Gary Krist's latest book is The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles. From his Q&A with Deborah Kalb:Q: Why did you choose to focus on early 20th-century Los Angeles in your new book?The Page 69 Test: The White Cascade.
A: I see The Mirage Factory as the third in a trilogy of city books I’ve written for Crown, after City of Scoundrels (about Chicago) and Empire of Sin (about New Orleans).
It’s been fascinating to explore how each city has grown and developed over time, each one coping with similar issues but in different ways, depending on the particular people and circumstances in each place.
What intrigued me most about Los Angeles was the fact that this remarkable urban entity grew up in a place where no city should logically be.
The site was too dry, too far from natural resources and potential markets; it was also isolated by deserts and mountain ranges and without a good deep-water port. And yet it grew from a largely agricultural town of 100,000 in 1900 to a major metropolis of 1.2 million by 1930.
That feat required imagination, not to mention some really unorthodox tactics (including plenty of deceptive advertising), and...[read on]
Writers Read: Gary Krist (May 2012).
The Page 99 Test: City of Scoundrels.
The Page 99 Test: Empire of Sin.
--Marshal Zeringue