Indigenous : growing up Californian / Cris Mazza.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mazza, Cris.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mazza, Cris--Homes and haunts--California.

Mazza, Cris.

Authors, American--20th century--Biography.

Authors, American.

Families.

California.

California--Social life and customs.

Manners and customs.

Mazza, Cris--Childhood and youth.

Families--California.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xix, 293 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : City Lights, [2003]

Summary:

Cris Mazza delivers a spirited rebuttal to pop-culture stereotypes about growing up female in Southern California. Coming of age in the 1970s and '80s, Mazza's memories aren't about surfing, cheerleading or riding in convertibles. Though her story has its exotic elements -- her family hunts and -gathers food in the semi-arid coastal hills well into the early '70s -- she sets herself in the context of familiar Americana. Repeating motifs -- gender issues, the California landscape, dogs, musicians, plus the perplexing melancholy of a sexless marriage -- thread through these very personal essays, as Mazza confronts madness, disability, sexual dysfunction and death, speaking to the drama of ordinary lives.

Cris Mazza's most recent novel was "Girl Beside Him," and she is the editor of "Chick-Lit: Postfeminist Fiction."

Contents:

Displaced, an introduction xi

Part 1 Homeland 1

Waterbaby 43

A Girl Among Trombonists 87

Exemplary Lives 109

Land of Make-Believe 141

Part 2 How Far She Came 181

Symphony Ex, Ex-Symphony 183

How Far She Came 217

Withstanding the Elements 227

Tell Me 253.

ISBN:

0872864227

OCLC:

51053640