The Bohemians: A Novel

This historical novel (352 pages) was published in April of 2021 by Ballantine Books. The book takes you to Jazz Age San Francisco. Melissa read The Bohemians and loved it; it wouldn't be on our site if she didn't recommend it.

amazon
buy
bookshop.org
buy

Bookshop.org is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support independent bookstores and give back to the book community.

rule

The Bohemians

A Novel

Jasmin Darznik

Exhilarating and wistful, this novel — based on the life of legendary photographer Dorothea Lange — is both her coming-of-age story and the story of San Francisco’s turbulent, triumphant Jazz Age.

In real life, Dorothea Lange was an American photographer and photojournalist. She’s best known for her portraits of displaced farmers in the American midwest during the Great Depression. Her ability to humanize the consequences of the Great Depression is credited with changing the field of documentary photography.

When we meet Dorothea in the novel, it’s 1918. She’s 23 years old, sporting freshly-bobbed hair, and has just arrived in San Francisco after several travel-related mishaps that would have sent a more timid woman back home to her mother.

Fate rewards her bravery with a chance encounter on a cable car where she meets and is befriended by Caroline Lee. Half-Chinese and entirely self-possessed, Caroline is equally optimistic and realistic about her place in San Francisco’s social hierarchy. She’s a clothing designer with a sharp eye for style and opportunity. When she introduces Dorothea to the artists’ enclave known as Monkey Block, both of their lives change forever.

Eventually, the two women open the first female-owned portrait studio in the country, and it’s the place where Dorothea’s transformation from girl-with-good-intentions to powerhouse artist begins. It’s also the site of the friends’ greatest personal tragedy.

As we follow Dorothea and Caroline on their adventures and misadventures among the bohemians, we meet other iconic artists of the time: Frida Kahlo, Ansel Adams, D.H. Lawrence, Maynard Dixon, Donaldina Cameron. And we explore the fabled neighborhoods of the glittering, gritty City by Bay, from the top of Telegraph Hill to Fisherman’s Wharf, Barbary Coast to Chinatown.

Author Jasmin Darznik’s evocative prose also takes us inside the immigrant experience in San Francisco, examining the opportunities presented by the city’s liberality — too often accompanied by violent racism, classism, and sexism.

But this novel is ultimately a celebration: of friendship, artistic vision, and trailblazing women — the inspiring story of how Dorothea Lange overcame everyday and extraordinary challenges to become the artist she was meant to be.

When I first arrived in May of 1918, the city belonged to the bohemians, which is to say to the artists, poets, and writers—and the vast, varied company they attracted. You saw them everywhere, but the cafés, bakeries, restaurants, and pubs of North Beach, the small Italian village on Telegraph Hill, were bursting with them. They’d all come from somewhere else, and they all had a story to tell. That was another thing about San Francisco: Every time you met someone, it was like stepping into a story just as they were making it up. And now I was one of them. — Jasmin Darznik

keep reading

Dorothea Lange's iconic images of displaced farmers during the Great Depression are seared into our collective consciousness. This vivid coming-of-age novel tells her inspiring origin story in 1920s San Francisco.

sharing is caring!

Wanna help us spread the word? If you like this page, please share with your friends.

our mission

Strong Sense of Place is a website and podcast dedicated to literary travel and books we love. Reading good books increases empathy. Empathy is good for all of us and the amazing world we inhabit.

our patreon

Strong Sense of Place is a listener-supported podcast. If you like the work we do, you can help make it happen by joining our Patreon! That'll unlock bonus content for you, too — including Mel's secret book reviews and Dave's behind-the-scenes notes for the latest Two Truths and a Lie.

get our newsletter

Join our Substack to get our FREE newsletter with podcast updates and behind-the-scenes info — and join in fun chats about books and travel with other lovely readers.

no spoilers. ever.

We'll share enough detail to help you decide if a book is for you, but we'll never ruin plot twists or give away the ending.

super-cool reading fun
reading atlas

This 30-page Reading Atlas takes you around the world with dozens of excellent books and gorgeous travel photos. Get your free copy when you subscribe to our newsletter.

get our newsletter
Sign up for our free Substack!
follow us

Content on this site is ©2024 by Smudge Publishing, unless otherwise noted. Peace be with you, person who reads the small type.