Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America

The renowned author explores the violent and corrupt history of America in “a haunted, often brilliant journey into the heart of our darkness” (Frederick Turner). Blood Orchid is the first volume in Charles Bowden’s Unnatural History of America sextet. It is a deeply personal and bracingly sharp chronicle of his quest to unearth our ugly truths. Through stark observations and visceral experiences, Bowden presents a dizzying excavation of the systemic violence and corruption at the roots of American society. Bowden visits dying friends in skid row apartments in Los Angeles, traverses San Francisco byways lined with clubs and joints, and roams through village bars and streets in the Sierra Madre mountains. In these wanderings resides a yearning for the understanding of past and present sins, the human penchant for warfare, abuse, and oppression, and the true war between humanity, the industrialized world, and the immense tolls of our shared land.