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Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir

Front Cover
36 Reviews
W. W. Norton, Apr 17, 2005 - History - 192 pages
Since its publication in 1996, Holy Land has become an American classic. In "quick, translucent prose" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times) that is at once lyrical and unsentimental, D. J. Waldie recounts growing up in Lakewood, California, a prototypical post-World War II suburb. Laid out in 316 sections as carefully measured as a grid of tract houses, Holy Land is by turns touching, eerie, funny, and encyclopedic in its handling of what was gained and lost when thousands of blue-collar families were thrown together in the suburbs of the 1950s. An intensely realized and wholly original memoir about the way in which a place can shape a life, Holy Land; is ultimately about the resonance of choices--how wide a street should be, what to name a park--and the hopes that are realized in the habits of everyday life. 20 illustrations and a new introduction for this paperback edition.

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Review: Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir

User Review  - Hank Stuever - Goodreads

One of the most thoughtful and personal books ever written about the making of (physically and emotionally) an American suburb, by someone who lived in it all his life. I first read it in 1997 and I ... Read full review

Review: Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir

User Review  - Nicole - Goodreads

Honestly, the format was a little too weird for my taste, but since I had to read it for school, I didn't find much interest in it. I get the underlying principles, but it just wasn't very exciting ... Read full review

All 34 reviews »

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References from web pages

dj Waldie . Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir . californiaauthors.com
The writer: dj Waldie is the author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, Real City: Downtown Los Angeles Inside/Out (2001, Angel City), Where We Are Now: Notes ...
www.californiaauthors.com/ excerpt-waldie.shtml

Holy Land (Main Page)
dj Waldie. Holy Land. A Suburban Memoir. "Infinitely moving and powerful, just dead-on right, and absolutely original."—Joan Didion ...
www.wwnorton.com/ catalog/ spring05/ 032728.htm

dj waldie 06
dj Waldie is the author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir and other books about Los Angeles. He is also a contributing writer for Los Angeles magazine. ...
www.usc.edu/ libraries/ partners/ laih/ fellows/ djwaldie06.php

Schedule
Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir. HL Question 1: Did the new suburbs fundamentally change California society after World War II? Golden Age = ...
www.uweb.ucsb.edu/ ~fastman/ 133gc%20notes/ GloCal012307HolyLand1.doc

BOOKS OF THE TIMES;Rooted in Suburbia, Body and Soul - New York Times
HOLY LAND A Suburban Memoir By dj Waldie Illustrated. 180 pages. ww Norton & Company. $24. Though you may have never heard of Lakewood, Calif., ...
query.nytimes.com/ gst/ fullpage.html?res=9A02E2DC1039F936A35754C0A960958260& sec=& spon=& pagewanted=print

dj Waldie - Ordinary Time: The Making of a Catholic Imagination ...
dj Waldie is the author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir (ww Norton & Company, 2005) and other books about Los Angeles and Southern California. ...
muse.jhu.edu/ journals/ spiritus/ v007/ 7.1waldie.html

Emerald City : Los Angeles Times : dj Waldie and going green at ...
... have a shaping power over the future of those places," said dj Waldie, author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, at Antioch College Los Angeles yesterday. ...
latimesblogs.latimes.com/ emeraldcity/ 2007/ 10/ dj-waldie-and-g.html

Where We Are Now from Angel City Press
A breathtaking progression from his much-celebrated book Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, Where We Are Now is a compilation of Waldie’s most intriguing recent ...
angelcitypress.com/ whwa.html

LA Observed: New from dj Waldie
Waldie's earlier books are Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir and Real City: Downtown Los Angeles Inside/Out. 11:57 PM Sunday, June 20 2004 • Link ...
www.laobserved.com/ archive/ 2004/ 06/ new_from_dj_wal.php

Author dj Waldie to Lecture at Cal State Fullerton’s Pollak Library
He is the author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir and Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles. Waldie’s newest entry to the literary scene is California ...
campusapps.fullerton.edu/ news/ 2008/ waldie.html

About the author (2005)

D. J. Waldie still lives in the tract house he writes about. He has received a Whiting Writers Award and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, among other honors.

Bibliographic information