A novel that spans 100 years of American history, from the early days of cinema to the rise of NFTs, about parents and children, the drive to create even in times of crisis, and the inheritance of grand western dreams.
Ambitious, widescreen ... Castleberry has pursued the tricky task of creating an orderly novel whose theme is chaos. There are places where he’s not quite up to the task, where the various lines that stretch through and across the family trees can feel like tripwires for the reader ... The flaws in The Californians reflect ambition and overexertion, not slackness. Castleberry strives to realistically capture the way money shores up or permeates all sorts of creative endeavors.
Exuberant ... With its polished sentences and rollicking rhythm, The Californians immerses us in an elaborate plot, despite a glut of detail and a few sluggish patches ... Bold, ambitious.
Castleberry animates his characters’ lives with a longing for meaning and a commitment to historical detail. The result is a novel as ambitious, beautiful, and precarious as the Golden State itself.
