Reckless in l.a.

Essay abaout Dagoberto Gibb's Love in L.A.


Dagoberto Gibb sets his short story “Love in L.A.” in Los Angeles, California. Gibb drives his audience very far and away from the love story that weexpect to find as we read the title. He could be suggesting that there are many persons in Los Angeles living a vain life in which they only care for themselves without assuming responsibility fortheir wrong actions. It is a big city in which most people live in a hurry. Ironically the story starts with Jake the protagonist, “slouched in a clot of near motionless traffic, in the peculiar gray ofconcrete, smog and early morning…” Jake’s life is unfulfilled, blurry, and nearly paralyzed in his concrete world; he escapes his reality by lying in order to avoid responsibilities and daydreamingabout having the things that would consummate his sexual ego-trip as the main reason of his superficial existence is to hook up with “ladies”.

For Jake, his car is the most powerful tool toachieve the goal of what represents for him a fancy life surrounded by “classy women”. In order to get this, “He needed an FM stereo in something better than this ’58 Buick he drove. It would have crushedvelvet interior with electric controls for the L.A. summer, a nice warm heater and defroster for the winter drives at the beach, a cruise control for those long trips, mellow speakers front and rearof course, windows that hum closed, snuffing out that nasty exterior noise of freeways. The fact was that he’d probably have to change his whole style. “Exotic colognes, plush, dark nightclubs, maitais and daiquiris, necklaced ladies in satin gowns, misty and sexy like in a tequila ad…”
At this point the author shows how Jake’s sexual drive is evident when he fantasizes about the comfort ofthe car of his dreams. Phrases or words like velvet interior, nice warm heater, and defroster for the winter, mellow speakers, front and rear of course, hum… describes the fiery caldron needed by...