Document Type
Book
Publication Date
1986
Abstract
In the January 1981 issue of Horizon, John Lahr writes: “California is a state of amateur outdoorsmen—of runners, of swimmers, of bikers, of sailors, and of golfers. Here, the surface of life can be enjoyed without analysis. Amidst the sun, surf, and caesar salads, intellectual stimulation is never a high priority.” He goes on to trash those who “never question the consequences of Los Angeles or the California scene . . . —the general absence of community, the moral stupor, the greedy self-aggrandizement, and the emotional impoverishment that characterize and enchant the place” (“Entrepreneurs” 39). These comments, so typical of a certain anti-California mentality, would scarcely be worth our notice except that they are contained in a particularly mean-spirited attack on two of the most prominent writers of the contemporary American West—Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne. Because of Didion’s heritage as a fifth-generation Californian, her identity as a Western writer is generally conceded and has been frequently discussed. Transplanted from the East, Dunne’s roots do not go as deep as hers, but he compensates by writing with a convert’s zeal about his adopted home. Since an examination of Dunne as a naturalized Westerner is long overdue, let us leave the moral posturings of John Lahr to see what all the fuss is about.
Recommended Citation
Winchell, Mark Royden. John Gregory Dunne. Boise, ID: Boise State University, 1986. Digital. Western Writers Series, 76.