Wealth and power, Revoyr confirms in this taut, commanding, and delectable novel, are not shields against folly, crime, or sorrow.” - Booklist (starred review) Shrewdly delineated scenes, loaded conversations, and a delirious surge of desire caustically expose toxic ruling-class legacy of prejudice and entitlement, while stoking questions of privilege, trust, and betrayal. What people are saying about “A Student of History”: The March 7 and 12 events will also celebrate the reissue of her book “The Necessary Hunger.” March 27, reception at 6 p.m., reading at 6:45 p.m., at Santa Monica College’s Literary Series, 1900 Pico Blvd., Santa MonicaĪpril 13, Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, USC at Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 Tenth Ave., Seattle City Lights, 261 Columbus Ave., San Francisco Revoyr is the author of five previous novels, including “The Age of Dreaming,” which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize “Southland,” a Los Angeles Times best-seller and “Best Book” of 2003 and “Wingshooters,” which won an Indie Booksellers Choice Award and was selected by O, The Oprah Magazine as one of “10 Titles to Pick Up Now.” Revoyr lives and works in Los Angeles. Like “Great Expectations” and “The Great Gatsby,” it features, in Rick Nagano, a young man of modest means who is navigating a world where he doesn’t belong. It offers a window into the usually hidden world of high society, and the influence of historic families on current events. “A Student of History” explores both the beginnings of Los Angeles and the present-day dynamics of race and class. Irresistibly drawn to Fiona, he agrees to help her with a project of questionable merit in the hopes he’ll win her favor.
One evening, at an event, he meets Fiona Morgan - the elegant scion of an old steel family - who takes an interest in his studies. W- to venues frequented by the descendants of the land and oil barons who built the city. W-’s grand Bel Air mansion and begins to transcribe her journals - which document an old Los Angeles not described in his history books. Putting aside his half-finished dissertation, Rick sets up office in Mrs. W-, he gets drawn into a world of privilege and wealth far different from his racially mixed, blue-collar beginnings. But as he grows closer to the iconoclastic, charming, and feisty Mrs. W-, the heir to an oil fortune, he sees it at first simply as a source of extra cash. When he lands a job as a research assistant for the elderly Mrs. Rick Nagano is a graduate student in the history department at USC, struggling to make rent on his South Los Angeles apartment near the neighborhood where his family once lived.
“A Student of History” by Nina Revoyr will be released by Akashic Books on March 5.Ī contemporary Los Angeles story of uncrossable social lines, allegiance and betrayal, immeasurable power, and the ways the present is continuously shaped by the past.
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