Mona Simpson - 1957
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San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California
I. Biography
Mona Simpson was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin on June 14, 1957. She later attended Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California. Her B.A. was attained from the University of California, Berkeley in 1979 and her M.F.A. from Columbia University in 1983. After studying writing in a Master of Fine Arts program, Simpson taught at both NYU and Columbia. She and her husband and child currently live in California. Aside from her career as a writer and mother, Simpson also teaches undergraduate English at Bard College during the fall. For her three wonderful novels she has reached bestseller status and was awarded with the Whiting Prize. She was also named one of Granta's 20 Best American Writers Under 40.
II. Literary Works
Anywhere but Here is a moving novel about the intricate relations between a mother and daughter. After her husband leaves her, Adele August, the mother, moves from Bay City, Wisconsin, to Beverly Hills, California in hopes that her daughter, Ann, will become a child star. Once in Beverly Hills, however, Adele and Ann find L.A. life harder than they had imagined. Forced to work menial jobs, Adele soon comforts herself with imagined love affairs and takes to spending money she doesn't have. Ann is forced to deal with her mother's irrational behavior and violent tantrums, causing their relationship to grow farther and farther apart. By the novel's end, Ann has established her identity while away at college, and Adele has managed to create a picture perfect life for herself, or at least on the surface.
The Lost Father is a continuation of Simpson's first novel and includes many of the same characters. Mayan, the daughter known before as Ann, is now living in New York City as a medical student. Her existence is inextricably jumbled when she becomes obsessed with finding her father, who abandoned the family when she was a young girl. Her savings go down the drain when she hires a sleazy detective who never gets her any closer to finding her father. Mayan's studies, friendships, and health soon deteriorates as her search spans the globe from Egypt to Wisconsin.
A Regular Guy introduces Jane, who was brought up in a commune by her flaky mother, Mary. But it is Jane's father, Tom Owens, who is the principal character in the novel. Tom is a college dropout who abandons Mary after making her pregnant. He goes on to create a small fortune for himself when he launches Genesis, an extremely successful biotech company. Trapped with his own material concerns, Tom's life is forever changed by Jane's arrival on his doorstep and the family that proceeds to form after her arrival.
III. Los Angeles, California and Mona Simpson
Simpson's first two novels deal with her similar life story of growing up in both Wisconsin and Southern California. The following are places that were mentioned in her novels and that are located in Los Angeles, California:
The Bel Air Hotel: Simpson describes the lavish drive winding through the woods that lead to the hotel. Both sides of the drive are lined with flaring torches and are met by a valet who graciously opens your door for you. The outdoor courtyard within the hotel is sprinkled with patrons from a small café. They sit on white chairs and sip evening drinks while watching the late swimmers in the luxurious pool. This hotel is famous for serving millionaires and movie stars, who come here because of the luxurious pampering they receive.
Lasky Drive: Adele and Ann move to a smaller hotel on Lasky Drive, a quiet street south of Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. While living here, they frequently dine at the Hamburger Hamlet in Westwood. Along with the streets mentioned in Simpson's book, the Hamburger Hamlet is also a non-fictional establishment, although the one described here has since been removed. Lasky Drive is part of the working-class division of Beverly Hills, marring the illusion that the entire zipcode of 90210 is covered only with mansions and snotty rich kids.
The Los Angeles Public School District/Watts: Adele is a special education teacher for a brief time in this district. She is sent into Watts to work and is horrified to find the school is surrounded by barbed wire. This section of Los Angeles witnesses the start of the 1965 riots and also the start of the famous Los Angeles gangs.
Christmas in Beverly Hills: Simpson talks of the lavish decorations on the street lamps of Beverly Hills, right alongside the green lawns and palm trees and the tennis courts filled with rich people in shorts. This neighborhood is the epitome of Los Angeles living. It allows the rich to live in beautiful mansions, a short drive in either direction from snow-capped mountains or crashing waves.
Rodeo Drive: Ann and Adele go shopping on Rodeo Drive. The dressing room is so big that the two of them could live in it. Ann's mom sinks into the love seat and cries. She lifts up the ticket of a suit she is trying on and shows Ann that it costs seventeen hundred dollars. This ritzy strip of high-priced stores and boutiques allows the rich a place to shop and the poor a place to dream as they both walk the palm-lined streets of Rodeo Drive.
Where Sunset meets Pacific Coast Highway: At this point you suddenly hit the beach. Ann and Adele take an early morning drive and end up walking along the beach here. They watch the gray sand turn yellow with the growing light and the black body suits of the surfers bob in and out of the choppy whitecaps. This area is known as Palisades and, despite its beauty, is quite famous for landslides.
IV. Literary Works
Anywhere but Here (December 1987)
The Lost Father (January 1993)
A Regular Guy (September 1997)
V. Sources
Simpson, Mona. Anywhere but Here. Random House, Incorporated, 1987
"Articles on Mona Simpson"
This essay was submitted by a student of Grant Farley, a teacher at San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California.