Double Feature — Owen King

An epic debut novel about a young man coming to terms with his life in the process and aftermath of making his first film--from critically acclaimed short story writer Owen King--for readers of Joshua Ferris, Sam Lipsyte, and Chad Harbach.

Filmmaker Sam Dolan has a difficult relationship with his father, B-movie actor Booth Dolan--a boisterous, opinionated, lying lothario whose screen legacy falls somewhere between cult hero and pathetic. Allie, Sam's dearly departed mother, was a woman whose only fault, in Sam's eyes, was her eternal affection for his father. Also included in the cast of indelible characters: a precocious, frequently violent half-sister; a conspiracy-theorist second wife; an Internet-famous roommate; a family friend and contractor who can't stop expanding his house; a happy-go-lucky college girlfriend and her husband, a retired Yankees catcher; the morose producer of a true crime show; and a slouching indie film legend. Not to mention a tragic sex monster.

Unraveling the tumultuous, decades-spanning story of the Dolan family's friends, lovers, and adversaries, "Double Feature "is about letting go of everything--regret, resentment, ambition, dignity, moving pictures, the dead--and taking it again from the top. Combining propulsive storytelling and mordant wit against the backdrop of indie filmmaking, "Double Feature "brims with a deep understanding of the trials of ambition and art, of relationships and life, and of our attempts to survive it all.