Customer Reviews

Dillinger in Hollywood: New and Selected Short Stories

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John Sayles, better known as a screenwriter and filmmaker, has been quietly publishing short stories since the 1980's. In this collection, he has compiled ten stories written over the span of twenty-four years, the oldest of which lends its title to the book. Some of these stories focus on the lesser known side of the film industry, the world of bit actors and technical crews, while others explore such varied experiences as women whose men are incarcerated and midwives. Most of his stories are leisurely, almost novelistic in their unfolding, and a few approach the novella length. Sayles seems in no hurry to finish his tales, and will introduce key characters ten pages into them. The stories he treats this way have no urgency, no sharp spikes of conflict, and yet they are engrossing because of Sayles's superb ability to draw his characters and their situations. "Dillinger in Hollywood" is a humorous, bittersweet tale about a man in a show business nursing home who maintains that he used to be John Dillinger before he had staged his "murder" and took a job as a driver on a movie lot. Sayles occasionally breaks with his own traditions. One of the messiest and shortest stories is also one of the most effective. In "To the Light", Annie, a midwife, helps an illegal immigrant deliver a breech baby while remembering her first delivery, a boy who turned out to be a mass-murderer.

Not surprisingly, John Sayles knows how to tell a story, even if it turns out to be a shaggy dog tale. His unpretentious style is less visual than one would expect, and instead of giving the reader a sweeping scope, he focuses on quiet moments between characters. These largely traditional stories should appeal to a wide range of readers, from Sayles's film fans to readers of literary fiction.

John Sayles defined himself as a writer before he started directing films. The stories here were written over a 20 year period then published in 2004 as a group. He won the O.Henry Award for the work...and deservedly so. He puts us in the midst of characters and lets them emerge through their group dialog and banter. I particularly enjoyed the way humor emerges among characters not trying to be funny. Sayles writes as an observer of diverse characters who bear witness to the subjects of each story.

The two stories about Hollywood characters I especially enjoyed. The first, Dillinger in Hollywood is set in a retirement home for industry performers and centers around a former stunt man who has repeatedly told fellow residents about all the stars and important directors with whom he worked. One day, in reaction his Parcheesi partner a former driver on the Fox lot tells everyone "I used to be Johnnie Dillinger. In the flesh." Then we learn how this could be. The second Hollywood story features a 30 year bit player ("I worked the silents, the other actors got the speaking roles") who finally gets his break with his first speaking role in a Western movie. His scenes, however, are ruined because the horses keep looking into the camera.

Another story puts us in a bus full of women on the way to see their men in prison and at the Halfway Diner at which they stop. There is one about the decades long search for a buried pirate's treasure. Then we find ourselves among the women peeling "mudbugs" in the backroom of a Louisiana restaurant. In Keeping Time a drummer sets up for a gig while the sweeper of the club regales him with his own experiences in music. To the Light is about midwives in a Central American country.
Another is set at a boat marina and still another in a lounge. In all his stories the characters are distinctive and entertaining.

Overall, this worth the read.