For Proust, the cure for homesickness was a madeleine dipped in tea, which transported him back to Combray. For displaced Los Angelenos, the cure is Barbara A. Thomason's 100 Not So Famous Views of L.A., a gorgeous collection of paintings and text depicting city vistas both famous and obscure. Thomason dares to face down her city as it truly is--looping highway overpasses and all--and in this mixture of high and low, natural and urbane, California natives, transplants and tourists will find a winsome and loving portrait of an iconic city.
The paintings, done with the same Cel-Vinyl paint that animators use, cover neighborhoods from Silver Lake to the Miracle Mile. The span of a few pages can take the reader from #38 ("View from the Hollywood Home Depot") to #45 (the Kermit-topped Jim Henson Company Lot). Devoid of humans, these images give the city a personality and evolution unto itself, chronicling its charms, its oddities and its perennial allure. --Linnie Greene, freelance writer