LOST CANYON A Novel
In Nina Revoyr’s novel “Lost Canyon,” three Angelenos join their mutual physical trainer for a backpacking trip through the Sierra Nevada mountains, expecting (and privately fearing) to be pushed past their self-perceived limits. With hiking poles and bear spray, they’ve prepared for uncertain slopes and wildlife, but not for the least predictable of dangerous animals—man.
Gwen, an AfricanAmerican youth counselor in Watts, is worn down from the daily struggle, including the suicide of a teen she helped. Oscar, a Latino real estate agent, mulls a career switch that could mean more stable income but less status. Todd, a white corporate attorney, feels trapped by his work and social obligations. Revoyr rotates through their points of view as they prepare for and commence the hike with Tracy, their buff and singularly intense guide. Being partly of Japanese ancestry, Tracy fills out this microcosm of Los Angeles’ diversity.
Initially, each character eyes the others a bit skeptically, sometimes through racial and ethnic lenses. They don’t know what they don’t know about each other. But being decent human beings, they revise early judgments as they see Gwen’s skill with first aid, for example.
At the ranger station, the quartet learns the planned trail has been closed for
fire safety reasons. Suggesting other options, the ranger mentions “a real off-the-beaten-path kind of trail” with gorgeous alpine lakes.
“And what I believe is the prettiest canyon in the whole Sierra … The thing is, no one’s hiked the trail in years. It’s not even marked on this map.”
Apparently these four have not watched enough horror movies. Of course they take the trail less traveled, which leads to spectacular views and encounters, like this one: “Suddenly Gwen heard a whooshing sound and locked eyes with a fish, level with her in midair, ten feet away. It was caught in the talons of a huge rust-winged hawk, whose right foot was clamped around the fish below its head, the left above its tail, the bird’s wings beating the air as it moved quickly skyward.”
Unfortunately, this trail also leads to some bad people, who have a strong interest in keeping it less traveled, which leads to a dangerous pursuit through the mountains.
Revoyr’s earlier novels include “Wingshooters” (2011), a coming-of-age story set amid racial conflict, and “Southland” (2003), widely viewed as one of the essential contemporary novels about Los Angeles.
Her love for and detailed knowledge of the natural beauty of the canyons and mountains shines through “Lost Canyon”: the flowers, scents and vistas that Gwen, Oscar and Todd encounter bring moments of healing each had hoped to experience on this trip. In depicting the backpackers working together for survival, Revoyr may also be dramatizing the idea that focusing together on shared dangers is one way to break out of straitjackets of racial and ethnic assumptions.