L.A. Breakdown (Deluxe Edition)

By Lou Mathews

Book Overview

A 1999 LOS ANGELES TIMES BEST BOOKDELUXE EDITION, WITH NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN RECOVERED CHAPTERS--Los Angeles, 1967--With gleaming detail and blinding precision, Lou Mathews freeze-frames a hidden corner of L.A.'s outlaw culture in the moments before it becomes extinct. The heart of the culture is the drive-in, where street racers meet to challenge their rivals and place their bets. This world comes to life after dark, lit by headlights and street lamps, a moveable feast of drag races, peopled with its own lost generation: young men and women who have left high school but have no thoughts of college.
Drifting from one dead end job to another, supplementing their income through thieving, doing the occasional stint in prison, and reluctantly entering the armed services when there is nothing else left, they live, and sometimes die, for the excitement, the danger, the money of racing. In the world of drag racing--fleeting and bittersweet, like the end of summer--the stakes the stakes grow higher and higher as, one by one, each player spins out and disappears from the scene: Here, we meet Vaca, crippled in soul and body, prefers the armor of his car to a wheelchair. The ex-con Brody--Vaca's driver--is the best street racer in town. Reinhard, a loner who has no one and nothing but the exquisite machines he builds and races. Charlie, the race organizer who tells the story. And Connie, who rolls her eyes at the whole parade, never without a sarcastic riposte, but who can't stay away from the boys and their toys. Stunning, bleakly beautiful, and laugh-out-loud funny, L.A. Breakdown paints a riveting portrait of 1960s Los Angeles, frozen in time yet disintegrating before our eyes with all the reckless speed of romantic era."Mathews keeps the reader so firmly focused on horsepower, hand-rubbed black lacquer paint jobs and custom pinstripes that the small epiphanies that unfold here really do sneak up, as surprising and pungent as burning oil." --Los Angeles Times

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1684429781
• ISBN13: 9781684429783
• Release Date: June 2023
• Publisher: Tiger Van Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Life as a street racer

Do you like racing? Do you cherish it, live for it, and would you die for it? Well if so you have something in common with this book. You crave speed. The great thing about this book is how Lou Mathews puts a spin on this racing story to relate it to a persons life. The story takes place in L.A in the late 1960's. The main character a man named Charlie is the one who loves drag racing. Charlie loves racing so much that he sets up street races around L.A. Not much for driving himself but handling bets starting off the cars ect... Well life for Charlie is not just a picnic though. Charlie has other important things in his life he must handle with, but will these events in his life effect the game he so desperately loves? Will Charlie half to choose between friends and racing? Read and see! Note: I would recommend this book for mature readers due to language and content.

Excellent read

Lou Mathews' work seems to function on the level of touch and smell, with an electric, atmospheric sense of what lies just beyond the skin. The writing is spare but fraught with a complexity of emotion all the more powerful because it is neither dissected nor explained away; it is simply there. The obsessions and irrational choices of these young working-class mechanics, their humor, the joy taken from careful, painstaking work ratcheting up their cars, their vicious infighting over rank, the adrenaline rush of the race, the bitterness of thwarted desire, the "fun" stubbornly snatched in the face of financial hardship, abuse, the dictates of family, Army and Church, all merge in a fleeting snapshot of the moment when youthful hope gives way to the grim uncertainties of adulthood.

Don't Miss L.A. Breakdown

As a voracious and serious reader of modern fiction--mostly by women--I would not normally pick up what looks like a "guy book" about cars. I would have missed a great treasure. L.A.Breakdown captures a time and place perfectly and is peopled by memorable characters. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys an engrossing story, superbly written.

Spellbinding Narrative

A poignant look at Los Angeles car culture in the 1960's, L.A.BREAKDOWN is imbued with a gorgeous sense of place. The story and its fascinating characters caused me to race through the book, but the language is so elegant and the descriptions so rich with nuance and detail that I can't wait to go back and read it again more slowly. I'm buying a copy for everyone on my Christmas list - the men will love it for the cover art alone, and everyone who reads it will be deeply affected by the story.

LA Breakdown - worth a long look

as found in lacar.com:...L.A. Breakdown happens in a blur. It is written in simple English, reads fast and easy, and had me empathizing with several characters. The storyline translates into visual imagery well without becoming overly engaged in meaningless detail or clatter.But what makes this such an easy novel to read is also its main drawback. I found myself wanting for more detail. In liking the characters, I wanted to know more about them and also wanted a good reason to slow my reading pace.As Lou Mathews is a multiple award-winning author, it is my contention that he purposely chose this light style to make L.A. Breakdown read fast. In doing so, the book becomes its own metaphor for the story within. Teen summers are a breeding ground for tales beginning with "You guys should have been there when...," are all too brief, and end with a feeling of uncertainty.L.A. Breakdown is worth a look. Especially if you've grown tired of working through the myriad of "definitive" hot rod books filled with facts, figures, and names that matter only to a select few (we know who we are).