When Into the Valley begins, B. is cashing her first forged check. The Summer of Love in San Francisco, where B. has just left, is worlds away from the Sacramento Valley she's heading toward. The only time she feels at home is when an unsuspecting teller hands her a bundle of cash within the economical and sterile walls of a bank.
Ruth Galm's first novel is a spare and lyrical story of homelessness. At 30, B. sees hippies as misguided and naïve, but she feels detached from the pearl necklaces, beehive hairdos and patriarchy of the previous decade. She wanders into the desert east of the Sierra Nevada hoping to discover who she is and where she's meant to be, but instead begins to lose both her way and her self-control.
Following the advice of a hapless and criminal janitor she meets in her office, B. learns how to forge checks. But Galm wants the reader to know that, while B. does in fact become a wanted criminal, B. doesn't steal from the banks for the thrill or the cash. Instead, she wants to determine her own identity amid a major cultural shift. Only the secret wad of cash tucked under the seat of her car reminds B. that there are still parts of her identity all to herself, no matter how violently times change.
As the banks and the police begin to catch on, B. wanders the plains of California, weighing her options, until finally a bold act unveils for her an elusive truth she could never have predicted. --Josh Potter