Shaky Town: A Novel
“No one writes, or maybe ever has written, as well as Mathews about the local streets and their navigations, liberations, and traps, as brilliantly demonstrated in these stories.” ―Steve Erickson, author of Zeroville and Days Between Stations
In Shaky Town, Lou Mathews has written a timeless novel of working-class Los Angeles. A former mechanic and street racer, he tells his story in cool and panoramic style, weaving together the tragedies and glories of one of L.A.’s eastside neighborhoods. From a teenage girl caught in the middle of a gang war to a priest who has lost his faith and hit bottom, the characters in Shaky Town live on a dangerous faultline but remain unshakable in their connections to one another.
Like Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, Katherine Ann Porter’s Ship of Fools, Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place, and Pat Barker’s Union Street, Shaky Town is the story of complicated, conflicted, and disparate characters bound together by place.
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Book details
- Author
- Lou Mathews
- Imprint
- Tiger Van Books, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 240
- Formats
- Hardcover, Paperback
- Subjects
- Fiction › Hispanic & Latino
Fiction › Literary
Fiction › City Life - Topics
- Los Angeles · Latino communities · working class · East Los Angeles · gang life · neighborhood stories · Catholic faith
- ISBN-13
- 9781735303802 (Hardcover)9781684428083 (Paperback)
About the author
LOU MATHEWS has published short stories in more than forty literary quarterlies and has taught in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program since 1989. His recent books include Shaky Town and L.A. Breakdown.
Mathews has received a Pushcart Prize, two Pushcart Special Mentions, a Best American Mystery Stories Special Mention, a Katherine Anne Porter Prize, and fellowships from the California Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is also a recipient of the UCLA Extension Teacher of the Year and Outstanding Instructor awards.
When he’s not writing, Mathews draws on decades of work as a mechanic, freelance journalist, and restaurant reviewer. His fiction reflects a life built close to the streets and culture of Los Angeles.
Lou lives in Los Angeles, below the Hollywood sign.