The book is composed of fifteen short essays and an introduction by the editor. The chapters move chronologically over the historical documents of Los Angeles. The essays cover some very esoteric works but for that reason the book is valuable as a reference guide. The book begins with a general chronology of influential books, movies, and current events. Each chapter concludes with end notes. There is a guide to further reading and index. The volume is planned to touch on each of the mythic elements of Los Angeles which continue to fascinate the world. The various authors are free with their critiques’ of the city, its people, and its ideals but there is an honest attempt to put those views into a wider ongoing reflection on Los Angeles. Adorno figures in several essays, as do Huxley, Chandler, and Waugh. The work by the Americans Didion, Mosley, and Valdez are given multiple considerations. One strange thing finds itself repeated several times. A few essays speak of the riots after the verdicts of the LAPD officers whom were acquitted of harming Rodney King as the Justice Riots. No one refers to the riots with that phrase. Justice Riots would be a way to distinguish them from the Watts Riots but no one would know what you were speaking about if you happened to live in Los Angeles and referred to them in that way. The essays are all brief and therefore unable to do more than scan an area of interest. But, thankfully, they are each well crafted. ( )