Loose Diamonds: ...and other things I've lost (and found) along the way
by Amy Ephron
a glimpse of la and new york (8/2/2011)
This book seems spare and yet the observations in it stay with you. The use of language is also spare and yet evocative. I lived in Los Angeles in the late '70s and it captured the time for me in a way, like snapshots, like real-time. The voice of each of the pieces is also evocative of the time they're written in. I couldn't stop reading it. The one on one parody of "Why I Quit Being Psychic", the weird piece about the Manson family and the Spahn Ranch, a place I'd never go have dared to go to. And yet it brought back memories for me, some of which I'd had, some of which are imagined.
In a way, the sub-text is almost as important as the writing which was so simple as to be deceptive. And reminded me of bygone times.