and when they move to California get beaten up by SC football players for being strikers. I don’t think Mexicans ought to get beaten up because they wear zoot suits. And I don’t think people ought to be locked up in concentration camps because they are Japanese. They are citizens of this country! And I don’t think colored guys ought to be lynched, and they ought to be able to ride in a taxi and get a haircut like anyone else. And I don’t think the House Un-American Activities Committee ought to call everyone who doesn’t agree with them Comsymps.”
The threads of a country scarred by warfare on distant shores, and by the political and social turmoil that emanate from such warfare, stretch taut across the decades. It’s therefore unremarkable that a 2006 novel about the anti-communist, anti-immigrant fervor of the World War II era would resonate with an observer of the anti-communist, anti-immigrant fervor of the post-Vietnam era. What is remarkable, though, is that such a novel would be set in nearly the exact place and circumstances of one particular observer—namely, me. So, while I recognize without apology that Love & War in California will not hit all readers the same way it hit me, I still recommend the book to anyone for its literary quality and rich storytelling.
I knew nothing about Oakley Hall before I picked up this book, but I now know that it was essentially his literary swan song. The author passed away in 2008, less than two years after the release of Love & War, which was his 26th novel, and his 28th book. Without spoilers, the book has many autobiographical elements, including both the protagonist’s service in World War II and his long career as an author. I personally found the characters’ preoccupation with sex in the book’s early pages to be somewhat distracting, but in retrospect, one can excuse an octogenarian author a few salacious forays into sexual exploits and frustrations that were, at the time of the writing, many, many years behind him. One might even consider him brave to have put it all on the page at that advanced age.
But however one feels about the details, the story itself is a rich portrayal of a complicated life well-led.
August 23, 2007
This book really surprised me with how it swept me away. After all these years, I'm just starting to figure out that I have to like the main character of the book in order for it to work for me.
I just loved the way the main chrctr in this book thought, acted on his principles, was brutally honest with himself, satiated his curiosity about life's underbely but knew when he had enough...the book travels through the chrctr's collegehood and then later life and I never got tired of him!
Really like Hall's deft writing style. Can't wait to read another book by him.
I just loved the way the main chrctr in this book thought, acted on his principles, was brutally honest with himself, satiated his curiosity about life's underbely but knew when he had enough...the book travels through the chrctr's collegehood and then later life and I never got tired of him!
Really like Hall's deft writing style. Can't wait to read another book by him.
October 31, 2017
The language in here is rather harsh, it was hard to read at times. The racial epithets, common at the time, are widely used by characters throughout the story. I also found one of the female characters to be a bit too emotional. Why, why do we have to paint women this way in stories? It's frustrating! As an emotional male myself, I find it pretty insulting that people who are expressive emotionally are somehow considered less than. Note: I don't think that was Hall's intent, but it did trigger me a bit.
Even still, I found this book to be pretty moving. There were several instances where I had to put the book down because of the emotional nature of the subject matter. Overall, the book moves at a brisk enough pace, but it's nowhere near as good as his classic Warlock. Nevertheless, I'm glad to see that Oakley Hall hasn't lost his writers touch!
Even still, I found this book to be pretty moving. There were several instances where I had to put the book down because of the emotional nature of the subject matter. Overall, the book moves at a brisk enough pace, but it's nowhere near as good as his classic Warlock. Nevertheless, I'm glad to see that Oakley Hall hasn't lost his writers touch!
Read
November 15, 2019A college-student and would be writer suffers through his first love, goes to fight in Europe, spends the rest of his life obsessing over the aforementioned in this uneven triptych. It gets a little loose in the third section, but the bulk of the book is compellingly readable if perhaps not staggeringly original. It didn't change my life but I also didn't throw it out the window at a passerby.
June 7, 2019
Been a while since I've read this, may even be a 5-star. Very interesting and unique novel that's outside my usual wheelhouse. At first I DNFed and but then I was strangely compelled to pick it back up again and finish, which NEVER happens to me.
October 17, 2022
2.5
Not my kinda book, but it was cool that it was set in San Diego.
Not my kinda book, but it was cool that it was set in San Diego.
August 24, 2024
Brings San Diego college scene in early 1940s to vivid life. Then it breezes through the character's next 40 years.
August 4, 2026
After Warlock, one of the best Westerns I've read, I expected more from this book. I didn't find very much engagement here. The plot was predictable and the characters not very interesting. In fact, by the end, I found I didn't care much for Payton at all.
May 24, 2014
I REALLY liked this book. But, it is not for everyone. But, if you're interested in a coming-of-age tale just before World War II - and especially if you ever lived in or near San Diego - this is a REALLY good one. I've enjoyed several of Oakley Hall's books before - especially Warlock and a couple of his Ambrose Bierce mysteries - but I sort of stayed away from this one, because - well, I don't know why. But once I got really into it, I couldn't put it down. It's part mystery (he needs to find out what his older brother had done in Hollywood) and he won and then lost his girlfriend. A VERY satisfying ending too, which is all too unusual for a lot of books that get me going and then fall apart at the end.
May 22, 2007
I thought this was a wonderful novel--Apparently Hall has been writing for fifty years and has many admirers in high places, but I'd never read him. He really is a technical master, and even if the story isn't quite up your alley (it's about a young guy in San Francisco in the forties after the bombing of Pearl Harbor) and the ending leaves you wanting a bit more, I think it's worth reading simply to marvel at his craft (he taught Michael Chabon, Amy Tan, Richard Ford and others, and you can see his influence in their work, though I think he's less irritating). Plus, it's an easy read.
February 12, 2008
Great historical novel set in San Diego starting at the bombing of Pearl Harbor and continuing to modern times. Fun to read about all of the changes in San Diego and the neighborhoods and how they have evolved.
June 21, 2010
A coming-of-age story set in San Diego in the early years of WWII. It covers a lot of historical ground and is well-written. I liked the end, set during the main character's middle age, less, but overall this is a book I would recommend.
November 16, 2014
Oakley Hall writes from a sense of place and time that puts us right back there, in the 1940s and '50s. His characters are real and we want them to succeed (sometimes in spite of themselves). I laughed with them. I feared for them. A fun ride.
Want to Read
July 11, 2010Own
May 8, 2009
Great book about wartime life in San Diego
Read
May 4, 2010great book. written by a local author - loved this book.
Read
May 13, 2017Would-be writer in San Diego before and after WWII.
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