In Cahoots:: A Novel of Southern California, 1953

by Malcolm MacPherson

In the orange groves of Southern California in the 1950s, suburban families are just eking out a living. They keep from slipping behind by calling on their few resources - their wits and, if they're lucky, their schemes. And with In Cahoots they've cooked up the grandest one of all. At the center of Malcolm Cook MacPherson's engaging novel is Bud, a soda delivery driver, who craves direction and divines that Walt Disney is secretly looking for land on which to build a "fun park." If Bud and his neighbors can figure out exactly where it will be, this could prove to be one get-rich-quick scheme that cannot fail. What Bud hasn't counted on, however, are the motives and maneuvers of his ten-year-old son, Callum, who has a plan of his own, driven by his own desires - for a lovely Mexican-American girl, for his father's respect, and for the understanding of an old farmer with the most beautiful orange grove in the valley. The result is a buoyant, poignant story that perfectly captures the goofy high anticipation of Southern California on the crest of its boom and the power of Walt Disney's imagination on the deep waters of the American dream.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 10, 1994

About the author

Malcolm Cook MacPherson was an American national and foreign correspondent for Newsweek magazine and the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books.

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 1 out of 5]

If this book weren't so darn encouraging to me, as an aspiring author, I would have never finished reading it. I figure if this book can be published by a major publisher, someday, something I write can get published, too. Well, maybe I would have finished it just because it's set in approximately the same time and place (pre-Disneyland Orange County, CA) of the book I'm writing for National Novel Writing Month. This doesn't mean that I intend to steal ideas from it, just that I found some clues for coloring the world I'm creating.

What worked: the characters were sweet and kooky, some passages were pleasantly evocative of time and place, the overall idea of California as a land of dreams.

What didn't work: the author started right off throwing bits of localized jargon at the reader without explaining it and never looked back, most of the kooky characters were never really fleshed out into individuals that we actually cared about - they seemed to be just place holders and cogs in the plot - what they did never really jelled into funniness, and the plot was convoluted enough for an amazing mystery or spy novel but was not well drawn enough to overcome the other faults of the book.

As another reviewer noted, if you're a big fan of Disney or Disneyland, you might enjoy skimming through this. Otherwise, it's just another excuse for you to say to yourself, "I could write a book better than that."

[Jeanne Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group of friends who are always after the next big dream figure out that Walt Disney is going to build a theme park. SO they are hunting for the land Disney will choose so they can buy a small piece beforehand and make a killing when Disney needs it to build his theme park.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heart-warming and nostalgic look at California in the Fifties and a fun plot involving Disneyland.