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Los Angeles Stories
Los Angeles Stories is a collection of loosely linked, noir-ish tales that evoke a bygone era in one of America's most iconic cities. In post-World War II Los Angeles, as power was concentrating and fortunes were being made, a do-it-yourself culture of cool cats, outsiders, and oddballs populated the old downtown neighborhoods of Bunker Hill and Chavez Ravine. Ordinary working folks rubbed elbows with petty criminals, grifters, and all sorts of women at foggy end-of-the-line outposts in Venice Beach and Santa Monica.
Rich with the essence and character of the times, suffused with the patois of the city's underclass, these are stories about the common people of Los Angeles, "a sunny place for shady people," and the strange things that happen to them. Musicians, gun shop owners, streetwalkers, tailors, door-to-door salesmen, drifters, housewives, dentists, pornographers, new arrivals, and hard-bitten denizens all intersect in cleverly plotted stories that center around some kind of shadowy activity. This quirky love letter to a lost way of life will appeal to fans of hard-boiled fiction and anyone interested in the city itself.
Ry Cooder is a world-famous guitarist, singer, and composer known for his slide guitar work, interest in roots music, and more recently for his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries, including The Buena Vista Social Club. He has composed soundtracks for more than twenty films, including Paris, Texas. Two recent albums were accompanied by stories Cooder wrote to accompany the music. This is his first published collection of stories.
287 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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About the author
Ry Cooder
16 books29 followersRy Cooder is a world-famous guitarist, singer and composer, known for his slide guitar work, interest in roots music, and more recently for his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries, including The Buena Vista Social Club. He has composed soundtracks for more than twenty films, including Paris, Texas. Two recent albums were accompanied by stories Cooder wrote to accompany the music. This is his first published collection of stories.
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January 14, 2023
Imagine discovering that Willie Nelson wrote a book of western stories. Or that Stevie Nicks published a collection of ghost stories. That was my reaction to stumbling into Los Angeles Stories by Ry Cooder. The multi-instrumentalist (best known as a master of the slide guitar), songwriter and film composer, Cooder assembled the Cuban musicians comprising Buena Vista Social Club. The resulting album sold a million copies, won a Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album of 1998 and inspired a documentary featuring Cooder and directed by Wim Wenders the following year.
The jewel of Cooder's film composition is the haunting acoustic guitar of Paris, Texas (1984), also directed by Wenders. In the '80s, he scored multiple commercial features for director Walter Hill, including the musical fantasy Crossroads (1986) which was inspired by the mythology of American blues artists and features a moody, atmospheric guitar score in kind. Somewhere in his travels, Cooder, a native of Los Angeles, was inspired to write eight pulp fiction tales set in mid-century L.A. Published in 2011, this breezy collection is bound together by music--jazz, rhythm & blues, big band, Anglo and Mex--every meter as compelling as Cooder's music.
-- All in a day's work is set in 1940 and follows a checker for the Los Angeles Directory who's job is going door-to-door inquiring as to the names and occupations of the residents at every postal address on his beat. When a man he befriends on his route commits suicide, the checker inherits a record player, records and books, including one that's been hollowed out to hide $5,000.
I spent the rest of the day in the Japanese district called Little Tokyo. I interviewed three dentists, two lawyers, a doctor, and ten restaurant cooks in one building--all single men. The professional types spoke good English but the cooks thought I was checking white cards, so they clammed up. It took a long time, and the building was hot and stuffy. There was a bar on the street level called Tokyo Big Shot, a tiny little place with a counter and eight bar stools. It was empty except for the Japanese bartender and a white woman. I ordered Brew 102--it's cheap and it hits. The bartender poured one and sneered at me, "You a checker?" he asked suspiciously.
-- Who do you know that I don't? takes place in 1949. It concerns Ray Montalvo of Custom Vootie Tailoring. Ray's clients include musicians, like Johnny "Ace of Spades" Mumford who has the #1 R&B record in the country before he shoots himself in the head while wearing the suit he was fitted for by Ray. The custom tailor isn't buying that it was suicide.
-- Set in 1950, La vida es un sueño is about about a requinto guitar player who's a big fan of movies, particularly those starring Marga López, the Diva of Sorrow, La Reina of Shame. While attending a screening of her latest movie, a despised movie critic who writes scathing reviews of Lopez sits in front of the requinto player and is murdered.
-- Kill me, por favor takes place in 1952. Alphonso Mephisto, aka Al Maphis, is a drummer who books a three week gig to sit in with the band at a bowling alley in Kingman, Arizona, off Route 66. The band is joined by Billy Tipton, a big-time piano player who presents himself as a man but is really a woman. Billy's thuggish manager, an underage female fan and trouble ensues.
-- End of the line is my favorite story of the lot. Set in 1954, it follows a motorman who loses his job when the trolley he's driven for fifteen years is put out of service. Taking his dear old trolley out for one last run to the ocean at Playa Del Rey, he picks up a desperate blond who demands a ride. Nothing good ever came from that.
It was midnight by the time I got to the end of the line. I switched off the lights and sat there with the door open listening to the surf. You can hear the ocean at night, but you can't see it. Sometimes you see little lights out there on the black water. Boats, moving around in the dark. A boat and a trolley are pretty similar, I thought. I had a drink from the bottle. After a while, I thought I heard the sound of shoes, a woman's highheeled shoes, tap-tapping along. At that time of night, it stuck out. Then I saw her, carrying a suitcase and wearing a long coat, walking up from the beach side. She crossed the street and came over to the car.
-- Set in 1956, My telephone keeps ringin' involves Herb Saunders, a mechanic for a used car salesman just trying to make an honest living after he left the music business with one hit record. Herb's unscrupulous employer comes to him for help arranging an operation for a mysterious McDonnell Douglas worker looking to transition to a woman.
-- Gun shop boogie takes place in 1958 and follows a high school senior who works as a helper for a gunsmith in a desert town. When his employer dies, the boy comes into possession of a coveted Winchester rifle that a pair of local thieves are after.
-- Smile is set in 1950 and concerns a steel guitar player named Sonny Kloer who pays the bills as a dental tech. His office features an old elevator operator with the well-earned nickname Woody Dickpants who gets himself into trouble with a mysterious blond who visits the building at midnight.
None of these stories are propelled by exciting plots and a couple didn't even make sense to me. Where Los Angeles Stories excels is the tapestry that Cooder creates of a 20th century metropolis whose communities are connected by music. Like a truffle farmer to truffles, I'm developing a sensitivity for Los Angeles based fiction, particularly those that chronicle the city in the mid-20th century. This collection was truffles. When it comes to making bygone L.A., breathe again, Cooder works wonders.
Los Angeles is a maze of class distinctions. I live in the great barrio of East Los Angeles, overlooking Hollenbeck Park. My street is one of large, older homes and one small residence hotel, the Edmund, where I have a room with a balcony. Flower boxes, trees, gardens--a bit bohemian, you may say, but not leftist; that milieu lies further north, in Boyle Heights. There you may find the authors of revolutionary political tracts and those of the poorer class of scholars and professors. My district is favored by entertainers. Not celebrities, but those who have regular positions like myself. We are not mariachis! Mariachis are hardly more than street beggars! You will find them congregated in Garibaldi square, on First Street, near the Aliso Flats district, a squalid area. Mariachis are of the mestizo class, specializing in the primitive music of the migrant and the homesick. I am educated. I read the staff, I know the ostinato, crescendo, obbligato. Trio is refined and elegant.
Radio programs, vinyl record collections and jukebox selections figure into the tales. So do men and women who love music but who couldn't turn their passion into a career. I loved the craftsmen who Cooder is able to tangentially connect to crime: the guidebook checker, the tailor, the motorman, the dental tech. The fact that he is reverent toward Mexican performing artists throughout, as well as the institutional racism Mexican Americans faced in the 1940s and '50s, shouldn't have surprised me considering Cooder's background, but in crime fiction, it is very rare.
The jewel of Cooder's film composition is the haunting acoustic guitar of Paris, Texas (1984), also directed by Wenders. In the '80s, he scored multiple commercial features for director Walter Hill, including the musical fantasy Crossroads (1986) which was inspired by the mythology of American blues artists and features a moody, atmospheric guitar score in kind. Somewhere in his travels, Cooder, a native of Los Angeles, was inspired to write eight pulp fiction tales set in mid-century L.A. Published in 2011, this breezy collection is bound together by music--jazz, rhythm & blues, big band, Anglo and Mex--every meter as compelling as Cooder's music.
-- All in a day's work is set in 1940 and follows a checker for the Los Angeles Directory who's job is going door-to-door inquiring as to the names and occupations of the residents at every postal address on his beat. When a man he befriends on his route commits suicide, the checker inherits a record player, records and books, including one that's been hollowed out to hide $5,000.
I spent the rest of the day in the Japanese district called Little Tokyo. I interviewed three dentists, two lawyers, a doctor, and ten restaurant cooks in one building--all single men. The professional types spoke good English but the cooks thought I was checking white cards, so they clammed up. It took a long time, and the building was hot and stuffy. There was a bar on the street level called Tokyo Big Shot, a tiny little place with a counter and eight bar stools. It was empty except for the Japanese bartender and a white woman. I ordered Brew 102--it's cheap and it hits. The bartender poured one and sneered at me, "You a checker?" he asked suspiciously.
-- Who do you know that I don't? takes place in 1949. It concerns Ray Montalvo of Custom Vootie Tailoring. Ray's clients include musicians, like Johnny "Ace of Spades" Mumford who has the #1 R&B record in the country before he shoots himself in the head while wearing the suit he was fitted for by Ray. The custom tailor isn't buying that it was suicide.
-- Set in 1950, La vida es un sueño is about about a requinto guitar player who's a big fan of movies, particularly those starring Marga López, the Diva of Sorrow, La Reina of Shame. While attending a screening of her latest movie, a despised movie critic who writes scathing reviews of Lopez sits in front of the requinto player and is murdered.
-- Kill me, por favor takes place in 1952. Alphonso Mephisto, aka Al Maphis, is a drummer who books a three week gig to sit in with the band at a bowling alley in Kingman, Arizona, off Route 66. The band is joined by Billy Tipton, a big-time piano player who presents himself as a man but is really a woman. Billy's thuggish manager, an underage female fan and trouble ensues.
-- End of the line is my favorite story of the lot. Set in 1954, it follows a motorman who loses his job when the trolley he's driven for fifteen years is put out of service. Taking his dear old trolley out for one last run to the ocean at Playa Del Rey, he picks up a desperate blond who demands a ride. Nothing good ever came from that.
It was midnight by the time I got to the end of the line. I switched off the lights and sat there with the door open listening to the surf. You can hear the ocean at night, but you can't see it. Sometimes you see little lights out there on the black water. Boats, moving around in the dark. A boat and a trolley are pretty similar, I thought. I had a drink from the bottle. After a while, I thought I heard the sound of shoes, a woman's highheeled shoes, tap-tapping along. At that time of night, it stuck out. Then I saw her, carrying a suitcase and wearing a long coat, walking up from the beach side. She crossed the street and came over to the car.
-- Set in 1956, My telephone keeps ringin' involves Herb Saunders, a mechanic for a used car salesman just trying to make an honest living after he left the music business with one hit record. Herb's unscrupulous employer comes to him for help arranging an operation for a mysterious McDonnell Douglas worker looking to transition to a woman.
-- Gun shop boogie takes place in 1958 and follows a high school senior who works as a helper for a gunsmith in a desert town. When his employer dies, the boy comes into possession of a coveted Winchester rifle that a pair of local thieves are after.
-- Smile is set in 1950 and concerns a steel guitar player named Sonny Kloer who pays the bills as a dental tech. His office features an old elevator operator with the well-earned nickname Woody Dickpants who gets himself into trouble with a mysterious blond who visits the building at midnight.
None of these stories are propelled by exciting plots and a couple didn't even make sense to me. Where Los Angeles Stories excels is the tapestry that Cooder creates of a 20th century metropolis whose communities are connected by music. Like a truffle farmer to truffles, I'm developing a sensitivity for Los Angeles based fiction, particularly those that chronicle the city in the mid-20th century. This collection was truffles. When it comes to making bygone L.A., breathe again, Cooder works wonders.
Los Angeles is a maze of class distinctions. I live in the great barrio of East Los Angeles, overlooking Hollenbeck Park. My street is one of large, older homes and one small residence hotel, the Edmund, where I have a room with a balcony. Flower boxes, trees, gardens--a bit bohemian, you may say, but not leftist; that milieu lies further north, in Boyle Heights. There you may find the authors of revolutionary political tracts and those of the poorer class of scholars and professors. My district is favored by entertainers. Not celebrities, but those who have regular positions like myself. We are not mariachis! Mariachis are hardly more than street beggars! You will find them congregated in Garibaldi square, on First Street, near the Aliso Flats district, a squalid area. Mariachis are of the mestizo class, specializing in the primitive music of the migrant and the homesick. I am educated. I read the staff, I know the ostinato, crescendo, obbligato. Trio is refined and elegant.
Radio programs, vinyl record collections and jukebox selections figure into the tales. So do men and women who love music but who couldn't turn their passion into a career. I loved the craftsmen who Cooder is able to tangentially connect to crime: the guidebook checker, the tailor, the motorman, the dental tech. The fact that he is reverent toward Mexican performing artists throughout, as well as the institutional racism Mexican Americans faced in the 1940s and '50s, shouldn't have surprised me considering Cooder's background, but in crime fiction, it is very rare.
October 14, 2011
The stars are lined up perfectly for musicians who write books. Some of my favorite books are by rock n' roll people i.e. Patti Smith's "Just kids," and Nick Cave's novels. And now we have a superb collection of short stories by guitarist/songwriter Ry Cooder that deals with Los Angeles from 1940 to the mid-50's and its brilliant. What you get is a series of snapshots of life in different neighborhoods of Los Angeles, and some of these places don't exist anymore - but yet they live via Cooder's writing. After reading this book I wanted to rush off and locate volumes on Los Angeles history and its tall tales.
All narratives are strong, and very Noir in its approach and the way it looks at urban life. Money is tight, the fear of communism is in the air, and more bad times are just around the corner - yet the eccentricity of the characters are incredibly endearing - even though they're very low-level criminal types or even murderers. Nevertheless "Los Angeles Stories" is a classic of urban history research and fiction. After each story and while reading them, I was consistently googling to see if they actually exist or not. Some do and some don't and that's all part of the fun. Essential!
All narratives are strong, and very Noir in its approach and the way it looks at urban life. Money is tight, the fear of communism is in the air, and more bad times are just around the corner - yet the eccentricity of the characters are incredibly endearing - even though they're very low-level criminal types or even murderers. Nevertheless "Los Angeles Stories" is a classic of urban history research and fiction. After each story and while reading them, I was consistently googling to see if they actually exist or not. Some do and some don't and that's all part of the fun. Essential!
January 12, 2017
So you think I’m kidding, do you? You think I don’t know that Ry Cooder is a musician? Aha, but in 2011 that same Ry Cooder wrote a book of short stories published by City Lights, entitled Los Angeles Stories. These stories, set between 1940 and the 1950s, are not only great L. A. Noir, but they sing with their own unique brand of chicken skin music. John Lee Hooker puts in an appearance, as does Charlie Parker. And the stories are rife with musical references:
Born in Santa Monica, he also has a great sense of place. We see Chavez Ravine before Dodger Stadium was built, the old Bunker Hill neighborhood, Playa Del Rey, Venice, and even Santa Monica.
Los Angeles Stories consists of eight tales, one better than the other. Insofar as I know, this is the only fiction he ever wrote; but I hope it is not the last. He has a great turn of phrase, as in “I am happy to have a little luck once and [sic] a while…. Too much, and fate pays a call. La Visita, my grandmother called it.”
There’s even nifty song lyrics:
Four Chinese girls were sitting at the corner table laughing and drinking. They were all excited about the dance hall where they’d been and the swing band they saw and the musicians they liked. I knew the place, the Zenda Ballroom, on Seventh and Figueroa. Tetsu Bessho and his Nisei Serenaders played there every Monday night. Jimmy Araki, the sax player, he was sharp. Joe Sakai was cute. The girls spoke English with a lot of hip slang, like musicians use, and as far as I could tell they were no different from any other American girls, except they were Chinese.In fact, Cooder has a real ear for the race and ethnicity of his characters, from black musicians to Mexican Pachucos to white trailer trash to Chinese cooks.
Born in Santa Monica, he also has a great sense of place. We see Chavez Ravine before Dodger Stadium was built, the old Bunker Hill neighborhood, Playa Del Rey, Venice, and even Santa Monica.
Los Angeles Stories consists of eight tales, one better than the other. Insofar as I know, this is the only fiction he ever wrote; but I hope it is not the last. He has a great turn of phrase, as in “I am happy to have a little luck once and [sic] a while…. Too much, and fate pays a call. La Visita, my grandmother called it.”
There’s even nifty song lyrics:
Too many Johnnys, ’bout to drive me out of my mindI know that they gave the Nobel Prize for Literature to Bob Dylan. In my humble opinion, Ry Cooder is even a better writer. Believe it!
Yes, too many Johnnys, ’bout to drive me out of my mind
It have wrecked my life an’ ruint my happy home
When I first got in town, I was walkin’ down Central Avenue
I heard people talkin’ about the Club Rendezvous
I decided to drop in there that night, and when I got there
I said yes, people, man they was really havin’ a ball, yes I know!
Boogie!
I might cut you, I might shoot you, I jus’ don’ know
Yes, Johnny, I might cut you, I might shoot you, but I jus’ don’ know
Gonna break up this signifyin’,
’Cause somebody got to bottle up and go
February 6, 2017
Knjiga puna muzike. Gomila meksikanaca, filipinaca, gringosa, mučačosa, i raznih drugih dođoša, u pričama, nemam pojma zašto, ali sjajni su. Čudne žene, pohotne, lukave, prepredene, obične, svakakve. Tu i tamo poneko ubistvo u većini priča, da za trenutak mistifikuje atmosferu, da podseti na maglovite i jeftine krimiće, da dodatno zaprlja junake, koji su najčešće samo posmatrači istih, nevini svedoci, samo na pogrešnom mestu, ili možda i ne.. Nije ovo krimi roman. Samo mu je atmosfera takva. Takav je valjda bio L.A., četrdesetih i pedesetih godina prošlog veka, pre i posle drugog velikog rata, što je vreme u koje je autor smestio radnju.
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https://bezimenaknjizevnazadruga.word...
August 1, 2016
"On his records, Ry Cooder specializes in the talking blues, modernizing the struggle and humanity in his source materials – folk and public-domain covers, the rhythms of Tex-Mex and Chicano culture – with narrative grit and immediacy. His prose, in turn, is rich in sound – echoes of blues, jazz, boleros – in this superb debut of tales set in L.A.'s Hispanic neighborhoods and on its R&B-nightclub boulevards in the Forties and Fifties. Cooder writes with Chandler-esque pepper and an eye for character. A dental technician plays killer steel guitar; a guy who collects info for the city directory is an accidental shamus. John Lee Hooker gets a cameo, and at the end of one story, a ghost hangs around his garage, listening to 78s. Cooder shouldn't stop making records. He should keep writing, too."
-Rolling Stone
-Rolling Stone
April 8, 2018
Los Angeles, "a sunny place for shady people,"
Zanimljiva zbirka od 8 priča smeštenih u Los Anđeles, 40ih i 50ih prošlog veka.
Noir minijature iz života ljudi sa margina , protkane bluesom, jazzom, prljavštinom, mirisima novca, ulice i lakih žena.
Knjiga balansira na finoj liniji old school, otrcanog uličnog pristupa noir tematici ali na nepretenciozan i topao način.
Atmosferična, slikovita, guši .
Na momente haotična - na momente iskušava moje kriterijume čiste naracije ali u ovom slučaju funkcioniše pa čak ne mogu ni da joj zakinem na oceni zbog nečega što inače ne volim.
Prljava, prljava mala knjiga, instagram filter prljava doduše - ali ima nas koji i to volimo.
Zanimljiva zbirka od 8 priča smeštenih u Los Anđeles, 40ih i 50ih prošlog veka.
Noir minijature iz života ljudi sa margina , protkane bluesom, jazzom, prljavštinom, mirisima novca, ulice i lakih žena.
Knjiga balansira na finoj liniji old school, otrcanog uličnog pristupa noir tematici ali na nepretenciozan i topao način.
Atmosferična, slikovita, guši .
Na momente haotična - na momente iskušava moje kriterijume čiste naracije ali u ovom slučaju funkcioniše pa čak ne mogu ni da joj zakinem na oceni zbog nečega što inače ne volim.
Prljava, prljava mala knjiga, instagram filter prljava doduše - ali ima nas koji i to volimo.
January 14, 2020
I've been a big fan of Ry Cooder's music for many years, and I'm happy to be able to say that his literary debut is excellent! For short stories, these are on the long side, and if there's a flaw, it's is a tendency towards too much plot and too many characters. However, that's a minor quibble, and there's an enormous amount to enjoy. Cooder clearly knows a lot about the history of LA, and he draws on this effectively to set his stories in the 1940s and '50s. His characters are all people who are struggling to get by, be they musicians, private detectives or dentists, and they all find themselves on the wrong side of the law sooner or later. At times, Cooder's writing evokes Raymond Chandler. Along the way, there are tantalising cameos from musical legends such as Johnny Ace and John Lee Hooker, some great dialogue and plenty of (w)ry humour. There's also some impressive attention to detail - Cooder seems to know an awful lot about dentistry!
If you're a fan of Ry Cooder's music, you'll love this. If you're not, you should be, and you should read it anyway, because it's great.
If you're a fan of Ry Cooder's music, you'll love this. If you're not, you should be, and you should read it anyway, because it's great.
February 9, 2016
Quickly grew bored with these attempts at noir stories which all seemed the same, a murder, crime, "dame" in trouble etc. Was very little to distinguish the narrator of each story set in Los Angeles of more than half a century ago. The writing was muddled at times and confusing, especially with all that Spanish thrown in. I didn't have a clue until after I'd read them that they were written by a jazz musician. Lots of jazz stuff in there plus corny old-fashioned noir style dialogue and hard-nosed prose which only half worked most of the time - it was all a bit self-conscious. By the third story I felt I was getting nothing back. You know that painful feeling you get when you're slogging through a book just to finish it but not enjoying it and really want to stop? That's how this book made me feel.
November 20, 2012
It took me a while to understand the way in which these stories are connected, but once I figured it out I thought this was a fascinating, imaginative book. Lots of great local color of 1940s & 1950s Los Angeles and Santa Monica.
March 6, 2015
Lively writing and curious plots make for a solid collection of stories by my guitar hero of years ago. Cameos by folks like John Lee Hooker spice up the enchilada along the way.
Read it, don't leave it behind!
Read it, don't leave it behind!
May 14, 2017
“Los Angeles Stories”, musician/composer Ry Cooder’s first published collection, looks at struggling but always carrying on people (unsurprisingly, many having something to do with music) in 1950’s LA. The stories are variable (collections of stories almost always are) but all are full of well-described life and characters. The best of the lot (and they are really outstanding) are “End of the Line” and “My Telephone Keeps Ringin’”. These two read like miniature noir novels, with passive protagonists, femme fatales, corruption, and sweet revenge.
November 8, 2019
Perfectly weird & familiar-feeling petite noirs. I have more to say about this perfect book, but will leave it at FAVORITED for now.
September 12, 2024
3.5 stars.
July 18, 2018
An excellent collection of short stories... Influenced by Nathanael West, steel guitars, Raymond Chandler, and old cars... Los Angeles in the 1940s & 50s.. sans glitz.
I hope he publishes more of these...
I hope he publishes more of these...
October 25, 2011
"I had made up my mind to quit worrying. Los Angeles was the Land of the Brighter Day, something good was bound to turn up."
These last two lines sum up the motivation that lies with the numerous characters that musician Ry Cooder offers up in his new collection of short stories. While the stories are nominally linked, the variety is enormous: mariachi players, park prophets, backalley dentists, tailors, and disc jockeys are all introduced in their native milieu. Set in the first half of the twentieth century, these stories are based on the inner life of the inner city.
This is not postcard or travel agency Los Angeles; there is no glamour or celebrities to dress it up. Even the weather doesn't seem to cooperate with stereotype: fog and rain are as frequent as bar brawls. The characters are the faceless many that work off the books, just trying to get by while the city appears as a predatory character, breathing and pulsing, foiling any attempts at the good life.
The collection is also an excellent geography text to significant Los Angeles locations--Griffith Park, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Union Station, Bunker Hill, and Hollenbeck Park all serve as backdrops, and Cooder seems to know the streets and back alleys very well. Cocktail bars and bowling alleys are among the seedy gathering places of the working class and small time criminals that Cooder writes about and who occasionally cross tracks with each other.
My favorite was "Who do you know that I don't?" set in 1949, wherein a tailor to the mariachi clientele attempts to solve the murder of a popular jazz musician, Johnny Mumford. Cooder creates a world of layaway payments, shiny and finned cars, and musicians desperate to wear a good suit but not eager to pay. Memorably, the tailor even makes one suit to be shared by two musicians who can't afford their own, later assisting them to escape the cops while he helps search for links to the murder. A prize collection of 78 records becomes a significant clue.
Another story focuses on a resourceful guy whose job is to fill in the details on the City Directory, going door-to-door to collect information from suspicious citizens in boardinghouses and side streets. The essential absurdity of compiling an accurate book aside, Frank is diligent and thorough. Though he's essentially a simple man, his path crosses with three suspicious murders and suddenly he's a suspect:
"Once they see a pattern, they think they know it all, and they think they got you. That's not the way life is. Take it from me, life is random and inscrutable, like the City Directory."
The stories are well-plotted and heavily detailed, and the characters feel real. Cooder develops each protagonist well, and creates their world for the reader in inscrutable detail. In fact, that may be one of my only concerns about the collection: at times I felt like there was too much name-dropping and references to streets and neighborhoods and pop culture of the period. Sometimes, the many facts slowed down and derailed the narrative from its pace. I think the same effect could have been achieved without so many points of reference and still have remained realistic.
These last two lines sum up the motivation that lies with the numerous characters that musician Ry Cooder offers up in his new collection of short stories. While the stories are nominally linked, the variety is enormous: mariachi players, park prophets, backalley dentists, tailors, and disc jockeys are all introduced in their native milieu. Set in the first half of the twentieth century, these stories are based on the inner life of the inner city.
This is not postcard or travel agency Los Angeles; there is no glamour or celebrities to dress it up. Even the weather doesn't seem to cooperate with stereotype: fog and rain are as frequent as bar brawls. The characters are the faceless many that work off the books, just trying to get by while the city appears as a predatory character, breathing and pulsing, foiling any attempts at the good life.
The collection is also an excellent geography text to significant Los Angeles locations--Griffith Park, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Union Station, Bunker Hill, and Hollenbeck Park all serve as backdrops, and Cooder seems to know the streets and back alleys very well. Cocktail bars and bowling alleys are among the seedy gathering places of the working class and small time criminals that Cooder writes about and who occasionally cross tracks with each other.
My favorite was "Who do you know that I don't?" set in 1949, wherein a tailor to the mariachi clientele attempts to solve the murder of a popular jazz musician, Johnny Mumford. Cooder creates a world of layaway payments, shiny and finned cars, and musicians desperate to wear a good suit but not eager to pay. Memorably, the tailor even makes one suit to be shared by two musicians who can't afford their own, later assisting them to escape the cops while he helps search for links to the murder. A prize collection of 78 records becomes a significant clue.
Another story focuses on a resourceful guy whose job is to fill in the details on the City Directory, going door-to-door to collect information from suspicious citizens in boardinghouses and side streets. The essential absurdity of compiling an accurate book aside, Frank is diligent and thorough. Though he's essentially a simple man, his path crosses with three suspicious murders and suddenly he's a suspect:
"Once they see a pattern, they think they know it all, and they think they got you. That's not the way life is. Take it from me, life is random and inscrutable, like the City Directory."
The stories are well-plotted and heavily detailed, and the characters feel real. Cooder develops each protagonist well, and creates their world for the reader in inscrutable detail. In fact, that may be one of my only concerns about the collection: at times I felt like there was too much name-dropping and references to streets and neighborhoods and pop culture of the period. Sometimes, the many facts slowed down and derailed the narrative from its pace. I think the same effect could have been achieved without so many points of reference and still have remained realistic.
November 20, 2022
Went to see Ry Cooder at a local theater here in town and about 2 weeks later I did a search on my search engine and I found out he wrote a book! And it's a work of fiction, no less! I was so surprised I had to check the name twice to see if it was indeed the musician (and a fine musician, at that) Mr Ry Cooder.
I dove into the book as I am great fan of Mr Cooder's music.
I read the first story and the voice was so convincing: written in the first person by a City Of Los Angeles employee collecting names for the city directory in 1940. The voice is so convincing and the details so well written that I had to check the publishing info again to see when he wrote it!
I can say the entire book (all short stories) is like this. It is a marvelous creation. I cannot praise it highly enough, and not because I am a fan of Mr Cooder, but because Iam a fan of good writing.
I dove into the book as I am great fan of Mr Cooder's music.
I read the first story and the voice was so convincing: written in the first person by a City Of Los Angeles employee collecting names for the city directory in 1940. The voice is so convincing and the details so well written that I had to check the publishing info again to see when he wrote it!
I can say the entire book (all short stories) is like this. It is a marvelous creation. I cannot praise it highly enough, and not because I am a fan of Mr Cooder, but because Iam a fan of good writing.
March 28, 2013
Cool stories, well-told... Some readers have been disappointed not to see the same virtuosity in his writing (words) as his writing (music); I disagree. He's a great storyteller either way and, if the genre -- the street vernacular of the southwest in the fifties -- isn't your cup of tea, that's not his shortcoming. It might not be great literature, but they are good stories well told!
Want to read
September 8, 2011Ry Coder + City Lights? Holy shit yes.
July 23, 2017
A wild romp of interweaving hepcat stories from midcentury Los Angeles. When I finished the book all I wanted was MORE!!!
August 19, 2012
Not much of a review here...just tryin' to help a little. If you like Ry's music, you'll almost certainly enjoy the book; these stories are so like his songs. If not, then not.
Read
May 26, 2022I bought this book because I knew who Ry Cooder was, it's published by City Lights Books, and the cover looked intriguing. I bought it then...never read it. I've thought about getting rid of it a couple times too, but didn't quite. So finally the other day I picked it up and decided to read a story a day.
This is a collection of short stories not all exactly set in Los Angeles, but related to people who are from LA or who typically work there. The stories are slightly interconnected in that some of the characters know each other or make brief cameos in several stories. A lot are simply connected by the fact that the characters are musicians in the 1950s in the poor part of LA. Many of the characters are musicians or know musicians. Surprisingly many of them are Latinx or Black or even Filipino. I'm not sure why I didn't expect that, but I didn't. I was also surprised to find two trans characters who were as fully fleshed out as any of the other characters and no one made any transphobic remarks.
It took me about two stories to get into the book, it's sort of a dry writing tone, but I got pretty invested in the stories. They read a lot like noir, including brushes with the mob and less-than-savory characters. I can't say you get a great feel for the characters and oftentimes it could be a little hard to keep track of the more peripheral ones and how they fit in, but for whatever reason I was still sucked into the stories. I think mostly I liked the feel and the era.
I will note that there are two racial slurs that get used. I suppose you can say they fit with the story and were probably used in the era, but it's always jarring to come across them. Plus these stories weren't written in the 50s and Cooder is white, so it felt like poor taste. I also caught a weird timeline issue in the last story where it's set in 1950 according to the title, the main character was injured in the war in 1945, but says he's been working for his civilian company for 10 years since getting out of the army. I know this is a nit-picky thing, but it's a pet peeve of mine when timelines don't work out in stories.
This is a collection of short stories not all exactly set in Los Angeles, but related to people who are from LA or who typically work there. The stories are slightly interconnected in that some of the characters know each other or make brief cameos in several stories. A lot are simply connected by the fact that the characters are musicians in the 1950s in the poor part of LA. Many of the characters are musicians or know musicians. Surprisingly many of them are Latinx or Black or even Filipino. I'm not sure why I didn't expect that, but I didn't. I was also surprised to find two trans characters who were as fully fleshed out as any of the other characters and no one made any transphobic remarks.
It took me about two stories to get into the book, it's sort of a dry writing tone, but I got pretty invested in the stories. They read a lot like noir, including brushes with the mob and less-than-savory characters. I can't say you get a great feel for the characters and oftentimes it could be a little hard to keep track of the more peripheral ones and how they fit in, but for whatever reason I was still sucked into the stories. I think mostly I liked the feel and the era.
I will note that there are two racial slurs that get used. I suppose you can say they fit with the story and were probably used in the era, but it's always jarring to come across them. Plus these stories weren't written in the 50s and Cooder is white, so it felt like poor taste. I also caught a weird timeline issue in the last story where it's set in 1950 according to the title, the main character was injured in the war in 1945, but says he's been working for his civilian company for 10 years since getting out of the army. I know this is a nit-picky thing, but it's a pet peeve of mine when timelines don't work out in stories.
July 18, 2019
Los Angeles Stories is a collection of working class slices of life set in LA during the 1940s-50s. The book runs 232 pages short and in that time Ry Cooder carefully weaves us through eight stories. All sprinkled with elements of noir and a fondness for the musician lifestyle and music of yesteryear.
All in a Day's Work is a strong start to the collection and introduces us to Cooder's style. Mundane existence who's characters aren't complex but the circumstances they find themselves in. Here a worker for the Los Angeles City Directory finds his job to be more cumbersome than expected. For me the next two stories while similar in style, slow down maybe too much. Cooder's style let's you chew on a characters day, his surroundings, his existence but sometimes does so for far too long. This is mostly why Kill Me, Por Favor feels like an action thriller even though there really is no action at all. Kill Me takes us on the road first t0 Kingman, AZ. Our narrator Al Maphis is personable and likable. He introduces himself, explains what he and his partner are doing in Kingman (gig playing songs at a bowling alley for three weeks) and then lets the story unfold. A wayward tale involving a cross dresser, murder and an escape back to LA, across the desert and with a young girl. End of the Line is probably the most satisfying short in the book. Noir often dictates less than favorable results for their characters in the end. But with this story, we get to see the fall and then pleasant rise of our protagonist. The last couple of stories, while worthy of a read feel similar to the first couple noted for being slower in style- interesting but the payoff not worth waiting around for.
Not a perfect collection, but a few of the stories are close to it. This makes Los Angeles Stories book a must read for anyone looking to fade fondly back into a time before cellphones, WIFI and EDM.
All in a Day's Work is a strong start to the collection and introduces us to Cooder's style. Mundane existence who's characters aren't complex but the circumstances they find themselves in. Here a worker for the Los Angeles City Directory finds his job to be more cumbersome than expected. For me the next two stories while similar in style, slow down maybe too much. Cooder's style let's you chew on a characters day, his surroundings, his existence but sometimes does so for far too long. This is mostly why Kill Me, Por Favor feels like an action thriller even though there really is no action at all. Kill Me takes us on the road first t0 Kingman, AZ. Our narrator Al Maphis is personable and likable. He introduces himself, explains what he and his partner are doing in Kingman (gig playing songs at a bowling alley for three weeks) and then lets the story unfold. A wayward tale involving a cross dresser, murder and an escape back to LA, across the desert and with a young girl. End of the Line is probably the most satisfying short in the book. Noir often dictates less than favorable results for their characters in the end. But with this story, we get to see the fall and then pleasant rise of our protagonist. The last couple of stories, while worthy of a read feel similar to the first couple noted for being slower in style- interesting but the payoff not worth waiting around for.
Not a perfect collection, but a few of the stories are close to it. This makes Los Angeles Stories book a must read for anyone looking to fade fondly back into a time before cellphones, WIFI and EDM.
October 14, 2021
Ry Cooder is primarily a guitarist, but he's known to have mastered almost any stringed instrument you can think of. I recently picked up an album where he collaborates with classical Indian musicians on four extended raga-like compositions combined with a more Western harmony-oriented style. It's called A Meeting By the River, and it's a very interesting listen, especially if you’ve had any experience with Indian music.
Recently, I discovered that Cooder has written a short story collection. I found out when I tried to put what I thought was a CD on hold at the Salt Lake County Library, only to find out that it was a book when I actually arrived to pick it up! Namely, this book.
Some of the stories are better than others, but at least three or four are very interesting. They are reminiscent of Raymond Chandler with elements of the old 1960s TV series Dragnet. Stuff like this is probably the closest I’ll ever come to being able to experience an iconic city like Los Angeles before the age of strip malls and the homogenization of America. (Recently, I quite enjoyed the film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is set in the 1960s and gave me a similar feeling.)
One interesting feature of this book is that it has a soundtrack! Sort of. Chavez Ravine, a Ry Cooder CD, was released in 2005, some six years before Cooder published this book. My guess is that his work on the album inspired the stories that he published here later.
Recently, I discovered that Cooder has written a short story collection. I found out when I tried to put what I thought was a CD on hold at the Salt Lake County Library, only to find out that it was a book when I actually arrived to pick it up! Namely, this book.
Some of the stories are better than others, but at least three or four are very interesting. They are reminiscent of Raymond Chandler with elements of the old 1960s TV series Dragnet. Stuff like this is probably the closest I’ll ever come to being able to experience an iconic city like Los Angeles before the age of strip malls and the homogenization of America. (Recently, I quite enjoyed the film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is set in the 1960s and gave me a similar feeling.)
One interesting feature of this book is that it has a soundtrack! Sort of. Chavez Ravine, a Ry Cooder CD, was released in 2005, some six years before Cooder published this book. My guess is that his work on the album inspired the stories that he published here later.
October 5, 2021
Many years ago my old friend Chuck, cousin to Ry Cooder and a guitarist himself, called to rave about this collection of short stories. I put it on my list and then it went in a drawer somewhere. Recently, I grabbed a copy and started in.
This is a novel that reminds me of the era of pulp novels, both in prose style and in characters and plot: dames and tough guys,with Angelenos of every color, musicians in several genres, and enough crime, joy, and heart to satisfy even the most modern reader.
Each story is marked with the era: 1949, 1952, etc. As a career musician and producer, Cooder brings his familiarity with band dynamics, the money men, and shady characters that hang around, making for a view behind the scenes: up on stage, and back at the hotel/flophouse. The writing is top notch. at times hooking the observant reader: in an attention-checking test, he throws in a name that was used in an earlier story, but for a different character (a la David Mitchell, anyone?). I found myself paging back to see if this is the son or daughter from a previous story. (Narrator: it isn’t.)
I wish I had read this when Chuck was still alive; it would have been fun to talk about together.
Ry Cooder is a multi-talented personality in the music industry, and now I see that his talent for storytelling is not confined to lyrics.
Recommended.
This is a novel that reminds me of the era of pulp novels, both in prose style and in characters and plot: dames and tough guys,with Angelenos of every color, musicians in several genres, and enough crime, joy, and heart to satisfy even the most modern reader.
Each story is marked with the era: 1949, 1952, etc. As a career musician and producer, Cooder brings his familiarity with band dynamics, the money men, and shady characters that hang around, making for a view behind the scenes: up on stage, and back at the hotel/flophouse. The writing is top notch. at times hooking the observant reader: in an attention-checking test, he throws in a name that was used in an earlier story, but for a different character (a la David Mitchell, anyone?). I found myself paging back to see if this is the son or daughter from a previous story. (Narrator: it isn’t.)
I wish I had read this when Chuck was still alive; it would have been fun to talk about together.
Ry Cooder is a multi-talented personality in the music industry, and now I see that his talent for storytelling is not confined to lyrics.
Recommended.
February 24, 2019
From Old Bunker Hill to shabby Santa Monica, characters down on their luck or just plain foolish fall into noir's twisted web in the changing Los Angeles of the 1940s and 50s. This collection of short stories is written in the lingo of the era, and musician-author Ry Cooder populates the stories with musicians and night clubs. If you're hungry for interesting stories that break out from the same-ol'-same-ol', that harken back to the noir of times past, "Los Angeles Stories" is your ticket.
January 18, 2021
These stories ... the characters, the settings, the mood, and of course, the stories themselves, are so elegantly crafted and memorable, I didn’t want to leave them.
I’m tempted to start reading it again, right now, because I want to visit with Herb, Ray, Lydia, Al, Billy, Dolly, Mike Brown, and all their friends, neighbors, and enemies again. I want to settle back in to my beloved Los Angeles at the time just before I was born.
It’s simply a remarkable book.
I’m tempted to start reading it again, right now, because I want to visit with Herb, Ray, Lydia, Al, Billy, Dolly, Mike Brown, and all their friends, neighbors, and enemies again. I want to settle back in to my beloved Los Angeles at the time just before I was born.
It’s simply a remarkable book.
August 1, 2018
These tales are dryly funny, meandering, full of old-time hipster slang, and crammed with period detail. I really enjoyed them. If some of these stories come to less than definite conclusions, it might be more useful for the reader to look on them less as plot-driven than as loose, spicy jams that fade out before they wear out their welcome.
Don't sweat it, the band'll kick in again soon.
Don't sweat it, the band'll kick in again soon.
February 16, 2019
I read this book as part of my book club, definitely not my thing. Nour is hard I felt like we were flying with an inexperienced pilot, stories sometimes just didn’t end, and the characters were sketchy at best. But it was a fascinating glimpse into what my neighborhood looked like 70 years ago, and for that I thank it.
January 16, 2020
Some of these stories are more successful than others, maybe one should have been left out. But some of these hum along like a Cadillac on an open road, and where music comes into it, in particular, you can feel the magic stirring and twitching. Nobody knows how to work a groove better than Ry Cooder. Good job!
August 9, 2025
What a wonderfully fun and interesting, if at times confusing, book. Written like an anthology, each story presents the reader with a little bit of the good, bad, and ugly that makes up Los Angeles. Set in postwar Los Angeles, Ry Cooder crafts unpredictable tales with a wide variety of characters that together paint a picture of a city of glamour, intrigue, and danger. Loads of fun
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