Napa at Last Light

America’s Eden in an Age of Calamity

By: James Conaway

Narrated by: Tom Perkins

Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Not so long ago, wine was an exclusively European product. Now it is thoroughly American; emblematic of Napa Valley, an area idealized as the epicenter of great wines and foods and a cultural tourist destination. But the romanticized accounts you find about it and its denizens is not what you'll encounter in James Conaway's candid book.

Napa at Last Light exposes the often shadowy side of the latter days of Napa Valley - marked by complex personal relationships, immense profits, passionate beliefs, and sometimes desperate struggles to prevail. In the balance hang fortunes and personal relationships made through hard work and, in too many cases, manipulation of laws, people, and institutions.

Napans who grew up trusting in the beneficence of the "vintner" class now confront in the 21-century multinational corporations and their allies who have stealthily subsumed the old family landmarks and abandoned the once glorious conviction that agriculture is the highest and best use of the land. Inherent in that conviction is the sanctity of the place, threatened now by a relentless drive for profits at the expense of land, water, and even life.

©2018 James Conaway (P)2018 Tantor

A mispronunciation in every paragraph

This brilliant and important insider’s view is painful to listen to. Narrator Tom Perkins might have done just a bit of homework before recording such bloopers as MA-rin County, VY-Ader Winery, Pol Roger ( rhymes with dodger) champagne, Jean-Charles Boisset (rhymes with basinet) and St. HE-lena (this is Napa, Tim, not Montana) repeated hundreds of times. Even common English words like nascent (NAW-sent) get bungled. If I were James Conoway, I would demand a new recording. It’s he who is made to sound like a clueless outsider.

The other side of Napa...

The book examines Napa's history from the eyes of the locals: an eye-opening read if you are an outsider who has only experienced the magic of Napa Valley as a tourist.

Ongoing power struggles and the fight to prevent over-development take center stage.

I found the story fascinating, but the narrator's slow and careful pace lulled me to sleep (making it hard to follow). I had to keep rewinding.

Still, it's a story worth following. I know I will think twice now about who gets my support the next time I visit!

Aerator should learn pronunciation

I love the book! Unfortunately the narrator Mr. Tom Perkins does not know how to pronounce Saint Helena, Marin, Several other prominent names. Just as I’m getting into the story he would miss pronounce Saint Helena. Not sure why he would’ve done a little research on pronunciation because it kind of Loses credibility when the author doesn’t know how to pronounce the words.

Other than that , I loved it!

Excellent book with a terrible narrator

What made the experience of listening to Napa at Last Light the most enjoyable?

Very well written and researched presentation of the sad situation whereby Napa's political leaders are helping corporate profit seekers to undermine and destroy so much of what has made this beautiful valley a very special place.

Would you be willing to try another one of Tom Perkins’s performances?

Not unless he learns the correct pronunciation for key words in what he's reading. It grates on the Napa native to hear his narration. Appalling that he does not know how to pronounce St. Helena (it's Hel-eena in the Napa Valley) or Boisset (the T should be silent), as well as other French-based words. His worst clunker was "closs" for the French term clos.

Hard To Listen To Without Getting Angry

The story is biased beyond all belief. Obviously the man hero worships Randy Dunn and regurgitates anything said by him. This is not to say that Dunn doesn’t express thoughts shared by many in this valley...but it is only one side of the story. To say that Dunn deserves to be there because he was there first is a ludicrous argument. And where would Napa be if not for all of these awful wineries? Underfunded and in deep financial straits as grape prices are falling along with demand.

Bankers? Evil. Wineries? Evil. Profits? Tourism? Growth? Evil, evil, evil.

The only thing worse than the biased story is the god-awful narration. Mispronunciations at every turn. And the overwrought pronunciation of Peeno Nowah and Cabernet Sawveenyun...aaah! This book needs to be re-narrated.

A lot of good people in Napa were maligned in this book. But why? The author give no opinions...he just whines about change. So very disappointing. This book could have been so much more.

Pass on this one. It’s painful to listen to

Painful to listen to with all the mis-pronunciations. It highlights the struggles people face living in such a glorious place as Napa valley. But it’s done from such a narrow and negative viewpoint that chooses to vilify those involved based on their title and not their character. As someone who lives and works in Napa Valley I hoped this book had some meaningful insights but found myself very disappointed that I wasted my time listening to it.

Poorly written, narration was worse...

As a 5th generation Napan, I must take issue with this book. It reflects an erroneous and false light on the wine growing community. James Conaway is just another carpet bagger looking at a story from one point of view and from the outside looking in. It is a disgusting one sided view that most vintners are rapers of the land. I will admit that there are some bad players in Napa, but they are the exception, not the norm. Also, Tom Perkins narration was aggravating to listen to as he constantly mispronounced many of the names and places in the valley. A note to narrators...before you step into the recording booth, please do your research on the place you are going to be reading about.