How to Take a Literary Trip Through Sacramento

When you think of “literary California,” chances are that you think about San Francisco, Monterey, even Los Angeles, all of which feature weighty, iconic literary places like the City Lights bookstore and Cannery Row. But Sacramento? Though the city is far from having a literary reputation (unlike its close neighbor Davis, home to a respectable writing program and several notable writers), significant writers have called—-and still call—-Sacramento home; and exploring their works might give you an entirely new perspective on this capital city.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Turn to Didion. Joan Didion may be the quintessential New York writer, but she was born in Sacramento. Like many Californians, Didion has mixed feelings about her home state and struggles with its contradictions, history and atmosphere. For a crash course in Didion’s California perspectives, read her memoir “Where I Was From.” She discusses her family history in California as well as contemporary, state-defining subjects such as the Spur Posse Scandal and Thomas Kinkade paintings. It all adds up to a thoughtful, insightful meditation about what makes California what it is.
2. Keep going with Didion. Didion wrote her first work of fiction, “Run, River,” after leaving California; the novel is, as she has claimed, a work of a homesick young girl looking longingly toward home.
3. Revisit Ray Carver. Carver, one of the best short story writers of all time, lived for a brief period in Sacramento in the 1960s. You can catch glimpses of Northern California in some of his stories; do some sleuthing in “Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?”, his 1977 collection.
4. Look for Mark Twain’s ghost. Mark Twain never lived in Sacramento, but in the late 1800s he was hired to write letters about his travels for the “Sacramento Union,” the oldest newspaper in the West, which was shuttered in 1994.
5. Stock your library at one of Sacramento’s great used bookshops. For such a small city, Sacramento has a healthy selection of bookshops, most featuring extensive collections of used novels and other works that you can take home for half off the cover price. Two good bookshops to browse in are Time Tested Books (1114 21st Street) and The Book Collector (1008 24th Street).