A Phantasmagorical Machine

Los Angeles in the 1970s, with all its lazy pleasures and dreams, its crimes spoken and unspoken ... a family of entertainment professionals who create, and embody, the images the industry demands ... and the search for meaning and connection in a world of performance, desire and heartbreak. It's 1978, and a lonely teenage boy named Harris wanders the San Fernando Valley streets. After a traumatic assault, he's searching for meaning and purpose in the cars of men who pick him up at strip mall parking lots. When one of his rides asks if he'd like to be photographed, he discovers a newfound sense of power and control by appearing in low-budget gay porn loops. Meanwhile, across town, the well-respected actress Eva Loesch is also wandering. An ingenue in the 1950s, comedienne in the 60s, she's now reduced to instant coffee commercials - until she gets a chance to join the hit TV series Bowman. With her star on the rise, she's able to exert her own power and control, especially over her grown daughter and two grandchildren - one of whom, Harris, has become involved in some extracurricular activities she's not entirely sure of. As she warns the family that her reputation as television's first woman DA can't risk being tarnished, Harris has found his own underground reputation, as scruffy, raunchy "Kevin," the embodiment of a laconic southern California attitude that's suddenly, wildly in demand. But the forces that shape their destinies turn out to be more treacherous than either of them imagines. As their careers intertwine -- and Harris loses control of his own -- their dueling ambitions threaten to bring down the carefully constructed lives, and images, they both worked so hard to create. Equal parts rueful humor and human heartbreak, A Phantasmagorical Machine is the story of a family of survivors and performers, the city that made them, and an exploration of sexuality and identity. One day, years after the unresolved events of his youth, Harris opens a magazine to discover his own obituary - and at last, the crimes and mysteries of the past reveal themselves, and the search for who died in a lonely desert trailer brings the whole family together - with its eccentric and outrageous circle of friends, lovers and assorted hangers-on - to finally reckon with the meaning of love, attachment, kindness and forgiving.

• | Author: David Law
• | Publisher: Bowker
• | Publication Date: May 28, 2023
• | Number of Pages: 392 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 0578499908
• | ISBN-13: 9780578499901