Ear to the Ground: A Novel

by Paul Kolsby, David L. Ulin

Overview

Seismologist Charlie Richter, grandson of the inventor of the Richter scale, knows earthquakes, and has a method for predicting them. Arriving in Los Angeles to begin work at the Center for Earthquake Studies, a mysterious agency that seems more Hollywood than science, Charlie settles into his new life. His only distraction from work is Grace, an assistant to a powerful producer, and her deadbeat scriptwriter boyfriend Ian.

It's only a matter of time before Charlie sees the "Big One" looming on the horizon. When Charlie alerts his boss at the Center, he is the one that's in for a shock: this is exactly what the Center was hoping for.

With the news leaked, everyone's suddenly looking to produce the next disaster blockbuster. One of the few scripts Ian actually wrote, Ear to the Ground, happens to be about an earthquake disaster, and soon it's plucked from obscurity and given the fast track. But with a little bit of luck, Charlie may just foil everybody's plans. He just needs explosives, a helicopter, a little more time.

By award-winning writer and Los Angeles Times book critic David Ulin, Ear to the Ground is a rollicking visit back to the 1990s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781939419736
Publisher:	The Unnamed Press
Publication date:	04/12/2016
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

David L. Ulin is the former book critic of the Los Angeles Times. A 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, he is the author or editor of nine books, including Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, the novella Labyrinth, The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time, and the Library of America’s Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award. He lives in Los Angeles.

Paul Kolsbyhas written for The Los Angeles Times, Details, Bikini, and the former Los Angeles Reader—where Ear to the Ground was first published serially. He wrote the films “City Unplugged” and “Spread” and works currently on the television series “Masters of Sex.” Formerly on the faculties at U.C.L.A. and N.Y.U., he lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Editorial Reviews

"The story of earthquake scientist Charlie Richter and the Hollywood players who want to maximize his earthquake predictions — including his attractive neighbor, Grace — is part satire, part screwball comedy and part social novel." —Carolyn Kellogg, The Los Angeles Times "A relevant social novel in the vein of other classic Hollywood novels. Ultimately, Ear to the Ground earns its place somewhere on the shelf alongside James M. Cain and Elmore Leonard." —Scott Laughlin, Los Angeles Review of Books

One of The Millions' Most Anticipated Books of 2016

"A fast, high-spirited sendup." —Kirkus Reviews

One of the Chicago Review of Books Best Books from Independent Presses in April

"Earthquake paranoia and blockbuster fever combine to animate this wry evocation of '90s era Los Angeles. Ear to the Ground rumbles and shakes at the intersection of science, commerce, and art. Ulin and Kolsby's collaboration manages to be equal parts antic, bleak and, finally, strangely optimistic." —Seth Greenland, author of I Regret Everything

From the Publisher

2016-02-29
Hollywood cashes in on the prediction of a catastrophic earthquake in this comic novel by LA insiders Ulin (Sidewalking, 2015, etc.) and Kolsby (a film and TV writer). Charlie Richter's grandfather was the guy who invented the Richter scale, and Charlie has followed in his footsteps. He works for an outfit called the Center for Earthquake Studies, whose multimillion-dollar budget is partially funded by the entertainment industry. "If the Big One hits L.A.," muses an inside source, "the studios will be in on the ground floor." This proves prophetic when Charlie's boss leaks his prediction of a massive quake. While the terrified people of Los Angeles make plans to flee, Hollywood movers and shakers hatch plans for a big-budget earthquake movie. This is great luck for struggling screenwriter Ian Marcus, whose dead-in-the-water screenplay, Ear to the Ground, explores this exact scenario: the turmoil created in LA when a catastrophic earthquake prediction goes public. Retrieved from the slush pile by his girlfriend, studio flunky Grace Gonglewski, Ian's script is sold for $1 million. While Ian heads out to live the life, Grace gets to know her oddball neighbor, who happens to be seismologist Charlie Richter—the one person focused not on profiting from the disaster but preventing it. Will his plan work? Will the movie be completed in time? Will Los Angeles fall into the sea? According to one character, "In the closing chapter of the second millennium, the smart money was squarely on doom," but don't give up yet. The book's 39 short chapters originally appeared in the Los Angeles Reader as a serial in 1995 and '96, and period details abound. The death of Jerry Garcia, for example, is mourned by several characters, including both Charlie and the president of the United States. A fast, high-spirited sendup.

Kirkus Reviews