R. Solnit and M. Caron, A California Bestiary

I was duped. Somewhere I read that this book was in the tradition of medieval bestiaries but with some sort of contemporary take on nature and the state of California. In my head I imagined something engrossing, awe-inspiring, and possibly darkly comic (a la Edward Gorey’s Utter Zoo). Instead I got this compact cute gift book with prose my dad would describe as “hippie dippy” and, for once, he would be exactly right. The art is some cross of WPA and commonplace children's magazine illustrations.