Hollywoodski

"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