MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 03155fam a2200409 a 4500
001 1529848
005 20220608182356.0
008 940218t19941994nvu s000 0aeng
010 $a 94004857
020 $a0874172470 (alk. paper)
035 $a(OCoLC)29952265
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm29952265
035 $9AJZ4539CU
035 $a(NNC)1529848
035 $a1529848
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dDLC$dNNC
043 $an-us-ca
050 00 $aPS3552.U339$bC78 1994
082 00 $a813/.54$220
100 1 $aBuckley, Christopher,$d1948-$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80027776
245 10 $aCruising state :$bgrowing up in southern California /$cChristopher Buckley.
260 $aReno :$bUniversity of Nevada Press,$c[1994], ©1994.
300 $a212 pages ;$c24 cm.
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
490 1 $aWestern literature series
520 $a"I know it's simplistic," writes Christopher Buckley, "but nine out of ten days all I want to do is drive an old Chevy again, lean back against the wide bench seat, switch the AM radio on to a game, shift that 3-speed on the column, and cruise with the windows down." You can almost feel the sun-warmed vinyl against the shoulder blades as you read this memoir of childhood and adolescence in California, the Golden State, in what now seems a golden time: the 1950s through the early 1970s.
520 8 $aCherishing a more innocent time and richer environment - a quality of life largely vanished now in America - Buckley vividly re-creates both the physical and social details of being young in that place and time.
520 8 $aBuckley describes a bike ride "through a world shaped like a tunnel beneath the overhang of camphors, pine, and oaks," the perfect baseball glove "that would close like a Venus flytrap over any ball it touched," or the required tennis shoes: "If you were a surfer, they were blue." He also movingly recalls the particulars of his own experience: his restless, demanding father; the claustrophobia of a dead-end job at a grocery; and the dawning joy of discovering poetry and his own ability as a writer.
520 8 $aWhat Buckley calls "the fire at the edge of things" - the blindingly rapid changes in society, politics, and technology - glows brightly throughout the eighteen narratives in the book. Any discussion of these issues takes place in the context of people's lives - either Buckley's or those of his friends - rather than in abstract terms. Cruising State is thus a document that is deeply personal, yet ultimately universal, not merely for members of the author's generation, but for all of us.
600 10 $aBuckley, Christopher,$d1948-$xHomes and haunts$zCalifornia, Southern.
600 10 $aBuckley, Christopher,$d1948-$xChildhood and youth.
650 0 $aAuthors, American$y20th century$vBiography.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2007100576
651 0 $aCalifornia, Southern$xSocial life and customs.
651 0 $aCalifornia, Southern$vBiography.
830 0 $aWestern literature series.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n86705769
852 00 $boff,glx$hPS3552.U339$iC78 1994