Overview

A compelling novel-in-stories, Hollywoodski showcases a self-described “faded” screenwriter’s forty-year career. Dale Davis is a man encumbered by a natural writing talent, corrupted by early success, and reduced to scrambling for crumbs. He arrives in Hollywood, unbattered and innocent, with a novel about his days as an almost Olympic-caliber swimmer. But his faith in the prevailing powers of talent and justice in Tinseltown leaves him essentially black-listed and unemployable, a talented writer who just can’t get paid. Despite the fading of a once-promising career, Davis still believes that his talent will propel him back into prominence. But that belief, in Hollywood, is about as realistic as the belief that “Someday my prince will come,” and as likely to make you depressed and crazy. Hollywoodski is a nonlinear journey through Davis’s life, weaving his memories with stories he’s written over the years, charting how his hopes and dreams have changed over time. Featuring stories originally published in prominent publications such as The New England Review, ZYZZYVA, and Black Clock, Hollywoodski is a sweeping and inventive telling of the strange avenues that a life follows.

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9781684429806

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Reviews

"“Screenwriters and movie buffs beware—Hollywoodski touches the dark nerve of desperation and surrealism behind the glitter of show business with an icicle. You have been warned.” —Patton Oswalt, actor and comedian ”Hollywoodski is brilliantly existential and comedic, so funny it hurts in the place where quixotic longings, bizarre encounters, impossible situations and underdogs collide. Mathews has great soul, and his writing dazzles on every page."" —Elizabeth McKenzie, author of Dog of the North and The Portable Veblen “Hollywoodski is a glorious bender of a book, a stylish and hilarious torch song for all the faded writers in this town, still ranting and dreaming long after closing time. If you love the movies so much it breaks your heart, then you will love every page of this masterpiece by the one and only Lou Mathews.” —Jim Gavin, creator of Lodge 49 and author of Middle Men"

“Screenwriters and movie buffs beware—Hollywoodski touches the dark nerve of desperation and surrealism behind the glitter of show business with an icicle. You have been warned.” —Patton Oswalt, author of Silver Screen Fiend and Zombie Spaceship Wasteland

“Screenwriters and movie buffs beware—Hollywoodski touches the dark nerve of desperation and surrealism behind the glitter of show business with an icicle. You have been warned.” —Patton Oswalt, actor and comedian ”Hollywoodski is brilliantly existential and comedic, so funny it hurts in the place where quixotic longings, bizarre encounters, impossible situations and underdogs collide. Mathews has great soul, and his writing dazzles on every page."" —Elizabeth McKenzie, author of Dog of the North and The Portable Veblen “Hollywoodski is a glorious bender of a book, a stylish and hilarious torch song for all the faded writers in this town, still ranting and dreaming long after closing time. If you love the movies so much it breaks your heart, then you will love every page of this masterpiece by the one and only Lou Mathews.” —Jim Gavin, creator of Lodge 49 and author of Middle Men “I think Lou Mathews spiked my drink and stole not only my stories, but those of everyone I’ve worked and complained with. Hollywoodski is a very funny, disturbingly clear-eyed look at what writers and ‘the business’ can do to each other if they’re not careful, told in vivid snapshot scenes. I’m going to reread it now to try to figure out where I went wrong.” —Andrew Nicholls, TV showrunner, head writer of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, author of Valuable Lessons and Comedy Writer “There’s no better tour guide to a deeply flawed industry in a deeply flawed place than Dale Davis—whose humor and heartwreck gave me the same sense of self recognition that made Frederick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes so unforgettable. As our man himself declares in the opening salvo, ‘Boys need a target’  and in each of these sixteen hilarious and heartrending stories, Mathews doesn’t miss. I suspect  one of contemporary fiction’s best-kept secrets may not be one much longer.” —Matt Sumell, author of Making Nice “Not since reading John Fante and Nathaniel West have I had so much fun following a big-hearted crank around paradise. Mathews has a knack for the poetic zinger, and Hollywoodski, in its portrait of a demented industry that values pablum over art, gives him a veritable shooting range. It’s also a love letter to a bygone LA, before it was conquered by lifestyle boutiques and dragon fruit beauty water. A worthy addition to the LA canon.“ —Eric Puchner, author of Model Home and Last Day on Earth “The tales of Dale’s losing streak…pop with life. Lovers of Hollywood lore will get a kick out of this.” —Publisher’s Weekly

Author Information

Lou Mathews lives in Los Angeles and is a fourth generation Angeleno. Married at nineteen, he worked his way through UC Santa Cruz as a gas station attendant and mechanic and continued to work as a mechanic until he was thirty-nine. His first novel, L.A. Breakdown, about illegal street racing, was picked by the Los Angeles Times as a Best Book of 1999. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, a California Arts Council Fiction Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and a Katherine Anne Porter Prize. His short stories have been published in more than forty literary magazines including Short Story, ZYZZYVA, New England Review Witness, Crazy Horse, and Black Clock, as well as twelve fiction anthologies and two textbook series. He has taught in UCLA Extension’s renowned Writer’s Program since 1989 and is a recipient of Teacher of the Year and Outstanding Instructor Awards. His last novel, Shaky Town, was published in September 2021 and was long-listed for the 2022 Tournament of Books. More details on Mathews and Shaky Town can be found at https://www.tigervanbooks.com/shaky-town.

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