Arroyo, Chip Jacobs
Arroyo, Chip Jacobs
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Arroyo

Author: Chip Jacobs

Narrator: Joel Richards

Unabridged: 14 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/15/2019

Synopsis

Set against two distinct epochs in the history of Pasadena, California, Arroyo tells the parallel stories of a young man and his dog in 1913 and 1993. In both lives, they are drawn to the landmark Colorado Street Bridge, or "Suicide Bridge," as the locals call it, which suffered a lethal collapse during construction but still opened to fanfare in the early twentieth century automobile age. When the refurbished structure commemorates its eightieth birthday, one of the planet's best known small towns is virtually unrecognizable from its romanticized, and somewhat invented, past.

Wrought with warmth and wit, Jacobs's debut novel digs into Pasadena's most infamous structure and the city itself. In their journey to discover the source of the bridge's macabre alter ego, Nick Chance and his impish mutt interact with some of the big personalities from the Progressive Age, including Teddy Roosevelt, Upton Sinclair, Charles Fletcher Lummis, and Lilly and Adolphus Busch. They cavort and often sow chaos at Cawston Ostrich Farm, the Mount Lowe Railway, the Hotel Green, and even the Doo Dah Parade.

While digging up the truth about the Colorado Street Bridge, in all its eye-catching grandeur and unavoidable darkness, the characters of Arroyo paint a vivid picture of how the home of the Rose Bowl got its dramatic start.

About Chip Jacobs

Chip Jacobs is an award-winning author and journalist. His novel Arroyo, about Pasadena, California's mysterious Colorado Street Bridge, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller and a CrimeReads most anticipated book of 2019. His other books include Strange As It Seems: The Impossible Life of Gordon Zahler and the bestselling Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution and its sequel about China, The People's Republic of Chemicals, the latter two with William J. Kelly. His writing and subjects have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily News, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Marketplace, Slate, C-SPAN, Los Angeles Weekly, CNN, and elsewhere. Jacobs, a graduate of the University of Southern California, is at work on his follow-up novel, and several non-fiction projects.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader

Arroyo is such an engaging and interesting story. There are two parallel stories about an inventor and his soothsayer dog. The timelines are 1913 and 1993. At the center of both stories is the “Suicide Bridge,” also known as the Colorado Street Bridge. This bridge has a history and a story to tell o......more

Goodreads review by OutlawPoet

It should be noted that I live in Pasadena. Each morning I pass by the entrance to Devil's Gate. Each evening, I traverse Suicide Bridge. I buy my books at Vroman's. As a result, some of my opinion may be colored by my delight in taking a little journey in time to my city as it was. People familiar w......more

Goodreads review by Mary Jackson

This was a fasanating read. I learned from it. the dialog was hard to follow at times, but that may have been not understanding the language at times. I would say that this is a 3.5 star book. Give it a try and see what you think about it. The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for rev......more

Goodreads review by Nursebookie

I was intrigued by this book and the story surrounding the famous and beautiful Pasadena, California “Colorado Street Bridge” also known by the locals as the “Suicide Bridge” where many lives were lost. As a long-time resident of Southern California and living only a few blocks from the bridge where......more

Goodreads review by Clare

The Colorado Street Bridge and Pasadena are carefully recreated in a story about history, ostrich farms, the invention of solar powered lights, dogs, the impecunious hero and more. Nothing happens in a great rush, and a bridge doesn't get built in a hurry either, so quite a lot of the book details p......more

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