The Earthquake Shack

By Gary Diedrichs

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0972394796
• ISBN13: 9780972394796
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Two Bridges Press
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Great Book for the Romantics....

I normally read several books at the same time as I get bored quickly. I do finish all but not in one sitting. This book was an exception. It was a bit harder to start as English in not my native language and there were a lot of BIG words. But once I began, I just could not put it down. Very well done and very accurate as I am quite familiar with the area's history. I highly recommend this book to all.

Sausalito Love

This is a great read. Vivid characters both real and imagined, and of course the old town of Sausalito itself. Definitely captures the feeling of walking those streets on a foggy day and then having the sun suddenly stab through. Some of them vaguely Pynchonesque cosmic coincidences here too but on a very human scale. When the fog rolls in in a Sunday, put a log on the fire and bust out the Earthquake Shack... Interesting to compare this one with another solid Bay Area tale of love and loss, Eric Miles Williamson's East Bay Grease, which stands as a grubby work-shirted cousin to Earthquake Shack's Marin magical realism.

The Earthquake Shack

From page one of his captivating and courageous first novel, author Gary Diedrichs grabs his readers by the lapels of their pea coats and pulls them headfirst into a wild waterfront world of renegades, romance, mystery and stranger-than-fiction history. We meet, greet and fall in love with an unruly gang of brilliant, eccentric characters (many of whom were actual denizens) of Sausalito, California in the salty, lawless, pre-Beatles, pre-Vietnam days--and baudy nights--of the late 1950s. But the wake of Diedrichs' magical voyage expands far beyond a single calendar page or compass point. Through his skillful narrative techniques, the author effortlessy guides us back and forth between the flaming wreckage of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to the late night Zen ramblings at the No Name Bar; from seaside shanties and eco-terrorist plotting to the comparatively mundane, yet heartbreaking, backroads of rural Ohio. Diedrichs weaves all his characters and events--small, medium, large and cataclysmic--into the context of a powerful and poignant love story, blurring the lines of fact and fiction to where we are never sure where the actual truth begins or ends. And we really don't care. You don't need to know anything about Sausalito to love this book. But if you do, you'll love it even more. Highly recommended!

Engaging Tale of Historical Sausalito

I love books that take me to a time and place I wish I could have experienced firsthand; I also love books that peel back time to reveal the veils between past and present. "The Earthquake Shack" is one of those books -- set in the final days of the Fifties, in the waterfront town of Sausalito, just north of San Francisco, which was a special place filled with fascinating inhabitants, long before it gave in to tourist shops and chain art galleries. It was a time of free-spririted Water Rats versus wealthy Hillclimbers; of beatniks and bohemians; of great local characters, including one of my favorite actors, Sterling Hayden, and the writer Jack Kerouac. With considerable sleight-of-hand, the author - a Sausalito native - weaves the unique tale of a by-gone era into two stories: that of the main character, a Midwesterner dazzled by Sausalito but unprepared to join the party; and that of two ghosts who inhabit the cottage -- the Earthquake Shack -- into which he settles. Through the ghosts' eyes, we also see San Francisco's Barbary Coast after of the 1906 earthquake and Sausalito before, and leading up to, the Fifties. One ghost worked in a San Francisco bordello, the other is a Miwok Indian girl whose tribe discovered Sausalito long before any white man did. I recommend this engaging, beautifully written book to anyone who loves sophisticated historical fiction where the deft characterization and attention to detail transport you to a magical party you wish you had been invited to.

It's a smart read

You know that feeling of entering a party of strangers, and one familiar face leans over and explains cogently who the other guests are? That's this book's tone, and it's spot on. A friend of mine recommended The Earthquake Shack to me last week. Like many of us, I've got a pile of unread books jockeying for next place, with at least three in progress. I gave this novel a cursory flip and started reading somewhere in the middle. Five pages later, I simply stopped, sat down in the kitchen, and started from the beginning. What you'll find is typical of strong writing: well-developed characters, brisk dialog, insightful tone, good storylines, amid a creditable backdrop of loss and possible redemption which keeps you rooting for the protagonist to make some right choices. This is more than I usually expect from a novel. It appears to be Gary Diedrichs' first novel, and I'll be looking out for his next. So, this writer recommends The Earthquake Shack. For all the best reasons.