Night & Day

Bruce Wagner Does It Again

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"Memorial" coverSeptember 18, 2006 — Followers of this admittedly sporadically-updated site know I’m a big fan of Bruce Wagner. His brilliant L.A.-centric oeuvre is an antidote to an industry town that takes itself far too seriously. Wagner is an acid-penned Virgil guiding us through the inferno of Los Angeles in brutally lustrous, lusty and luscious style.

I’m only partly through his latest opus, "Memorial" (Simon & Schuster), and once again I’m blown away by Bruce’s brilliance. If Nathanael West had lived to see 50 he’d have counted himself lucky to produce as much incandescent prose as Bruce has. He and his pal James Ellroy are single-handedly keeping L.A. interesting and alive as a cultural entity in a landscape blighted with Tom Cruises and Paris Hiltons.

As an added bonus, “Memorial” is beautifully designed. This picture does not do it justice – the tactile pleasure of it can only be appreciated in 3D. If you have any sense at all you will buy it now.










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