Southland

Southland by Nina Revoyr is a tour de force that tells a story of racial disharmony within the seemingly gentle confines of Los Angeles. With the accounting of two families, one Japanese, one Black, we learn the story of how four young boys are intentionally frozen to death in a meat locker during the Watts Rebellion of 1965.The Store owner Frank Sakai is a Japanese American who has been living relatively peacefully in the mixed racial neighborhood since acquiring the store. He'd been interred with his family at Manzanar and subsequently served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army, a fighting unit composed almost entirely of American soldiers of Japanese descent who turned out to be the most decorated unit in American history. Returning home after the war he was able to purchase a small grocery story in Central LA.Upon Frank's death in 1994 his granddaughter, a law student, and a black man who works with youth in a mid-city community center team up to find out the facts surrounding the death of the young men, why Frank had left $38,000 to one of them and mostly, who was responsible for the heinous crime.The two initially explore their own family dialogues but find it difficult to pull together the remnants of the story. "No one talked about history" they lament. As the scope of the investigation enlarges and as each piece of the puzzle is moved into place the real story gets more complicated. Soon even they begin to doubt what they find.The accounts of the Japanese Americans starting in 1939 along with the Black family chronicle starting six years later when the family of one of the boys moves from Texas demonstrates brave and stalwart endurance from both factions. I read a review of this book in which the reader said that his book club did not like the book because it was too sad. I feel that the thing that can make history most sad is only if we don't learn from it.

I read this in preparation of future references. I am shocked at how unique and authentic this book is. The story line is unique, but yet on point with the history. The book focuses on multiple aspects of life and history. The book had a few touches on war: “why didn’t you ever tell me that you fought in the war?” “Because it didn’t make any difference.”—page 199. "Definitely worth a read if you're interested in the history of Los Angeles, especially the Crenshaw district." You judge a book by its contents, but what makes a book good is how it changes your value on certain things. How does Southland changes one's view? Well, after I read this book; I did not believe the prejudices of this world. As an eighteen year old college student, this book had certainly opened my eyes. At the moment I am reading "The Help", "The Help" and "Southland" are different in many ways, but they are both similar when presenting views on equality and discriminations. I would recommend both books to anyone.

Praise you see for this book in reviews reflects the reverence people have for the subject matter and not the writing. If they were, in fact, addressing the author and her style, you'd see more words like "trite," "superficial" and "untalented." I had to check the "About the Author" section multiple times, just to make sure I wasn't being forced to read the self-published manuscript of a graduate student.For everyone who read The Jungle and towards the end grew exasperated by unnecessary twist after unfeasible twist, this book will seem familiar. At least Sinclair had an excuse--he was writing a weekly feature in a newspaper. Revoyr, on the otherhand, has not justification for what can only be describe as mediocre writing. Okay, the main character is both a law student, a lesbian, asian, in a faltering relationship, estranged from her parents, her grandfather died, and she's investigating the 50 year old murders of 4 black teenagers. Her grandfather was the only Asian in LA who liked black people, and he was sent to an internment camp, and he served in WWII, and his store was torched twice by rioters, and he was an email aficionado in 1994. Are you serious? That's only to two characters--let us not forget her bisexual bi-racial friend, her aunt who rejects the institution of marriage, the man who Jesus told to pick up bowling, a boy's father who killed 8 of his comrades in Korea without repercussion, and score of other entirely other implausible characters.This book is a joke--and that is sad considering what a serious topic it is. I literally cringed with the turning of each new page, fearful of the lunacy I knew awaited me. It's like Revoyr threw in every possible cliched, and extreme character trait she could think of, and then an editor told her "why not shoot for the moon and make them all gay?"And of course, it is all epitomized by the cover. It's a photograph of an old store front, with the title photoshopped in from WordArt. Like everything else in this book, we find big plans and little effort with a grand finale of poor results.

There are not enough good things to say about Revoyr's Southland. The novel is beyond incredible and dare I say that Ms. Revoyr is perhaps one of the best contemporary authors of our time. It is a gripping and wonderful novel about tough times in Los Angeles county. Those who have lived through the era following WWII will relate to the heated, racial tensions between that erupted during the Watts riots. If you are part of the latter generation, you will experience a harsh dose of reality as you move with the main character in her search for the killer of four young African American men. The book is extremely realistic, staying true to the time period but also being captivating in that Revoyr's writing style is both creative and engaging. This novel will speak most heavily to native Angelinos but is transcendent and makes a terrific read for anyone attempting to understand the fabric of the star-studded town of L.A

It reveals the depth of racism in the society! It’s a beautiful sad story