... Samuel Dolan graduated from a liberal arts college in upstate New York. His girlfriend, Polly, left to live with her parents in Florida. Sam's mother is dead, and Sam doesn't much like his father, Booth. Booth Dolan has made a career out of scenery-chewing in B-movies--and doing what he wants, including chasing skirts. Sam's passionate ambition is his indie film, Who We Are, "about the costs of growing up--and the costs of not growing up. And that was heavy stuff." Sam makes his film, but the film that finds its way into print isn't the film he made... King's characters are both attractive and realistic, not only larger-than-life Booth and disaffected Sam, but also Allie, Sam's mother, who was always cool and accepting, even of Booth's "blithe selfishness." There's Mina, Sam's wise and fragile half sister; Polly, who still beds Sam even after marrying a buffoonish retired Yankee baseball player; Rick Savini, an eccentric yet successful character actor who treats Sam as an equal; and television producer Tess, earnest and bossy, whom Sam meets as he films a wedding. The narrative blossoms and unfolds and expands, Sam becoming wiser and more likable, even as he reconciles with his world at a happily-enough-ever-after homecoming. Unique in concept and execution, with much mention of Orson Welles and Dog Day Afternoon, King's novel is winning.
Superbly imagined lit-fic about family, fathers and film.-- "Kirkus"
"Sharp, hilarious, and irreverent,
Double Feature is not only a love-letter to cinema, but also a moving exploration of what it means to be an artist. This novel is brilliant, and Owen King is a magician."--Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia
"
Double Feature is a beautiful, wrenching beginning, and Owen King is a young writer of immense promise."--Larry McMurtry
"[A] powerfully insightful and often devastatingly funny debut....
Double Feature constantly walks the line between tragedy and comedy, between love and loathing, between friendship and strained codependency, between art and what's only posing as art."-- "Bookpage"
"King strikes a balance between the grand narratives of popular storytelling--there are affairs and phone sex, jilted lovers and enraged cuckolds, budding romance, emotionally unstable teenagers, fights both verbal and physical, and of course a satisfying resolution in the end--and the small, sharp details of higher-brow, character-driven, artsy fare....The literary and the popular can coexist.
Double Feature makes this point, and proves it too."-- "The Rumpus"
"Owen King's
Double Feature is an ingeniously structured novel about fathers and sons, good art and bad art, success and failure, fight or flight. It manages both to redeem and condemn the overconfidence of youth, and introduces us to a wonderfully, tragically lovable cast of characters. This is terrific book."--Tom Bissell, author of God Lives in St. Petersburg and Magic Hours
