Synopses & Reviews
A deftly satirical first novel chronicling thirty-two years in the life of a spectacularly dysfunctional California family.
Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, Vietnam, and the Kennedy assassination, Andrew Kelbow's idyllic life in the San Fernando Valley -- all swimming pools and tennis lessons, Technicolor and Formica, Stingray bikes and Mexican cleaning ladies -- is disrupted one day when his entertainment-lawyer father leaves his mother under a cherry tree in the Mojave desert.
How do the Kelbows handle such upheaval in the years that follow? In denial, mostly: they're pathologically happy-go-lucky, chronically unengaged. Gastronomic, nuptial, seismic, musical, and cinematic diversions, along with a healthy dose of illicit drug use, gambling, truancy, and political activism, keep the family functioning -- but barely. As the Kelbow family pushes the fine line between the Eastern notion of living in the moment and the California hedonism of instant gratification, can simultaneously over-and underachieving Andrew focus enough to imagine his way out of this lunatic paradise?
Review
"...Everything is both recognizable and estranged in this lopsided fairy tale of the pursuit of happiness and culinary satisfaction..." (Phillip Lopate, author of Portrait of My Body)
Review
"[A] good natured first novel . . . Brenner's main goal is simply to remember . . . and, more important, to entertain, which she does, like an old friend retelling classic stories over a fresh pot of coffee."—
Mark Rozzo, Los Angeles Times"[Brenner has] a keen eye for social trends and the changing landscape of West Hollywood . . . A baby boomer . . . will probably delight in Greetings from the Golden State's numerous period citations and satirical family setting."—Ronald Totten, The Washington Post
"Both laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely touching . . . this is a winning debut, full of snappy insights."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Leslie Brenner is an original, with a true comic vision: she has the knack of transforming the most ordinary details of modern life, with hilarious deadpan poignancy. Everything is recognizable and estranged in this lopsided fairy tale of the pursuit of happiness and culinary satisfaction. The prose is good enough to eat."—Phillip Lopate, author of Portrait of My Body
"Funny, inventive . . . a delight. Brenner has a sharp eye, a dead aim and a lovely light touch that make this book a sure winner for Californians, sometime visitors, and anybody who's ever wanted to come here."—Kit Reed, San Jose Mercury News
"A fun ride . . . Brenner has conjured a fast-paced, quirky novel about a town that rarely gets such smart literary treatment. It feels like a novel that Woody Allen would write if he suddenly decided to give the Golden State a break . . . A knife-sharp comic vision."—Sara Scribner, The Hartford Courant
"Brenner's characters are complex and intriguing."—Booklist
"Puts a new spin on cul-de-sacs and strip malls."—Portland Oregonian
Synopsis
Born in Southern California in the brightly cast shadow of the Cold War, Andrew Kelbow grows up in an average American family—average until Andrew's father leaves his mother under a cherry tree in the Mohave desert. How the remaining Kelbows survive this rift is a study in diversions, both illicit and ordinary, and over the course of 30 years Andrew must discover for himself the true definition of the happy family.
About the Author
Leslie Brenner, author of the award-winning
American Appetite: The Coming of Age of a Cuisine, received an MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University.
Greeting From The Golden State is her first novel.