“Bill Reynolds is a relentless storyteller. He starts fast, and neither drifts nor lets up until the finish. In Life Real Loud, he has found a subject — engaging, suspenseful, and profound — to match his talent.” —William Langewiesche, Vanity Fair international correspondent and author of Aloft: Thoughts on the Experience of Flight

“Bill Reynolds writes like Calvin Trillin in Remembering Denny or Michael Lewis in The New New Thing as he examines the life and strange career of a college friend. . . . Reynolds reveals a modern Robin Hood, a roots and rock ’n’ roll musician, a hedonistic moralist, and the victim of an expensive cosmic joke.” — Norman Sims, author of True Stories: A Century of Literary Journalism

“If Sergey Brin, Al Gore, and The Dude conceived a love child, you might end up with John Lefebvre. Bill Reynolds’s Life Real Loud dances deeply into the rags-to-riches-to-gilded-rags story of this cowtown Cinderfella, with bonus tracks riffing online gambling, enviro-philanthropy, and L.A. recording sessions. The larger-than-life Lefebvre, with his out-sized heart, out-sized opinions, and out-sized appetites, could very well end up a Canadian folk hero. Get ready to party.” — Zsuzsi Gartner, author of Better Living Through Plastic Explosives