Ah, I wish I had written my review as soon as I finished the book. Then mine would have been the first review and rating for it. As is, someone got there first, with a two-star rating and a review consisting of nothing the author's name. Sad. Especially because this book deserves so much more.
Castleberry impressed and wowed me with his Nine Shiny Objects a few years back.
Now he's back, with another great American novel, albeit somewhat less so.
The range is still there: the novel spans a century, following intertwining families of artists and artist-adjacents as they navigate the turmoil of decades, politics, love, loss, and other harmful things people do to one another.
The writing is brilliant, satisfying as only true literature can. Castleberry brings his characters and their art to life in the way that can be best describe as ... artful. Masterful, perhaps, too.
But ... there's a but. The novel twists on itself exhaustively, hopping timelines and perspectives in a way that makes it something of an effort to get all the characters and their relationships to each other straight. (And this is coming from someone who successfully followed all the lines of succession in The Game of Thrones!) And the other thing is that once you do figure out the personae dramatis, you may find yourself not caring that much about them and their personal dramatics.
This is to say, the novel is populated by interesting and complex but not necessarily likable characters, which may limit one's emotional engagement.
All that said, it was still a very worthy read or a very high quality. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

I so tried to get into this story but it just didn't hold my attention. I'm sure it's a delightful novel but just not for me. It was topp dry and uninteresting. I'm sure others will enjoy it.

The Californians is a sprawling story about two California familes and how they intersect over almost a century. There are three intertwined stories, but the primary ones belong to Klaus (a silent film director who moves over to television) and Di (Klaus' granddaughter, a contemporary artist). The story begins with Tobey, related to the actor who starred in Klaus' biggest tv hit, stealing some of Di's paintings from his father's house after fleeing a wildfire. The story of the paintings are the basis for the rest of the book, but it's also about family, art, commerce, politics, and the choices we make to invent and re-invent ourselves. I really liked it.