Translating LA

LA is currently our most maligned city. Perceived as a swarming mixture of greed, glitz, riots, earthquakes, and paper-thin illusions, the city has become a focus for all our national ills. This is not new. For two centuries critics have sharpened their claws on this flawed paradise, and we are still fascinated by its glamour and its darker sides, to say nothing of the nightmarish earthquakes - vividly described here - that ushered LA into 1994 with a brutal jolt. Peter Theroux introduces us to the physical side of LA, taking in the prehistoric La Brea Tar Pits, once the haunt of mastodons…