Elsewhere, California (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781582437842)

We first met Avery in two of the stories featured in Dana Johnson's award-winning collection Break Any Woman Down. As a young girl, she and her family escape the violent streets of Los Angeles to a more gentrified existence in suburban West Covina. This average life, filled with school, trips to 7-Eleven to gawk at Tiger Beat magazine, and family outings to Dodger Stadium, is soon interrupted by a past she cannot escape, personified in the guise of her violent cousin Keith.

When Keith moves in with her family, he triggers a series of events that will follow Avery throughout her life: to her studies at USC, to her burgeoning career as a painter and artist, and into her relationship with a wealthy Italian who sequesters her in his glass-walled house in the Hollywood Hills. The past will intrude upon Avery's first gallery show, proving her mother's adage: Every goodbye aint gone. The dual-narrative of Elsewhere, California illustrates the complicated history of African Americans across the rolling basin of Los Angeles.

Author: Dana Johnson
ISBN-10: 158243784X
ISBN-13: 9781582437842
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
Language: English
Published: 06/12/2012
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.63lbs
Size: 8.26h x 5.57w x 1.04d
Award: Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/23/2012 pg. 27
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2012