Always Coming Home (California Fiction)

Ursula Le Guin is a great writer, period. Assigning Always Coming Home the top rank reflects my taste (which, in all modesty, is generally known to be excellent). I am currently on my fourth copy, the previous three had been borrowed and failed to return (a real sign of appreciation). On a more serious note. The books employs Le Guin's delightful tool of using "Archeology of the Future". Just like archeologists reconstruct the past from arbitrary collection of fragments of writings, tools, ruins, children toys that survived centuries and millenia, the author reconstructs the shape of a future West Coast society (10,000 years in the future?). The main thread is provided by memoirs of a woman who was born in the valley that is the scene of most of the book, then leaves with a husband who takes her into a strange society outside the accepted norms. Her own civilization is individualistic and peaceful, while his is violent and regimented. Inevitable conflict occurs and she returns to the valley of her youth. The picture of the future is augmented by descriptions of games, tools, rituals, toys, adornments, poems, songs. These are sometimes related to the story, but mostly (like in a real dig) they add the flavor so we can indeed taste the imaginary world. One amazing concept - Technology, even very advanced, is there, but most people of the future are loath to avail themselves of its blessings (?). My favorite line: "I wanted to talk to my aunt, but she was busy learning how to die." Beautiful.

This is a unique book from the greatest writer of science fiction and fantasy. Only about a quarter of the book is a traditional novel. The rest is stories, poems, songs, and "non-fiction" about the fictional parallel version of California. Le Guin has gone as far as creating at two new languages and earlier versions of the book contained music, songs and poems read by the author. It is different to anything else I have read and the difference is what will appeal to or frustrate readers. I recommend it to anyone who wants to try something that will be different to anything else you've ever read.

Le Guin's writing is always deeply enjoyable, and this was no exception. While I would agree with others who say that this would not be the book to begin with for someone new to her writing, this one does show the depth she is capable of reaching in her worldbuilding.My only complaint is with this book itself, not with the writing: it has a comfortable weight and size, but the printing seems poor to me; there is a distracting stippling across the pages and text that make it look like a photocopy rather than a professionally printed book. The Library of America edition would probably be a better choice to purchase.

We meet and learn about the Kesh. We actually learn to love the Kesh, but the getting to know them takes quite a while and needs some effort. Ursula said herself "The book is a mess, but I can't think how to fix that", and she is right, beautiful but it needs tidying up!. It will haunt your thoughts however for quite a while afterwards. reccommended.

It is a beautiful book. Cover art is near to the original. Well bound. Nicely reissued with the art and the "back of the book." This is a copy I will share with fellow readers.

This book is a marvelous collection of "an anthropology of the future." LeGuin excavates stories, songs, beliefs, myths, traditions, and more of the people who "will be might have been" someday living in what is now Northern California. At once Utopian and Dystopian, the culture that LeGuin shares with us is beautiful and complex.I read this book when it was first published in paperback in the mid-80's. It planted and nurtured in me a seed of hope that humans are capable of someday living in community in different ways than we do now. It opened in my imagination doors that I had never before noticed. Here is an example of a new narrative structure, or anti-structure. Here, too, is an example of a new-old social structure, a post-modern tribalism that has returned to "traditional" values such as living in harmony with oneself and one's environment, and recognizing the strength and beauty in ritual and tradition.Though others (including she) may disagree, I personally have always considered this work Mrs. LeGuin's crowning achievement. As Tolkien did in his Middle Earth stories, LeGuin in "Always Coming Home" creates a new-old world that is unfamiliar yet recognizable, someplace we want to go back to again and again. We are lucky indeed that this book is now back in print!

Used, in fair condition. This gets a negative review because the fine print"used" was hidden away from the main description. Not happy as would not have bought if noticed.

Every so often one comes across a book that is totally original. This is one.We all know about digging up the past; how about digging up the future! Not only does LeGuin tell stories about people living in a post holocaust future, she lays out all the artifacts and cultural items that archeologists and anthropologists might find.Māori of New Zealand talk about looking forward into the past and the future, which we cannot know, being behind us. Le Guin begins her book with a similar statement. I won't say that this book is an easy read because it isn't, but it is well worth the effort needed to understand the full story. It is also one of those satisfying books that one can read again and find new treasures.

I had a British Grafton 'trade paperback' copy which had lasted over-a-decade. After Ursula passed-away I re-read Always Coming Home and realised my copy wasn't going to last many more re-reads, and I'd read it three times already. So I looked for the University of California Press edition, and found one at a reasonable price.With LeGuin's passing, Always Coming Home is, from my perspective, her greatest work; an intense and original novel which gives us a both detailed-and-lyrical vision of a society which never was, but which is one many would like to aspire-to. The illustrations which accompany the book are superb (I've not managed to secure an edition with the original-music CD) but the writing. Oh, the writing. LeGuin hit a rich vein with the subject matter and her writing and accompanying poetry are simply sublime.It probably isn't for everyone. It's certainly not 'hard' science fiction, it's not a fantasy. LeGuin seemed have invented a new genre - an anthropological novel. Except no-one else has been capable of following her lead.Just a wonderful book.

This is an incredible book. I'm awestruck at the imagination and thought in itself, let alone the quality of the writing itself. It's obvious to anyone who has read this that Ursula Le Guin was heavily influenced by the life, works and writings of her parents - Alfred and Theodora Kroeber. In fairness to some of the less favourable reviews this isn't an easy read: it goes back and forth and works in some ways more like an anthropological record than a coherent, linear story. It's not `fantasy' in anything remotely like a `standard format'. It's taken me several months to read, I put it down, then pick it up, but it's sort of made to work well that way. If you are genuinely interested in reading something very different then this should not disappoint.

Another masterwork from Le Guin, staggeringly detailed and alluring, you forget that this is basically SF, NOT history! Nicely presented, too.

Half way through and don't want it to end. This really is a masterwork.

great book, thank you