novels

\”Frantic Transmissions to and From Los Angeles: An Accidental Memoir,\” by Kate Braverman (Graywolf, $15).

\”Did I say that my work has been translated into Turkish? Apparently, it will be read in Istanbul, but not in Los Angeles.\”

Yes, Kate Braverman did say that in a telephone conversation from her new home in San Francisco. On more than one occasion, in fact, she mentioned this, digressing, ranting, in as polite a rant as possible, that she is merely \”referenced\” in Los Angeles, where she grew up and lived much of her adult life. The references have even taken on a funereal character.

Despite apparently being characterized by the Los Angeles Times a year or so ago as \”the late, legendary Kate Braverman,\” despite coincidentally bearing the same last name as the deceased character in Sidney Lumet\’s film, \”Bye Bye, Braverman,\” Kate Braverman, 55, author of the underground classic, \”Lithium for Medea,\” three other novels, countless anthologized short stories and now a new \”accidental memoir\” titled, \”Frantic Transmissions to and from Los Angeles,\” is anything but dead. \”Frantic Transmissions\” has just been published by Graywolf Press, a small, literary press in Minnesota, which awarded her its first-ever nonfiction prize for this latest effort.