California’s Central Valley, and most notably Highway 99 towns, are ripe with opportunities for writers to pen compelling works of art. Authors like Joan Didion and Manuel Muñoz have extensively written about the area. However, despite Didion’s widely celebrated Notes from a Native Daughter, Highway 99 native Heather Scott Partington prefers Muñoz’s work. 

She notes, “Manuel Muñoz’s work beautifully complicates the writing of Didion and others about Highway 99 towns—offering the vibrancy of lives rather than a simple view of our buildings.”

She explains her preference further, adding, “Authors like Muñoz enhance the portrait of life along Highway 99 by sketching the state as a paradoxical land of plenty dependent on an exploited people willing to do grueling, thankless work.”

Capturing the Spirit of Muñoz’s Works

According to Partington, other writers like Anthony Veasna So and his depiction of Stockton’s Khmer community’s resilience and Rishi Reddi’s Passage West have similar energy. Partington thinks of these works when she passes Stockton’s low skyline and drives south. She praises So and Muñoz for centering their work not on the “gentrified city elite,” but “quiet and determined work.” 

Partington also points out Muñoz’s writings on Fresno and neighboring towns that depict California as “full of light and shade.” She’s particularly interested in the posed questions about natives and travelers alike experiencing these “small towns that exist out of necessity.”

There are three of Muñoz’s stories in particular that Partington believes show the nuanced desperation, hope amidst hardship, and the pride of locals working in orchards. According to Partington, Anyone Can Do It, Susto, and Fieldwork are effective in that regard. 

Writing With Ghosts

Partington compares Muñoz’s writing style to that of writer and peach farmer David Mas Masumoto and the sentiments in his 2023 memoir, Secret Harvests—particularly his passages about ghosts. 

She points out two compelling passages, which she deems particularly notable: “I farm with ghosts. They live in our fields. Each peach tree has pruning scars from the generations who worked these orchards,” and “People and their families have etched their marks on my farm, and I, too, hope to leave behind a simple signature on this seemingly ordinary landscape.” 

Partington notes, “Muñoz writes with these same ghosts. He gives voice and urgency to their desires and their joy.” 

In Muñoz’s The Consequences, Partington explains that the writer’s depiction of Fresno “represents a place of stability, even as Muñoz presents it in contrast to larger or more metropolitan California cities.”

According to Partington, though Fresno is large, it “maintains the spirit of a Central Valley town.” She notes the extensive expansion the area has seen since the ‘80s and ‘90s when Muñoz’s stories were written—though the city’s heavy focus on agriculture is still present. 

Mexican American and Mexican stories “largely go untold,” Partington explains. However, Muñoz sheds light on the lives of these individuals living in towns along Highway 99. She says, “The towns along Highway 99 aren’t a path to another place.”

Stories That Feel Like Home

Partington particularly relates to the characterizations in Muñoz’s story where people define themselves “by the years they did or didn’t go to high school and the circles they ran in.” That’s an experience Partington shares. 

The possibilities of such towns don’t have to be visible to be very real for those living in these areas. They offer something unique that’s personal to each person living there. Partington quotes the teenage mother from The Reason Is Because, who “had nowhere but here.”

Partington concludes, “Muñoz shows how fertile with dreams and possibility the Central Valley is. Even when a story is complex, it’s good. These stories feel like home.”