A surprisingly fine , Felliniesque novel about Los Angeles.

Grady Harp – top 50 reviewer.

ECHO PARK, a culturally rich oasis in the midst of sprawling downtown Los Angeles, has just been immortalized in a terrific new novel by Steve Scott. Rich in color, scents, sights, and character, this first novel is a joy. Scott writes in a nonlinear fashion that at times takes the reader a little too far off track, but when he brings it all together it is clear that this is a unique view of a unique place. Narrated by a gentleman whose closest ally is his telescope (Mr. Peepers), we are given a view of Echo Park with all the beautiful bridges, boats, lotus blossoms, and the hookers, hustlers, cops, and assorted oddballs that keep this hotpot bubbling to the very last page. Scott introduces myriad characters - a masturbating priest, the ladies of the Midnight Son who ply their bodies at the Suku Suku bar, the Pastime Jocks of the Armpit Lounge (a collection of bizarre older gay men), and the abused but salvaged hooker Charo who is the pivotal character bringing the explosion of colorful happenings together. At times the author allows his surreal fantasies to confuse the storyline, but his poetic imagery is so lush...and so much fun! ...that this minor flaw is quickly overlooked. In the end this Fellini-type cinematic story finds meaning in each of the characters lives/roles, and with the narrator's final letters to his departed friend - Neurotica Jones - summing up a life as viewed through a balcony telescope, we are left caring very much for all the folk of Echo Park. This is a very fine first novel and I encourage everyone who is fascinated with the madness of Los Angeles, in all its mixed ethnic splendor, to jump on for a wild and satisfying ride!

When Steve Scott's writing first became known to me it was during a Palm Springs Writer's Seminar I was conducting. His talent stood out immediately in his short stories (surely a compilation of them will now be published after the stunning debut of his first novel, 'ECHO PARK'). Discover this daring tour-de-force that confronts good and evil, as well as the flimsy masks people don trying to hide prejudices. It is at once funny, absurd, and unique, a novel that tests the staid, too often predictable literary world, per se