The Bagels and
Biographies Book Club will be showcasing the best in biography, memoir,
true crime, and non-fiction every month. Each last Monday morning of the
month, we'll get together for a rollicking good time, discussing books
and eating bagels for brunch. Contact the Adult Services Department for
more information. Pick up your copy of the book at the main desk on the
first floor.
May's book is
The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles by Gary Krist. Little more than a century ago, the southern coast of
California—bone-dry, harbor-less, isolated by deserts and mountain
ranges—seemed destined to remain scrappy farmland. Then, as if
overnight, one of the world’s iconic cities emerged. At the heart of Los
Angeles’ meteoric rise were three flawed visionaries: William
Mulholland, an immigrant ditch-digger turned self-taught engineer,
designed the massive aqueduct that would make urban life here possible.
D.W. Griffith, who transformed the motion picture from a
vaudeville-house novelty into a cornerstone of American culture, gave
L.A. its signature industry. And Aimee Semple McPherson, a charismatic
evangelist who founded a religion, cemented the city’s identity as a
center for spiritual exploration.
All were masters of their
craft, but also illusionists, of a kind. The images they conjured up—of a
blossoming city in the desert, of a factory of celluloid dreamworks, of
a community of seekers finding personal salvation under the California
sun—were like mirages liable to evaporate on closer inspection. All
three would pay a steep price to realize these dreams, in a crescendo of
hubris, scandal, and catastrophic failure of design that threatened to
topple each of their personal empires. Yet when the dust settled, the
mirage that was LA remained.
Spanning the years from 1900 to 1930,
The Mirage Factory
is the enthralling tale of an improbable city and the people who willed
it into existence by pushing the limits of human engineering and
imagination.