The Lost Coast: Chapter Six

Genre Bending While Still Good Literature

Paradoxically, although written as part of the genre-bending, techno savvy world of Gimlet Media, the Lost Coast is actually a fine piece of traditional writing.

It is supposed to be read as a supplement to season II of the Homecoming and as such shows the depth of creative imagination underneath the characters who appear for a conversation or two in the podcast. One of the great strengths of a writer like Tolkien is that you get the sense in The Lord of the Rings of a deep history underlying the narrative which appears only momentarily in the story. Horowitz accomplishes something similar in The Lost Coast. The story blends with and adds to the podcast seamlessly and adds to the excitement building around the proposed Amazon series.

There are a few mistakes here and there that should have been picked up by the editor. If you swing and miss at a pitch you don't turn around to see if it's a strike, you already know it's a strike without the umpire's call. I doubt Horowitz is much of a baseball fan.

But the crisp metaphors, realistic dialogue and sense of a whole imagined world make The Lost Coast highly recommended reading for fans of Homecoming. Gimlet might be experimental in its use of modern technology, but it is clear that it upholds the traditional standards of well written literature.