By Nina Revoyr. In Southland, Revoyr brings us a compelling story of race, love, murder, and history against the backdrop of Los Angeles. A young Japanese American woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. Frank was a veteran of WWII who, many years before, had owned a store in the Crenshaw district, one of the first racially mixed areas in the city and now the heart of L.A.’s black community. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that four black teenagers were killed in the store during the Watts Riots of 1965 – and that the murders were never solved or reported. Along with James Lanier, a cousin of one of the victims, she tries to piece together the story of the boys’ deaths. In the process, Jackie unearths the long-held secrets of her family’s history – and her own. Southland explores the fragile understandings and sometimes painful misunderstandings that occur across the lines of race and culture. It is also the story of an everchanging city. Moving in and out of the past, from the shipping yards and internment camps of WWII; to the barley fields of the Crenshaw district in the 1930s; to the mean streets of Watts in the 1960s; to the night spots and garment factories of the 1990s, Southland weaves a tale of Los Angeles in all of its faces and forms. Paper: 348 pp. |
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