Malibu Diary: Notes From An Urban Refugee (Environmental Arts and Humanities Series) - Hardcover

Penelope B. Grenoble

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0874175666 ISBN 13: 9780874175660

Publisher: University of Nevada Press, 2004

Synopsis

In her attempt to escape city life, a journalist confronts the natural and political forces that shape the California landscape.

In 1986, Penelope O’Malley moved to Malibu, at that time a small community of oddballs and cantankerous isolationists, hoping to find peaceful exile from Los Angeles and a life that had become too frantic and confused. She knew little then of the landscape that she hoped would inspire her—who owned it, what manner of flora and fauna it might support—and she wasn’t much interested. Nor did she give much thought to the people who would become her neighbors. As it turned out, her life on this urban-wildland frontier was very different from what she had planned.

Malibu Diary is O’Malley’s account of her years as a resident of this beautiful, beleaguered Southern California coastal community. Here, a landscape of rare and breathtaking beauty conceals geological and climatic treachery, and human presence endangers a rich but fragile ecosystem. Far from isolating herself from the ills of contemporary urban life, O’Malley found herself deeply engaged in a community where realtors lusted after the magnificent hills and beachfront, Native Americans fought to protect the artifacts of their ancestors, and locals, no matter how resistant to development, were forced to address such pressing urban issues as zoning and sewage treatment. Malibu’s decision to incorporate introduced politics into the quiet village, and horrendous fires and floods caused destruction to property and the natural environment.

Malibu Diary combines environmental history, personal memoir, and a lengthy meditation on the complicated relationships between humans and the landscapes they destroy by loving them too much. It is also the story of a colorful community and the diverse people who have chosen to live there; of how change has happened--and why-- and what it has meant. And it is, ultimately, the story of many communities where people try to resist development, "assuming little responsibility to ameliorate the effects of our having settled here." As such, O’Malley sees Malibu as a warning beacon for any beautiful place where settlement is constantly at odds with the natural environment; where a lifestyle, however alluring, is made precarious by the very natural forces that create its charm. Malibu Diary is a powerful and provocative exploration of the tenuous interface between the urban and wild worlds, and of the nature of community in an increasingly profit-oriented society.

About this title

About the Author

As a magazine and newspaper journalist, Penelope Grenoble O’Malley has covered Los Angeles for twenty-five years and is the recipient of three Los Angeles Press Club Awards. She is the former director of communications for the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy and research associate at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Currently, she writes for consumer and professional publications, specializing in the topics of urban planning, land use, conservation, and civic management. Her essays have been published in Orion, Northern Lights, and American Nature Writing 2002 and 2003.

Reviews

In the mid-1980s, journalist O'Malley (along with plenty of other Los Angelinos) got tired of the big city and struck out for someplace a little less cluttered. She settled in Malibu, 40 minutes away from L.A., and, to put it bluntly, it was a big disappointment. Oh, it looked like it might be heaven: a mere 10,000 residents strung out along 27 miles of coastline, with mountains on one side and the Pacific on the other. The problem, however, is that Malibu lies directly between the approaching sprawl of Los Angeles and the undeveloped wildlands of California. It's a town pulled from two sides, in two entirely different social, political, and philosophical directions. To protect themselves from the encroaching big city, the residents of Malibu sacrificed the very thing they professed to love--nature. Living closer to nature, the author soon discovered, meant destroying it in the name of self-preservation. The book is a chronicle of environmental travesties, political machinations, and, on the part of the author, self-discovery. Not an especially happy book, but certainly an eye-opener. David Pitt
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Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nevada Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0874175666
• ISBN 13: 9780874175660
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200