Pentimento

"the long embrace" a book by Judith Freeman is about Raymond Chandler, but really about a lost los angeles.
the los angeles of raymond chandler remains as a pentimento only, a trace of the past where it has not been obliterated by change. the author revisits every one of the approximately 30 addresses at which chandler lived in the l.a. area. in the 1920s he lived on Bonnie Brae, just east of downtown, I lived their in 1969. the beauty of the old building shone thru its tawdry present condition, its pink tiled "dressing room" with vanity overlooking a view of downtown. the blackened with grime green carpet with the barely discernible giant maroon dahlia pattern spoke of more genteel times.
He moved westward toward the Miracle Mile in the '20s and so did i in the late 60s. He lived on Gramercy Place, I lived on Catalina, near Vermont ave. this time I lived in an early 50s box style building with no charm and long green, somewhat sticky, chartreuse shag carpet. the walls were lacquered in the yellow cooking grease that adorned most surfaces of apts in my price range.
that part of los angeles, the area near downtown, including silverlake, holds the imprimatura of old los angeles, at least it did then, in the early 70s.