Lost Pages

When Paul Di Filippo unleashes his imagination, watch out. The result is sometimes shocking, sometimes hilarious, always unpredictable. In Lost Pages, Di Filippo has deliberately selected as protagonists for his nine alternate world stories men and women who in our world became known for their work as writers -- people of strong character who, whatever their situation, would have proved extraordinary.
He envisions Frank Kafka as the scourge of Gotham's mean streets -- by day, the mild-mannered advice columnist behind Ask Josephine, by night, the Jackdaw, a superhero who terrifies evildoers. Anne Frank, having escaped by a matter of days the German invasion of Holland, becomes the Hollywood stand-in for Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and later the drug-addled ex-wife of Michey Rooney. Little Prince author Antoine de St.-Exupery -- Tonio de Saint-Ex to his many admirers -- is as dashing in Di Filippo's world as he was in ours. He appears as the pilot who can save the remnants of Western civilization in the aftermath of a devastating plague, and along the way has a passionate affair with Beryl Markham. Henry Miller: messenger for Western Union. Philip K. Dick: hardware store salesman and husband of a chronically depressed, alcoholic (and unrecognized) Linda Ronstadt.