The Valley of Heart's Delight: A Silicon Valley Notebook 1963-2001
HOMETOWN BOY TELLS TALE OF HOW TECH REVOLUTION CHANGED WHERE WE LIVEMichael S. Malone proudly casts himself as a native son of Silicon Valley.In his latest book, he declares himself a "hometown boy" who is"desperate to understand the truth about his neighbors."The Valley of Heart's Delight: A Silicon Valley Notebook 1963-2001tellsthe sweeping tale of Malone's home turf—the Santa Clara Valley that grewfrom a quaint collection of fruit orchards to the mythic birthplace of thedigital revolution.Overall, the book is an interesting and entertaining read, told with thedramatic flair—even embellishment—of a novelist.While the subject is grand, Malone's book is more akin to a personalscrapbook—told through the eyes of a journalist born and raised in theSanta Clara Valley. Malone has been chronicling the region's business andtechnology landscape for two decades."The Valley of Heart's Delight" does not break new ground: The book is acollection of Malone's previous writing, dating back to 1982. The articlesoriginally appeared in publications such as the Mercury News, the New YorkTimes, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes ASAP, Upside and Harper's.Like a scrapbook, "The Valley of Heart's Delight" is an incompleteaccount. A reader looking for a definitive history and assessment of Silicon Valley will likely feel shortchanged. The book is something of a hodgepodge-- part historical tale, part novel, part non-fiction reporting, part memoir andpart social commentary.The 24 articles, or chapters, in the book are arranged roughly inchronological order by subject. They're grouped into five major sections(Santa Clara Valley, Silicon Valley, Silicon Town, Silicon World and SiliconHome) that mirror the region's development from agricultural roots tocatalyst of a technology revolution that ripples ever more widely.Malone expresses awe over the valley's contributions to shaping modern life."Each time I return from someplace in the world where I've been asked todescribe the miracle of Silicon Valley, I still look down out the planewindow and thrill at the miracle of the place, the little collection ofsuburban towns that changed history," he writes. It's a place "so dynamic,so protean, and so maddeningly complex that I will never grow tired of it,"he adds.The earlier chapters of the book were the most enjoyable and illuminating.In one refreshing, well-crafted chapter, Malone relates the history of theOhlone Indians who ruled the Santa Clara Valley for thousands of yearsbefore the Franciscans established their mission in 1777. He deftly contrasts the Ohlones' concept of cyclical or circular time with the beginning oflineartime brought by Spanish settlers. The tempo has been accelerating eversince, reaching warp speed in today's Silicon Valley, "where the dailyobsession is to shave a microsecond from every transmission, revision anddecision," Malone notes.Other chapters range from the meeting of David Packard and William Hewlettas Stanford University students, to the birth of the microprocessor, IPO dayfor MIPS Computer Systems and the boyhood of Steve Jobs in a 1960s "siliconsuburbia." These chapters, told with engaging narratives, provide glimpsesinto different eras and milestones of the modern Silicon Valley.Malone's strength lies in his deeply reported, richly detailed narratives.In one chapter, he traces his family roots back to Enid, Okla., where hisgreat-grandfather had settled in an 1893 land rush. A century later, Malonevisits Enid, finding evidence everywhere of the digital revolution thatSilicon Valley started. It's in the VCRs, computer labs and electronicsecurity keypads of Enid High School. It's in the electronics-laden digitalwatches, microwave oven, stove and video games of the house where hisgrandparents once lived. "My grandparents' house now has more computingpower than NASA did that day my grandparents sat on the mohair sofa with thedoily antimacassars and watched Neil Armstrong step out on the moon," heconcludes.The Oklahoma chapter, along with the one on the Ohlone Indians, are the bestin the book. They're beautiful pieces of storytelling that show the arc oftime and profound impact of technology. They weave together many elementsthat work on different levels.And they demonstrate one of the author's strengths—the ability to thinkexpansively about technology's profound impact on society. For Malone, thehometown boy, Silicon Valley is much more than a place: It's a state of mindand social force.(Maria Shao, Mercury News)