The Western Coast

Paula Fox's novels enact their dramas of personal life against the background of social and historical circumstances. In The Western Coast, the narrower focus of her shorter novels is broadened to take in California, America, and the catastrophic world of twentieth-century war, mass murder, and horror through the story of Annie Gianfala, a young woman who finds herself cast adrift in Hollywood as American stands on the brink of World War II.

Annie wanders through deserts of poverty and weal...