Signal Hill

by Alan Rifkin

Five stories track boys and men as they navigate among the ghosts and mirages of greater Los Angeles. Rifkin’s male protagonists are part fuck-up, part primal force, and full of longing—for fathers, for mothers, for sex, for faith, for just getting it right. A one-time actor staggers toward his demise and clings to a ledge of possibly lunatic belief; a young boy is haunted by cosmic loneliness in the form of a medical encyclopedia; the heir to an absent father’s wealth can’t quite bring himself to claim his portion. The ordinary becomes epic in the contested terrain between faith and doubt, love and sex, spirit and flesh, reality and illusion. Alan Rifkin is a writer for Los Angeles Magazine . He lives in Long Beach, CA.

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Katie]

Alan Rifkin = Philip Roth/Raymond Carver, but gentler than Carver and less sexually frustrated than Roth. He is most certainly Long Beach's premier author and writes with such grace and sensitivity, the backdrop of Signal Hill's oil refineries and garbage ladent beaches seem almost charming, the distant sparkle of lights eminating from it's polluted sister (Los Angeles) feel warm and welcoming, and the lost souls that inhabit the hidden porthols of a city famous for nothing wrap their arms around us like old friends; each character a portion of ourselves fully realized.

Rifkin is a gem undiscovered.

[Julee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give this 3 1/2 stars if I could. I read this a couple years ago, in part because I'm always one to support local writers. It reminded me of a more contemporary version of Raymond Carver. I'd love to read more.