American Dream Machine

""American Dream Machine" is grand, complex, lush, intelligent and lively, funny as hell and generous in ways you don't often find. It's also a strikingly original portrait of Los Angeles. People speak of Chandler's Los Angeles, or Didion's, or Nathaniel West's. Someday, they'll speak of Specktor's the same way."
--Victor LaValle, author of "Big Machine" and "The Devil in Silver"
""American Dream Machine" may be the first literature I've read in which Los Angeles is assumed as London is assumed by Dickens and Paris by Proust and New York by a host of twentieth-century American writers. There is nothing ironic, ambivalent, or apologetic about Specktor's relationship to Los Angeles -- as it is and was, as myth and as a thriving capitol city. Los Angeles provides an animate pulse under the lives of these men and boys, a source of permanence that lends their struggles gravity."
-Mona Simpson, "My Hollywood"
"Matthew Specktor has created a great American character in Beau Rosenwald. He is full of contradictions, full of ambition, full of raw life, and yet he manages to seduce us. This riveting novel shows us the existential desperation that lurks in the dark hunger of Hollywood power mongers. Specktor gets every detail right, and "American Dream Machine"'s sentences are suffused with an elegiac beauty."
--Dana Spiotta, author of "Stone Arabia" and "Eat The Document"
""American Dream Machine" is the definitive new Hollywood novel. It's almost impossible to write now about the movie business without resorting to well-established mythology. Somehow, here, Matthew Specktor has figured out a way to do so."
--David Shields, author of "Reality Hunger" and "The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead"
"This is the novel about Los Angeles that I've been waiting for--a mythical LA full of longing and distances and illusion. Specktor has captured the LA I know, the one all around me and the one in my head, a city of invention ands
"Specktor's book deserves a special space in the L.A. canon, somewhere looking up at Pynchon and Chandler. Even as the narrator searches through his past to uncover the truth about his family, the author is searching, too."-- "LA Weekly"
..".Matthew Specktor's "American Dream Machine" [is] a big and generous novel that functions both as elegy for a recent past and fictional anthropology . . . .it evokes a world with casual ease and unexpected tenderness, recalling and referencing lots of other fiction (both Hollywood and non) while contriving to establish its unique authority." --"LA Review of Books"
"With coolness and precision, Specktor comes across as a West Coast Saul Bellow in this sweeping narrative, but his energetic, pop-infused prose is markedly his own."-"Booklist"
"["American Dream Machine"] is a vivid evocation of the entertainment business from the 1960s to the near present, an L.A. bildungsroman and a murder mystery, all wrapped in one . . . entertaining package." -"New York Daily News"
""American Dream Machine" is grand, complex, lush, intelligent and lively, funny as hell and generous in ways you don't often find. It's also a strikingly original portrait of Los Angeles. People speak of Chandler's Los Angeles, or Didion's, or Nathaniel West's. Someday, they'll speak of Specktor's the same way."
-Victor LaValle, author of "Big Machine" and "The Devil in Silver"
""American Dream Machine" may be the first literature I've read in which Los Angeles is assumed as London is assumed by Dickens and Paris by Proust and New York by a host of twentieth-century American writers. There is nothing ironic, ambivalent, or apologetic about Specktor's relationship to Los Angeles -- as it is and was, as myth and as a thriving capitol city. Los Angeles provides an animate pulse under the lives of these men and boys, a source of permanence that lends their struggles gravity."
-Mona Simpson, "My Hollywood"
"Matthew Specktor ha

"With coolness and precision, Specktor comes across as a West Coast Saul Bellow in this sweeping narrative, but his energetic, pop-infused prose is markedly his own."
--"Booklist"
"Specktor's book deserves a special space in the L.A. canon, somewhere looking up at Pynchon and Chandler. Even as the narrator searches through his past to uncover the truth about his family, the author is searching, too."
--"LA Weekly"
..".Matthew Specktor's "American Dream Machine" [is] a big and generous novel that functions both as elegy for a recent past and fictional anthropology . . . .it evokes a world with casual ease and unexpected tenderness, recalling and referencing lots of other fiction (both Hollywood and non) while contriving to establish its unique authority."
--LA Review of Books
"Specktor's great achievement is to make familiar territory original, the Hollywood novel born anew. It's bold, weird, an d unforegetable, as startling as a poke in the eye."
--"The Sunday Telegraph Magazine"
"Specktor does for L.A. what Hemingway did for Paris and what Hunter S. Thompson did for Las Vegas: create a character that lives and breathes a city. Like hotels in Vegas, we see characters rise, grow dusty, and collapse." --"Daily Beat, Hot Reads"
""American Dream Machine" takes readers into situations that might seem familiar: the drug-fueled party at a star's house in the hills, tense meetings between executives, dimly-lit wood-paneled bars filled with players and movie stars. Yet Specktor's lyrical writing and insights into human nature elevate the novel into fresh territory."
--"Kirkus"
"["American Dream Machine"] is a vivid evocation of the entertainment business from the 1960s to the near present, an L.A. bildungsroman and a murder mystery, all wrapped in one . . . entertaining package."
--"New York Daily News"
""American Dream Machine" is grand, complex, lush, intelligent and lively, funny as hell and generous i
"With coolness and precision, Specktor comes across as a West Coast Saul Bellow in this sweeping narrative, but his energetic, pop-infused prose is markedly his own."
--"Booklist"
"Specktor's book deserves a special space in the L.A. canon, somewhere looking up at Pynchon and Chandler. Even as the narrator searches through his past to uncover the truth about his family, the author is searching, too."
--"LA Weekly"
..".Matthew Specktor's "American Dream Machine" [is] a big and generous novel that functions both as elegy for a recent past and fictional anthropology . . . .it evokes a world with casual ease and unexpected tenderness, recalling and referencing lots of other fiction (both Hollywood and non) while contriving to establish its unique authority."
--LA Review of Books
"Specktor's great achievement is to make familiar territory original, the Hollywood novel born anew. It's bold, weird, an d unforegetable, as startling as a poke in the eye."
--"The Sunday Telegraph Magazine"
"Specktor does for L.A. what Hemingway did for Paris and what Hunter S. Thompson did for Las Vegas: create a character that lives and breathes a city. Like hotels in Vegas, we see characters rise, grow dusty, and collapse." --"Daily Beat, Hot Reads"
""American Dream Machine" takes readers into situations that might seem familiar: the drug-fueled party at a star's house in the hills, tense meetings between executives, dimly-lit wood-paneled bars filled with players and movie stars. Yet Specktor's lyrical writing and insights into human nature elevate the novel into fresh territory."
--"Kirkus"
"["American Dream Machine"] is a vivid evocation of the entertainment business from the 1960s to the near present, an L.A. bildungsroman and a murder mystery, all wrapped in one . . . entertaining package."
--"New York Daily News"
"["American Dream Machine"] is an exciting, heart-rending fictionalized journey through the 40 years of Hol

"Sprawling, atmospheric.... ["American Dream Machine" has] a feline watchfulness and a poetic sensibility that echoes Bellow's and Updike's prose rhythms along with their voracious, exuberant intelligence."
--"New York Times Book Review"
"Richly engaging . . . . Specktor sees his Hollywood characters as three-dimensional and very human."
--"San Francisco Chronicle"
"With coolness and precision, Specktor comes across as a West Coast Saul Bellow in this sweeping narrative, but his energetic, pop-infused prose is markedly his own."
--"Booklist"
"Specktor's book deserves a special space in the L.A. canon, somewhere looking up at Pynchon and Chandler. Even as the narrator searches through his past to uncover the truth about his family, the author is searching, too."
--"LA Weekly"
..".Matthew Specktor's "American Dream Machine" [is] a big and generous novel that functions both as elegy for a recent past and fictional anthropology . . . .it evokes a world with casual ease and unexpected tenderness, recalling and referencing lots of other fiction (both Hollywood and non) while contriving to establish its unique authority."
--LA Review of Books
"Specktor's great achievement is to make familiar territory original, the Hollywood novel born anew. It's bold, weird, an d unforegetable, as startling as a poke in the eye."
--"The Sunday Telegraph Magazine"
"Specktor does for L.A. what Hemingway did for Paris and what Hunter S. Thompson did for Las Vegas: create a character that lives and breathes a city. Like hotels in Vegas, we see characters rise, grow dusty, and collapse." --"Daily Beat, Hot Reads"
""American Dream Machine" takes readers into situations that might seem familiar: the drug-fueled party at a star's house in the hills, tense meetings between executives, dimly-lit wood-paneled bars filled with players and movie stars. Yet Specktor's lyrical writing and insights into human nature elevate the nove
"Sprawling, atmospheric.... ["American Dream Machine" has] a feline watchfulness and a poetic sensibility that echoes Bellow's and Updike's prose rhythms along with their voracious, exuberant intelligence."
--"New York Times Book Review"
"Richly engaging . . . . Specktor sees his Hollywood characters as three-dimensional and very human."
--"San Francisco Chronicle"
"With coolness and precision, Specktor comes across as a West Coast Saul Bellow in this sweeping narrative, but his energetic, pop-infused prose is markedly his own."
--"Booklist"
"Specktor's book deserves a special space in the L.A. canon, somewhere looking up at Pynchon and Chandler. Even as the narrator searches through his past to uncover the truth about his family, the author is searching, too."
--"LA Weekly"
..".Matthew Specktor's "American Dream Machine" [is] a big and generous novel that functions both as elegy for a recent past and fictional anthropology . . . .it evokes a world with casual ease and unexpected tenderness, recalling and referencing lots of other fiction (both Hollywood and non) while contriving to establish its unique authority."
--LA Review of Books
""American Dream Machine" is far from a fictive polemic against capitalist Hollywood arrogance. Specktor's flawed heroes want redemption, relief, confession, inclusion, intimacy, family. For all their sleazy foibles, none of them are easy targets. They are men of appetites, at times tragicomically myopic. Like most of us real people. And that's what Specktor's characters are. Real. So, too, is the city in which they chase their thwarted desires."
--The Rumpus
"Specktor's great achievement is to make familiar territory original, the Hollywood novel born anew. It's bold, weird, an d unforegetable, as startling as a poke in the eye."
--"The Sunday Telegraph Magazine"
"Specktor does for L.A. what Hemingway did for Paris and what Hunter S. Thompson did for Las Vegas: c
"Sprawling, atmospheric. . .["American Dream Machine" has] a feline watchfulness and a poetic sensibility that echoes Bellow's and Updike's prose rhythms along with their voracious, exuberant intelligence."
"New York Times Book Review"
"Specktor s prose alone is enough to lure you in: it s sharply observed and nimble, like a more mischievous cousin of John Cheever, and his characters are wonderfully and deeply complicated, wounded and secretive."
"The Millions," Edan Lepucki's Year in Reading ("American Dream Machine" picked as one of the best books of 2013!)
"Richly engaging. . .Specktor sees his Hollywood characters as three-dimensional and very human."
"San Francisco Chronicle"
"With coolness and precision, Specktor comes across as a West Coast Saul Bellow in this sweeping narrative, but his energetic, pop-infused prose is markedly his own."
"Booklist"
"Specktor's book deserves a special space in the L.A. canon, somewhere looking up at Pynchon and Chandler. Even as the narrator searches through his past to uncover the truth about his family, the author is searching, too."
"LA Weekly"
..".Matthew Specktor's "American Dream Machine" [is] a big and generous novel that functions both as elegy for a recent past and fictional anthropology. . .it evokes a world with casual ease and unexpected tenderness, recalling and referencing lots of other fiction (both Hollywood and non) while contriving to establish its unique authority."
LA Review of Books
"Specktor's great achievement is to make familiar territory original, the Hollywood novel born anew. It's bold, weird, and unforgettable, as startling as a poke in the eye.
"The Sunday Telegraph Magazine"
"Specktor does for L.A. what Hemingway did for Paris and what Hunter S. Thompson did for Las Vegas create a character that lives and breathes a city. Like hotels in Vegas, we see characters rise, grow dusty, and collapse."
"Daily Beat, Hot Reads"
""American Dream Machine" takes readers into situations that might seem familiar: the drug-fueled party at a star's house in the hills, tense meetings between executives, dimly-lit wood-paneled bars filled with players and movie stars. Yet Specktor's lyrical writing and insights into human nature elevate the novel into fresh territory."
"Kirkus"
"["American Dream Machine"] is a vivid evocation of the entertainment business from the 1960s to the near present, an L.A. bildungsroman and a murder mystery, all wrapped in one. . .entertaining package."
"New York Daily News"
"["American Dream Machine"] is an exciting, heart-rending fictionalized journey through the 40 years of Hollywood history. . .Specktor has woven Nate's and the town's dreamlife into the very fabric of his storytelling, and the result is profound, heart-stirring talecomic, melodramatic, tragic, toothat brings the dark heart of Hollywood desire into the brilliant pitiless light of the California sun."
Las Vegas CityLife
""American Dream Machine" is grand, complex, lush, intelligent and lively, funny as hell and generous in ways you don t often find . It s also a strikingly original portrait of Los Angeles. People speak of Chandler s Los Angeles, or Didion s, or Nathaniel West s. Someday, they ll speak of Specktor s the same way."
Victor LaValle, author of "Big Machine" and "The Devil in Silver"
""American Dream Machine" may be the first literature I've read in which Los Angeles is assumed as London is assumed by Dickens and Paris by Proust and New York by a host of twentieth-century American writers. There is nothing ironic, ambivalent, or apologetic about Specktor's relationship to Los Angelesas it is and was, as myth and as a thriving capitol city. Los Angeles provides an animate pulse under the lives of these men and boys, a source of permanence that lends their struggles gravity."
Mona Simpson, "My Hollywood"
Matthew Specktor has created a great American character in Beau Rosenwald. He is full of contradictions, full of ambition, full of raw life, and yet he manages to seduce us. This riveting novel shows us the existential desperation that lurks in the dark hunger of Hollywood power mongers. Specktor gets every detail right, and "American Dream Machine"'s sentences are suffused with an elegiac beauty.
Dana Spiotta, author of "Stone Arabia" and "Eat The Document"
""American Dream Machine" is the definitive new Hollywood novel. It's almost impossible to write now about the movie business without resorting to well-established mythology. Somehow, here, Matthew Specktor has figured out a way to do so."
David Shields, author of "Reality Hunger" and "The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead"
"This is the novel about Los Angeles that I've been waiting fora mythical LA full of longing and distances and illusion. Specktor has captured the LA I know, the one all around me and the one in my head, a city of invention and grit, surface and underbelly. Funny, poignant, and gorgeously written."
Charles Yu, author of "How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe" and "Sorry Please Thank You"
On the other side of paradise from Monroe Stahr and "The Last Tycoon" is Beau Rosenwald in "American Dream Machine," the last agent who mattered as much to the movies as a studio boss. Against the backdrop of the possibility-plagued seventies, Matthew Specktor s moving, witty, and irresistible epic captures as well as any novel in memory that time in LA when twilight could still be mistaken for sunrise.
Steve Erickson, author of "Zeroville""