The
suburban memoir holy land written by
D.J. Waldie outlines the history of the developing of one of California’s first
suburban areas. Interestingly, this memoir does not follow the typical
structure and content of a memoir, which usually resembles a biography. In
Contrast, holy land discusses the
historical accounts of the town’s development through use of facts, the life
stories of people and some personal retellings of the author’s childhood. The
memoir focuses on the founding of the Long Beach, Lakewood area and its
beginnings as well as Waldie’s observations made while working and walking home
from city hall. The purpose of holy land is
to give the audience a new perspective and insight on the suburban areas they
call home and the influence that our desire for a utopian society has on the
development of our cities and character.
In the text Waldie addresses how the
Lakewood, Long Beach area was planned with a precision to effectively house specific
groups of people and was designed for the highest economic and financial gain. Not
only were decisions made without regards to stability and efficiency but were
made based on the image that the society was trying to uphold. In the 1950s,
many young couples sought out for the perfect house and “tried to match the
skeleton of Douglas fir to the watercolor rending of the model in the sales
process with its printer’s process blue sky and spindly eucalyptus tree” (37). These
houses were built to please the customer and without fail, many new buyers made
purchases. The construction of the houses however was questionable because of
the desire for quantity over quality. This perception of quality was to be
found in the appearance of the city and was depicted through Waldie’s
discussion about the placement of recreational and natural beauty. 
With the cities so focused on the
amount of houses they could fit per acre, when discussing recreational matters,
“the city built a park under the power lines, since no house can be built under
the wires”(52). The sad truth of this statement is that there was no actual discussion
in regards to parks but the convenience of the space made the development of a
park economically beneficial. The mindset of the city planners, from Waldie’s
observations, are that on the surface the places we consider home are
superficial yet the interworking’s of the city lacks stability in the sense of
morals compared to individual profit.
In holy land D.J. Waldie addresses many concepts and causes the reader
to assess the text written and look into the meanings behind the information
being presented. On a surface level Waldie presents the reader with facts about
the developing of his suburban hometown but on a deeper level he addresses the
mindset of the people who were behind the scenes. By writing the book as a memoir he was able
to give the reader a chance to really analyze the text written and develop
opinions on his or her own.
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