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Synopsis:
An epic novel that brings together a motley crew of characters, including porn stars in love, celebrity chore-whores, plotting dermatologists, masseurs, and shrinks, among many others cast in the debauchery of Hollywood.
I’m Losing You follows the rich and famous and the down and out as their lives intersect in a series of coincidences. A masterfully told story of decadence that examines the psychological complexities of Hollywood reality and fantasy, soaring far beyond the reaches of Robert Stone’s Children of Light and Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust.
Review:
There are two groups in America that are endlessly fascinating due to the depth of secrecy, depravity, and lack of moral compass they possess. The first is people in the government. The second is people in the entertainment industry. It can be argued that we pay closer attention to actors, directors, producers, and everyone connected to making film and TV more than government officials because we enjoy the art that people in Hollywood produce, and sometimes we develop an emotional attachment to TV shows and movies. Because of this we hope in the depths of our heart that the people who make us feel attached to a movie or television program are good people. (We also want this feeling about Hollywood people because we already know our fascination with the government officials is because there is no hope for them. They are all awful people, but we follow them because of the other emotions they invoke, sometimes good, but mostly bad.) Another difference between Hollywood and Washington is that there still seems to be an achievable dream about making a career in entertainment, TV shows, making movies, rubbing elbows with famous people, and being part of the industry. The reverse of this is true in the government. Common citizens have been locked out of the government, and there is no sense of having a career in politics because there is no positive side to the dream. The corruption in Hollywood and Washington has always existed and will always bring stories that are bizarre, unbelievable, and sometimes infuriating.
Bruce Wagner knows this. He has written many books about Hollywood and the system of film and television making. He also writes about how many of those behind the entertainment are terrible people. Terrible people in Hollywood have always existed, and as the times change, so do the depravities. Some very disturbing things are done between characters in this novel, and these things are not new to the entertainment industry. The more you read the history of Hollywood and the famous people (the Big Stars) or the rich people that keep the industry moving, you learn that there is something corrupted about a group of famous and rich people living together, almost like they have to outdo each other with their disgusting acts.
This is the backdrop of his novel I’m Losing You. He takes a set of stories from a group of characters associated with making movies and television, particularly producers, and wads their lives up into a huge tangled knot. There are many characters that are threaded throughout, including producers, assistants, a director of softcore pornography wanting to make a name for himself, writers trying to get their scripts noticed, drug pushing doctors, psychiatrists, and old TV stars that are shocked when people recognize them. The knot is huge, and the strings go in so many different directions, sometimes directions that you do not expect. At the center of this knot is the truth that in Wagner’s Hollywood, nobody gets what they expect or what they desire. Instead they settle for what they are given. And the worse you treat others, the worse your fate. I’m Losing You is filled with disappointment. Most of the novel’s characters start with optimism, but not a single one of them gets what they expect.
Wagner’s writing reminds me of another writer who writes about Los Angeles, James Ellroy. Ellroy writes about the corrupt Los Angeles police. Wagner writes about the corrupt entertainment industry. I find the stories about Hollywood and Film and TV production more fascinating than the police, but I also know that Ellroy’s depiction of Los Angeles police is just as interesting as Wagner’s Hollywood. I’m Losing You is written in a similar style as an Ellroy novel, and it is sometimes difficult because there are so many characters and threads that are just one big knot, and the writing is stylized on top of it, sometimes with puns and metaphors, and sometimes with scenes that grow more and more abstract. I like the challenge of reading Bruce Wagner’s (and Ellroy’s) novels. After all of the ugliness that propels the people and the stories from page to page, Wagner does a good job in showing growth for many (not all but many) of the characters, and this to me makes I’m Losing You worth the effort.
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