GOLD FAME CITRUS

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Gold Fame Citrus, Claire Vaye Watkins, Riverhead Books, 2015, 339 pp

 

 

Summary from Goodreads: In a parched southern California of the near future, Luz, once the poster child for the country’s conservation movement, and Ray, an army deserter turned surfer, are squatting in a starlet’s abandoned mansion. Most “Mojavs,” prevented by armed vigilantes from freely crossing borders to lusher regions, have allowed themselves to be evacuated to encampments in the east. Holdouts like Ray and Luz subsist on rationed cola and water, and whatever they can loot, scavenge, and improvise.

For the moment, the couple’s fragile love, which somehow blooms in this arid place, seems enough. But when they cross paths with a mysterious child, the thirst for a better future begins.

Immensely moving, profoundly disquieting, and mind-blowingly original, Watkins’s novel explores the myths we believe about others and tell about ourselves, the double-edged power of our most cherished relationships, and the shape of hope in a precarious future that may be our own.

 

My Review:

Oh my, I loved this story! If you are tired of gritty, violent, and/or depressing post-apocalyptic books, this one is not for you. But if you loved The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi or Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, etc, you would want to check out Gold Fame Citrus.

 

It concerns the southern California drought in a future gone very dry. As in true history, such as the dust bowl story The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan, there are people who have chosen to stick around. Two of those, Luz and Ray, are equally damaged characters, though for widely different reasons. Luz is a casualty of the modeling and advertising world. Ray suffers from severe PTSD, the military kind, and has a tendency to desert people.

 

As the story opens, they are hanging on to each other, but prone to making bad decisions. Eventually a couple of these decisions send them on a road trip and quest for safety. Of course, that is not what they find. The writing is so amazing and creative that you feel you are there and become deeply invested in these and several other characters.

 

I am always curious about cults, both cult leaders and the people who join them. The one in this story is on beyond the craziest southwestern UFO cult you ever read about. Even more interesting to me are the people who wake up and manage to escape.

 

Luz is one of those. She is such a broken person but also has courage, so I watched her keep trying. I was rooting for her all the while I was pretty sure she was doomed.

 

When I finished the book I seriously considered moving back to Michigan. The economy there may be one of the worst in America right now but at least it rains! 

 

 

(Gold Fame Citrus is available in hardcover by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)