October 2010

Twelve stories, all set in Los Angeles. Twelve tales about ordinary men whose lives flip upside down - or already have, or are about to. Lange doesn't write about the dream factory. He writes about what's behind the curtain: the grit, the desperation, the moments when everything falls apart.

17th century Scotland, torn apart by civil war. Catholic King James fled from his son-in-law, Protestant King William of Orange. Jacobites versus Orangists. Charles Leslie, a Jacobite clergyman, lands from Ireland in the middle of this mess. Fletcher drops you right into the chaos.

New York. Kerry Stevens, literary journalist, investigates a mystery writer. Carson McNeal writes bestsellers but never gives interviews. Nobody's ever seen his face. Classic setup for a graphic novel that gets weird fast. This one hooked me from page one.

Allen opens with Shakespeare: "Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Perfect mood-setter. London setting, two couples wandering through their romantic disasters. Classic Allen territory - everyone's miserable and making terrible choices. I watched it twice.