A review by mikescalise
Shaky Town by Lou Mathews

5.0

I was the biggest possible fan of the soft stitching that interwove the big cast of Long Beach searchers in Jim Gavin's Lodge 49 on AMC (it's on Hulu: watch it and fall in love). Mathews' bracing short story collection--the first on Gavin's Tiger Van imprint--is a kind of Elseworlds project, unfolding somewhere in that universe. It's a sort of darker, Lodge 49: After Hours set in 1980s LA, but with its own big heart, beating at its own rhythm, that maintains the same soft stitching across a fascinating community. Mathews swings so well between voice-driven stories, bizarre fables, and lived-in moments that spin off into surprising, sublime directions. If you love narratives that loosely connect a constellation of characters in a unique town, pick this up and enjoy.