Force Majeure was called a âsmashing debut novelâ by the Kirkus Reviews upon its original publication in 1991. A sardonic and absurdly dark, yet hilarious take on the âbusiness as usualâ of Hollywoodâs twisted class system that proved Bruce Wagner was not just an author, but a cultural anthropologist.
The perpetually up-and-coming Hollywood screenwriter, Bud Wiggins, drifts aimlessly in and out of the lives of others and from one script idea to another. Moonlighting as a limo driver to pay his bills, he finds himself immersed in a world of vanity and degradation.
Wagner infuses his novel with the familiar archetypical characters of Hollywoodâa nihilistic producer, an aging film star, an obnoxious mogulâand exposes the madness that drives them all.