Out of Town Experience: Victoria Patterson at Skylight Books

If I was in town this is where I would be:

Victoria Patterson reads from her debut collection Drift at Skylight Books on Sunday July 12 at 5 PM.

Drift is set in and around Orange County's coastal communities of Newport Beach, Corona del Mar and Costa Mesa. Through these linked stories, Patterson does what I have been waiting for someone to do - get under the often impenetrable surface of OC's privilege and material accomplishment and explore the trade-offs, the sacrifices, the tolls that are taken - and show the lives of those that are often unseen.

Michelle Hunevan writes:

“Victoria Patterson’s Newport Beach is a privileged world of wealth and heedless consumption that trails a wake of human damage. By giving us nuanced portraits of the sidelined, she somehow evokes the complex, glittering whole. Patterson is our generation's heir to John O'Hara and Edith Wharton. And nobody else writes about female sexuality with such sensitivity and fearlessness. Several times I had to put this book down just to catch my breath."

Independently owned and operated Skylight Books is located on 1818 N. Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles. telephone (323) 660-1175

Next month, Patterson will be reading in OC at Alta Coffee at 506 31st St. in Newport on Thursday August 13 at 7 PM. This event is co-sponsored by Lido Village Books.

Years ago I was fortunate to read a couple stories that make up Drift and have been waiting for her to finish. If you can't go to the reading, do the next best thing - buy the book. She'll take you there.