THE GOLDEN HOUR is OUT TODAY

THE GOLDEN HOUR is out today. Grizzled old Gen X-er that I am, the horn-honking and self-promotive hollering of the past few weeks has felt a little out of step with my preferences, but I’m extremely proud of this book, and totally delighted with the responses the book has received from readers so far. Among the pleasures has been this, excellent, review by Mark Athakakis at the Los Angeles Times, the kind of review that can make a writer feel seen in the best way:

Casey Schwartz wrote a long and thoughtful profile for the cover of the Washington Post’s Book World this weekend. (That’s a non-paywalled archive link for those who’ve—ahem—canceled their subscriptions to the Bezos Bugle recently).

Lorraine Berry wrote a great profile for the LA Times yesterday, in which I have some rather pointy words for David Zaslav and blockbuster cinema.

There was an excerpt from the book in the Wall Street Journal last week. I got to chop it up with my old friend Richard Rushfield on The Ankler a few days ago, wrote a bit about Apple+’s The Studio for GQ (contra the lame Chinatown homages in episode 4, the show finds another gear in its upcoming episodes, particularly the season finale). Heck, there was even a sweet little piece about the book in AirMail this weekend.

All of this has been a blast, and I would imagine there’s more coming, though I won’t be devoting future newsletters to it. The book is out. It’s in the lap of the gods what happens next. I hope you’ll read it, however: I really aired it out and put everything I had into this book, which feels like a proper conclusion to a project I began almost a decade ago. If you’re in Los Angeles, come out and see me tonight in conversation with Tom Bissell at Diesel Books (starts at 6:30), or if you’ve got those East Side Rush Hour Traffic Blues, come by the LA Times Festival of Books on Saturday, where Griffin Dunne and I will be in conversation with David Ulin about our respective books. (Tickets required for that one: you can get ‘em here. If you’re in New York, come to the East Coast launch on May 1st at Powerhouse Arena (you’ll want for that one too, but they’re cheapies and they can apply towards purchase of the book). The Bay Area will see me on May 8th, with the boss Sterling Holywhitemountain, and May 15th will have me in Chicago at Exile in Bookville with my wondrous chum Deborah Shapiro.

It’s all happening! Come through! And I’ll be back on this site imminently—tomorrow, in fact—with a long piece that has nothing at all to do with THE GOLDEN HOUR, mercifully. I’m excited for all that comes next, and thank you, as ever, for reading—

Matthew