Dark Cities Underground by Lisa Goldstein

[King Bob]

I picked this up on a whim at Recycle Books probably because it had Anubis on the cover. It centers on the son of an author who wrote children's stories. It turns out they are based on his adventures in an underground land, and that other famous tales, such as Alice in Wonderland, are based on children's journeys there. There is a secret group looking for the entrance. Egyptian myth gets dragged in, but it works pretty well. Certainly not great but enjoyable. Possibly a Bay Area author, since the main setting is Oakland and Colma, with one character living in Santa Cruz. It had a feeling a bit like American Gods, and it came out one year earlier.

[cranefly]

Yes, Lisa lives in Oakland.  LCF and I have been in a writers workshop with her for a number of years.  There's about eight of us scattered about from the South Bay to Richmond.  We take turns hosting workshops -- or we used to.  Now it's all zoomed.  A couple people have just moved out of the area -- one to Canada -- and Lisa will likely move away soon, after her husband retires.

I have to wonder if we'll ever get together again.

[King Bob]

I saw she had several other titles - have you read any of them?

And I think I might have sounded too lukewarm on this book. Saying "not great" makes it sound lousy, and it certainly was not. It might have been better to say something else. It moved along nicely and I enjoyed it and don't regret the time spent.

[cranefly]

Sorry it took a while to get back to you.  I had to jog my memory on a few particulars.

Lisa's first novel, The Red Magician (1982), was praised by Philip K. Dick (shortly before his death) and went on to win a National Book Award.  Oddly, I have not read it.  But there's little rhyme or reason to my reading or movie-viewing habits.

I did read her second book, The Dream Years (1985), about a young surrealist living in 1920s Paris who falls in love with a mysterious woman and together they're transported to the 1968 Paris riots.  I really enjoyed the depiction of Breton and his circle of early surrealists doing their thing, but I'm not recalling the later 1960s portion of the book.  Then again, it's been a long while.  I remember reading elsewhere about Philippe Soupault, one of the early literary surrealists, and how he had a penchant for wandering about Paris knocking on random doors and asking if Philippe Soupault lived there.  Yeah, silly, but cute.  So I was blown away when Lisa told me that while in Paris doing research for the novel, she had run into Soupault.  There wasn't much to the meeting, and I don't remember the details.  I've rewritten the memory such that Lisa knocked on a random door and Soupault answered.

I read the workshop version of her most recent novel, Ivory Apples (2019), and found it very enjoyable. 

We have several other of her novels in our bookcases, some of which I might have read, but I can't recall.  Now I'm feeling guilty, not having read her more than I have.

[King Bob]

Thanks CF!