The End of the Golden Gate: Writers on Loving and (Sometimes) Leaving San Francisco

Understandably, where I am there is a long library queue for this book so when it was ready for pick up I had to borrow it or wait a very long time to read it. I was probably more in the mood for a novel or a non-fiction book with a single long narrative. I love biographical essays but I think I was not in the mood for them at the time I was reading this book.

There are many contributors. Some of the pieces are great and some I was tempted to skim and some are good or good enough. Most I’m glad that I read.

What the whole of the collection did was confirm to me what I already knew but maybe more so: that San Francisco has changed and that I haven’t changed with it.

I did feel represented in some of these accounts. Most of them I did show more not. Of course, San Francisco has ALWAYS been many San Franciscos/multifaceted. Most of the contributors are not San Francisco natives and many were not residents of San Francisco for that long, relatively speaking. I would have appreciated even more lifelong or at least decades long San Franciscans being included.

It was enjoyable to read about others’ experiences.

What I did love about this book is that while with most of the essays I caught only glimpses of “my San Francisco” the essays got me thinking about how in my nearly seven decades relationship with the city I’ve also known and experienced many versions of San Francisco.

I did particularly appreciate the essays written by Stuart Schuffman, Duffy Jennings, Grant Faulkner, Gary Kamiya, and especially loved the one by Peter Coyote, and the one by Elizabeth Khuri Chandler because even though she doesn’t talk much about experiencing the city she does talk a lot about Goodreads and that essay happened to be the most effective at getting my understanding about what happened at Goodreads from its inception and especially the reasons for what happened in 2013 and then what also happened six years after that. I should also mention the essays by Ginna Green, Alia Volz, and Larry Smith (husband of Piper Kerman.)

Overall, I was left feeling more than a bit melancholy and not feeling the sense of belonging I’d hoped I’d feel, yet I still want all my San Francisco/San Francisco Bay Area friends and all my friends who’ve left the area to read this book. It’s interesting and thought provoking and worth reading. Highly recommended for readers interested in past and present San Francisco! show less