FICTION

THE HOLLY AND THE FLEECE by Lawrence Clark Powell. (Capra Press: $20; 125 pp.) At last! A novel set in the Santa Monica mountains, in which a character’s fears and longings are intimately woven with the future of a landscape he loves. And Lawrence Clark Powell is one of the literary figures who has written about the Southwest and Southern California for decades. He wrote this autobiographical novel in his 40s, waiting 50 years to publish it. It is the story of an academic who falls in love with his wife’s best friend and neighbor in one of the canyons in the Santa Monica Mountains. He conceals his desire for her for five years, and indeed, it is this restraint that most resembles the parched, patient fertility of the canyons. The object of his affections is married to an ex-ball player-turned-developer, who systematically rips the eucalyptus trees and the toyon and the open space from the landscape. An affecting story all around.