This 1901 novel by Frank Norris feels quite squarely with a foot in both the 19th and 20th centuries, and of course in publication in 1901 suggests that it quite literally does. The book is subtitled “A Story of California”, so it has the trappings of California novels — references to the old Spanish inhabitants, a blending of American and Mexcian people, culture, food, a reverence for the land, wine, and a struggle between the greatest potential of lived experience and the truly harrowing exploitation […]