Big Dreams: Into the Heart of California

The land of opportunity, a golden Eden, the last frontier. What is this place that has given rise to countless metaphors but can still quicken the imagination? For Bill Barich, the question became a quest when he realized that home was no longer New York, where he had grown up, but California, to which he had been lured twenty years earlier. Now, in this account of his journey through California, he captures the true nature of the state behind the stereotypes. From the fogbound fishing towns of the North to the Mexican port of entry at San Ysidro, Barich describes an amazing diversity among people who have staked a claim to Californias promise. He introduces us to a Native American hairdresser and the head priest of a Sikh temple we meet loggers, bikers, an aging lifeguard, and the prison warden whose job is to keep Charles Manson behind bars.