The Underground Guide to Los Angeles

By: Gehman, Pleasant

"A thing of beauty. . . . You must read it."—Nadeem Aslam "A shower of pleasures."—Julia O'Faolain "Sophisticated, cosmopolitan and seductive, the novel engages mind and senses alike."—André Naffis-Sahely, The Times Literary Supplement Like his parents, he too spent many hours sending cloud messages to other places, messages of longing for something that he knew existed otherwhere. London, that distant rainy place his father lived in once, is where Mehran finds himself after leaving Karachi in his teens. And it is there that his adult life unfolds: he discovers the joys of poetry, faces the trials of love and work, and spends his dreaming hours "sending cloud messages to other places," hoping, one day, to tell his own story. A feeling of not quite belonging anywhere pursues Mehran as he travels to Italy, India, and Pakistan. But the relationships he forms—with wounded, passionate Marvi, volatile Marco, and the enigmatic Riccarda—and his power of recollection finally bring him some sense, however fleeting, of home. Aamer Hussein was born in Karachi in 1955 and moved to London in his teens. He lectures at the University of Southampton and the Institute of English Studies and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His novella Another Gulmohar Tree was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Europe and South Asia 2010.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0916397564
• ISBN13: 9780916397562
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Manic D Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 4.3" x 0.8"

Customer Reviews

Tons of way cool stuff

While this book does include some LA basic tourist stuff, it also includes tons of record stores, thrift shops, strange history places, and Bukowski's grave site. Great dive bar recommendations and cheap eats, too. The chapter written by LA scenester Vaginal Davis is the funniest thing I've ever read in any guidebook anywhere and is itself worth the price of this book... a fun book for visitors and residents alike - loved it!

The most outstanding guide book I've ever seen!

After checking out just a few of the places this guidebook recommended, I knew the authors were real experts on their city. The places they sent us were everything they said they would be. This book is a must if you want to see the real and the really exciting L.A.

Indispensible for partying/surviving in LA!

This book has chapters on music, restaurants, great places to buy clothes, see art, go to thriftstores, etc. I've lived in LA for four years and never even heard of some of these places! The chapters are all fun, too, not boring like regular guide-books. Some are like essays, most are hysterically funny, full of personality. The writers included in this collection are diverse. Some are well-known, some are poets, others, like Rob Zebrecky (of Possum Dixon) are musicians. This would be a good gift for a visitor, or even someone who lives in LA.