Napa: The Story of an American Eden

Excellent story of how Napa grew to be such an important global wine region. Well written and hart to put down it reads like a novel - and tells the stories of the wine and people. But definitely read Conaway's other two books, or at least his last "Napa at Last Light" to find out how greed and corruption are risking it all.

Our Book CLub selected Napa...many of us have been to Napa many times...and have read quite a few books re: Napa/Wine.This book was way way too slow and bogged down by historical - yet mundane - information.

I'm a new resident of Napa, and eagerly read this book. The story is fascinating. The trouble, and it is a real issue, is that no one seems to have read it before publication. Typos abound, and they are serious and frequent enough that it is distracting to the reader. Was no one paying attention? Was there no proof-reader? Didn't anyone think to, at the least, run the book through a spell-checker? Given the subject, and its fascination, I would have expected quite a bit more care in the final production of this work. A shame, really, that such a good story dealing with such an important industry, was given such amateurish treatment on the part of the author, publisher and editor.It's not too late, really, to correct these miserable distracting matters. Were there but a few I would not be bothered, but by Part II they have become an active part of the writing. It makes the author and publisher seem poorly schooled in the most basic part of the craft: learning to spell.Otherwise recommended.

I enjoyed in tremendously. Very well researched and thorough (as least as thorough as can reasonably be expected when you are writing the history of an entire valley).The two things that kept is from being five star are the following.1) He really went overboard on the politics. It got to be a little monotonous at times.2) He did not hide his views on which side he was on whether the developers or the anti-developers. It would have been nice to have had a fair hearing of what both sides had to say.Yet overall a great read, (if you are interested in this kind of obscure stuff.)

The first half of the book was a terrific history of the Napa wine industry. The second half was a boring, repetitive recounting of squabbles between the vintners and the growers, riddled with hundreds, if not thousands of typos. I’ve never read anything this poorly proofread. In fact, I think it wasn’t proof read at all…and it was truly boring. Read the first 250-300 pages and then set it aside.

I rarely give up on a book, but I think I will have to on this one. I see that other reviewers have commented on the lack of good editing. What a shame. The Napa story is such a compelling one--a real American story. That it has been presented so poorly is a big disappointment. I rarely have tried to read a book in which the content is so poorly organized. It goes back and forth from the 1960s and the 1800s with little or no transition. There are dozens of characters who are founders of the wine business. It is very difficult to keep track of them in all the muddle. Myriad issues such as referring to the characters by their first name, then later their last name doesn't help. Conway has certainly done his research and has a great deal of detail at his disposal to work with. That is not the problem. A complete re-editing is needed with a cleaner chronology. This was simply a mess of a book to try to read. Not an enjoyable experience whatsoever. I give it two stars only because the author did seem to do his part by gathering lots of details about the story of Napa. Wish it would have been readable.

This "history" book tells the true story of America's most revered viticultural area. Page by page we travel along the hard road the earliest vintners took to create the Napa Valley we have today and the great lengths some would go to exploit it's heritage. The words flow like a fascinating novel filled with stong pioneers in search of a place to produce Californias "liquid gold" and the wiley characters who wanted to exploit its terroir. In the end this small hamlet, which is just 1 hour north of a city filled with sky scrapers, has become a land more valuable planted to vine then any place else in our country. A must read for anyone who has the spirit to GO WEST and for any one who truly appreciates the making of a fine wine. I have read this book 3 times. It has created in me the uttmost respect for the valley I spent summers in and which I cherish to this day.

Very complete look at the early days of the wine industry in the Napa Valley. Quite interesting if you are a wine drinker. More about the people than the wineries, but a fair look at the growing pains, especially the difficulty with local elected officials who knew little or nothing about winf

This well researched book is initially quite compelling as it details the early history of a fascinating time and place. Ultimately, however, it gets wearisome as so many of the less interesting (and often thoroughly unlikable) characters resurface again and again. Greed, lust for power and resulting corruption make better fiction than non-fiction.

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