Praise for Making History
From Kirkus Reviews
Southern California is See's home ground, and the skewering of
its denizens' lifestyles her specialty (Golden Days, 1986), but,
here, she breaks away with a vengeance, moving confidently into
the world of international finance, pushing out to Japan and points
west, letting dead men talk, and staining her home ground blood-
red. The male voices are the first surprise, two very different
males, polar opposites: Robin, a young beach-bum for whom life
is having fun, and Jerry Bridges, a wealthy, middle-aged financier.
Jerry loves money and the Orient; he is every bit as robust, and
convincing, as Tom Wolfe's Sherman McCoy. We'll see him in action,
in Tokyo to launch an American-Japanese co-venture; later on,
prospecting along the Pacific Rim for a site for his ``twenty-first
century city-state.'' Back home, he is king in his plush Pacific
Palisades sanctuary, with the perfect (second) wife, Wynn, adorable
little Josh and Tina, and a gorgeous teenage stepdaughter in Whitney
(his coolness toward her masks a fierce physical desire). For
Wynn, too, their home is a sanctuary, for she has moved up (and
how!) from the ``dead, dank, rented bottom of the San Fernando
Valley''; and, besides, Jerry is a kind man, a good man, even
if forgetful of family occasions. Unfortunately, there are no
sanctuaries; life is brittle, even in Pacific Palisades, for Whitney
is injured in an auto accident and the driver (sweet, clowning
Robin) is killed. Whitney heals, plunges back into life, loses
her virginity on a Maui beach, only to die some months later,
along with little Josh and 13 others, in a fiery multi-vehicle
horror. Wynn has a breakdown, and Jerry (one of life's innocents,
who has never seen a person die) is no help at all. Observing
all this mayhem from his perch in an afterlife ruled by Buddha
and Kali, Robin sends out his own delicate vibrations. See is
wrestling with an old dilemma: How do you admit life's random
violence into your fictional world without wrecking it? She is
also (through a secondary, parallel story involving an English
clairvoyant) suggesting the connectedness of all human lives.
The result is flawed but fascinating: a novel that just radiates
energy and marks a major step forward for this author. -- Copyright
©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This
text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this
title.
From Ingram
This dazzling bestseller by the author of Golden Days bares the
schizophrenic soul of contemporary Los Angeles. Making History
was hailed by The New York Times Book Review as "defiantly
rude and hilariously sad. . . . The most life-affirming novel
I've ever read."
