Quakeland

By Francesca Lia Block

Book Overview

After enduring, from afar, a seemingly endless series of worldwide disasters - including 9/11 and the asian tsunami - while living in earthquake-prone Los Angeles, bereft Katrina experiences deep inner longings for some sense of permanence, meaning and intimacy. A pre-school teacher contemplating the unsettling challenges of her mid-life, she finds solace in her dear friend Grace and conflict in the arms of narcissistic yoga intstructor Jasper. Quakeland speaks in a deeply stirring female voice to an unspoken sense of universal longing quietly prevalent today.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 193314923X
• ISBN13: 9781933149233
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Manic D Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

FLB is growing up in her themes and into her style

Quakeland by Francesca Lia Block is another example of how Block has grown creatively and how her characters have matured along with her story's themes. Here she returns to the interwoven stories that she did so beautifully in Echo. But this is not a young adult novel and this is as close as it gets to being a disappointment. Block's young adult novels, with their beautiful imagery, lyrical language, and above all how she touches on the most painful experiences with a delicacy that makes even the most nightmarish realities something that can not only be survived but can be survived with grace. There is a promise at the end of her young adult novels that is not present in Quakeland. Perhaps this is more honest. Perhaps with maturity comes the need to just accept that pain is inevitable. And yet, there is a sense of the human potential to evolve beyond the present reality (a promise hinted at by the perfect and marvelous illustration on the cover). This book is infused with the horrors of terrorist attacks, floods, tsunamis, and the threat of earthquakes. In the pages there is healing, a sort of homeopathic catharsis of words. I wanted to cry most of the time as I was reading. The pain was too familiar. Needless to say, I will return to this book and reread it. I will hold it close as I read the words and sigh. Maybe I will not want to cry. Maybe I will want to cry so much more that I will not be able to stop myself. And no maybe about it, I look forward to Block's next book.

block shakes things up

This novel contains everything I've loved about Block's work (dreamy, color-saturated prose; insider portraits of L.A.) and some qualities I didn't expect: Not only does it take a more adult approach to relationships, but it takes a turn for the meta/experimental a little over halfway through. The narrator seems to try on different voices and different ways of retelling the story of a difficult relationship. Unlike many experimental works, though, the story remains personal and emotional. It's clear that Block and/or the narrator is telling the story not to mess around with language, but to heal. The result is a beautiful and beautifully strange work, a quick read that nevertheless encompasses the reader.

One of her most personal works

As a long-time Francesca Lia Block fan I'm pleased by how Quakeland contains the themes I've come to love so well, but is also a bit darker and has more realistic tones than her other works. Parts of it seem almost autobiographical (though I have no idea if any of it is based in reality) and that made it even more fascinating. I couldn't put it down!

a lovely lyrical wander

Lyrical and dreamlike, Quakeland follows the intertwined stories of a group of women, telling the story of another woman who was somehow central to all of their lives--Grace. This is Grace's story, though the events of the book more revolve around her than are about her. She is the missing piece at the story's heart, the personal tsunami that echoes the real tsunami that provides the starting point for the book. I love Block's dream-naif prose, though I did have trouble connecting with Katrina and understanding why she was doing the things she was. I found the later narrators--the unnamed woman and Angeli--to be much more comprehensible, if only because they were watching the drama from the outside instead of directly living the story. Overall, well worth picking up!