title: Imagining Los Angeles: A City in Fiction
author:  David M. Fine 
description: "...a graceful and judicious exploration of American literature in one of its more exotic locales and challenging variations." -- <i>Dr. Kevin Starr, State Librarian of California</i><br /><br />"...so full of punch and energy, so mercifully free of the impenetrable jargon that afflicts much scholarly and critical writing." -- <i>Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times</i><br /><br />"At last we have a bookgiving sharp and contemporary definition to one of Americas major literary regions." -- <i>James D. Houston, author of Californians and Continental Drift</i><br /><br />"With his unexcelled knowledge of the terrain, David Fine illuminates every dark corner of an extraordinary literary landscape. -- <i>Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear.</i>
zlib_text: Table of Contents
  Prologue
  Chapter 1
  Chapter 2
  Chapter 3
  Chapter 4
  Chapter 5
  Chapter 6
  Chapter 7
  Chapter 8
  
  Text copyright ©2018 by the Author.
  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and
  has not necessarily been reviewed by Flip City Media Inc.. All characters, scenes, events, plots and
  related elements appearing in the original The Drazen World remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or
  trademarked property of Flip City Media Inc., or their affiliates or licensors.
  For more information on Kindle Worlds: http://www.amazon.com/kindleworlds
  
  Prologue
  By my count, there are three different cities nesting inside Los Angeles. The first, and the one
  everybody knows, is the one for tourists. That city is blinding.
  If you look at it for too long, you may never recover. Once the stars get inside your eyes, they’re
  there to stay, and you will be too. You’ll start off broke, you may even eventually do well enough to
  get comfortable, but make no 