L. A. Breakdown

by Lou Mathews

A riveting portrait of Los Angeles hot rod culture of the early 1960's and the effects it casts on the people caught up in it.

Genres: Fiction

251 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1999

Reviews

[Nicholas Rea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this via my adoration of Jim Gavin, the creator of a perfect television show called Lodge 49 and a perfect collection of short stories called Middle Men. Lou Mathews is Gavin's mentor, a creative writing professor who got Gavin into the field. L.A. Breakdown is Mathews' long-gestating first novel, written while the author worked as a mechanic, unpublished for decades, then released in 1999 to moderate acclaim only to drop out of print shortly thereafter. As a way of 'repaying the debt,' Gavin has republished Mathews' novel on his new imprint Tiger Van Books.

L.A. Breakdown meticulously documents the Los Angeles street drag racing scene in the mid-1960s, and it's apparent from the first page that the author was knee-deep among these characters and locations in his own life. The young men of the novel are all out of high school but not headed to university, moving from job to job while saving as much as they can to build the their dream cars. Much like pleasant listlessness that defines the work of Gavin, these are good-hearted boys stuck between places, either waiting for something great to happen to them or seeing how long they can go before throwing in the towel and joining the military.

The book alternates between exhilarating racing scenes, loving descriptions of the work and passion that goes into making the custom cars, and the relationships of the drivers with their wives, friends, and family. Mathews paints an accurate portrait of a time and place but with very little nostalgic haze, a great antidote to the rose-colored baby boomer pop culture version of the 1960s drive-in. There are burgers and fries and carhops and rock 'n roll, yes, but there is injury, poisoning, and failed dreams here too.

If you are not an auto enthusiast, you will still enjoy this book, but many of the scenes where the men tinker on their cars might be hard to understand. If you are looking for a good bit of masculine (but not macho) working-class fiction, though, I would recommend this in a heartbeat. Excited to read Shaky Town.

[Thomas Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminds me of the movie American Graffiti with the focus of the fine muscle cars that are set in the 1960's with most of the characters wrenching on and racing said hot rods and sometimes racing them for big money. Most of these races are match or best of races that are usually setup at the local drive in were everyone gathers to show off cars and shot the breeze. There are quite a cast of characters with the main four being Vaca who is a paralyzed little person who due to a freak accident in an ambulance that you will not believe ends up with deep pockets to buy the latest muscle car. There is Brody who drives and races said car or cars for Vaca who so desperately wants to beat the best racer in the area Reinhard. And finally, you have Fat Charlie. Depending on your age this will take you back to the days where you can smell the burning rubber tires. Overall this was a pretty good read