Lucky Town

by James Brown

Teenager Bobby Barlow tells the tale of his travels with his con-man father Floyd, and their adventures in Las Vegas

287 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

James Brown is the author of several novels, and the memoirs, The Los Angeles Diaries, This River, and Apology to the Young Addict (to-be-published March 2020). He is the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Fiction Writing and the Nelson Algren Award in Short Fiction. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, GQ, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Ploughshares, and The New England Review.

Reviews

[RB Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dust rose from the desert floor and spun around itself, and though I knew nothing for certain, I believed that if I only walked fast enough I'd find myself somewhere in the middle of this storm.
Ends, Lucky Town, by James Brown. A fine novel about a boy, Bobby Barlow, and his outlaw father, Floyd and their misadventures fueled by Floyd's obsession with a younger woman. Melinda, an ex-prostitute, would-be law student, is fianced to a Seattle muscle-head, cop when Floyd first sees her. A stolen Cadillac joy ride with the boy in tow follows and Lucky Town is off and running.
Coming of age. Bildungs Roman. Call it whatever, it's very good. Strong. The writing, the detail, the protagonist is sympathetic, empathetic, and you are with him all the way. Nothing is too unreal and yet, the situations Floyd and Bobby find themselves in are outrageous, thrilling, entertaining and frightening. There is a great deal of subtext about freedom here. The frightening, liberating paradox of freedom and something in the ending makes me feel like a guy with no family but bad family who cuts himself free may know a different kind of freedom than the rest of us.
I'm looking for James Brown's other books now and wondering what he's been up to as Lucky Town appears to be his last and it's from 1994.

[Teddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story! The characters are still haunting me days after I finished the novel and in a way are more real than some of the people in my life. Now that I have read four Brown novels and two memoirs, I can say with certainty that he is a master of character development and storytelling. One of the most important aspects of a story for me is that the characters are true. That is, they need to be true in their actions, dialogue, and emotions. Brown has no problem in fulfilling these requirements seemingly effortlessly. Brown books are a must for anyone looking for realistic heartfelt storytelling at its finest.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Coming of age story about a teenage boy whose father moves in and out of jail; Floyd eeks a life using his charm. Covers Portland, Seattle, and Vegas.

Well written but the subject matter is a little tired. On the jacket "Lucky Town" was described as the male version of Mona Simpson's "Anywhere but Here" - read that instead.

[Grace]

This author was my creative writing professor in college. He read excerpts of the book but I never picked it up. After reading about his life in Wikipedia, I am now too intrigued not to read it!