Shaky Town: A Novel - Softcover

Mathews, Lou

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1684428084 ISBN 13: 9781684428083

Publisher: Tiger Van Books, 2023

Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 TOURNAMENT OF BOOKS

“L.A. is where you reside. Shaky Town is where you live.”

Welcome to Shaky Town, a place invisible on maps and found only in the secret heart of its citizens.

In this masterwork of panoramic style, Lou Mathews—a former mechanic and street racer—weaves together the tragedies and glories of one eastside neighborhood in the 1980s. From a teenage girl caught in the middle of a gang war, to an Irish priest who has lost his faith and hit bottom, the characters in Shaky Town live on a dangerous fault line but remain unshakable in their connections to one another.

A luminous achievement of peerless authenticity, Shaky Town captures the grit and gold of working-class Los Angeles and lays down Matthews's marker as one of the city’s great chroniclers.

About this title

About the Author

Lou Mathews is the author of L.A. Breakdown and a longstanding instructor at UCLA Extension’s acclaimed Creative Writing program. His stories have been published in ZZZYVYA, New England Review, Tin House, Black Clock, Paperback L.A., and many fiction anthologies. Mathews is also a journalist, playwright, former restaurant critic, and passionate cook. He has received a Pushcart Prize, a Katherine Anne Porter Prize, and an NEA Fiction Fellowship, and is a recipient of the UCLA Extension Outstanding Instructor Award. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

When I retired, I decided I should be the Mayor here because I have seniority. I moved here in 1922. I was five years old. Nobody else has lived here longer. Mrs. Espinosa will argue with you, but I can remember when she moved here. It was 1928. Before that she lived in Frogtown. She counts that, but Frogtown is across the tracks.

That doesn’t count. This is Shaky Town.

I’ll tell you how long I’ve been here. After the earth-quake in 1923, when the dam broke, this street was flooded to the tops of the trees. Right where we’re sitting, I floated over it on a raft, in 1923. I tied that raft to an orange tree, right across the street. There was a whole grove then, where the pallet factory is now.

So you’re learning what a wonderful barrio you live in. Historical. That bakery was built in 1930, and Shaky Town has smelled good ever since. That drive-in opened in 1945. It’s the best example of Streamline Moderne architecture in California.

I come down at night sometimes just to look at it. It’s beautiful, all lit up, the carhops on roller skates, and the windmill blades turning.

I bring a copita of brandy and sit here across the street and sip, and I think, Emiliano, you’re just like the Quixoté. He had his windmills and you have yours. Only yours have neon lights!

That’s enough history for one day. You should know about where you live. Now you get to go to work and you’ve learned something. Don’t laugh. You should learn some-thing new every day. It’s like the bankers say, Pay yourself first. Put something into savings before you pay your bills. Here comes your bus.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tiger Van Books
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1684428084
• ISBN 13: 9781684428083
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 228