Rick LenzCritiques

This was a captivating story. There are many characters at play, and each gives us a piece of the puzzle. Gaines was easily the most complex character, probably because we get some extra insight into him via his therapy sessions. Sunny was interesting, and it was nice to see the more human side of a therapist, someone many would consider to be detached and impartial most of the time. The interplay of modern greed and older Apache traditions with personal growth and relationships made for a compelling storyline that kept me turning pages from cover to cover. An excellent tale of suspense that will have you wondering how things will play out til the very end.

This book will take you on a captivating and spiritual journey through time. It opens with a sweet couple, deeply in love, in the modern era. Then we follow Danny back in time, where he stands at an important crossroads. One path will lead him back to the happiness he has already found in 2021, one can take him to stardom. All the colorful characters that populate this story were wonderful and memorable. I absolutely loved every moment of this book. A beautiful work of literary fiction with some romantic elements woven in.

I enjoyed this comedic look into the world of celebrity impersonators. The book dragged for me towards the end but over all I did find it to be an enjoyable little book.

I received this book through the LibraryThing Member Giveaway program.

Writing was good, characters were fun but a little underdeveloped. I thought the storyline was very interesting. I enjoyed a glimpse into the world of celebrity impersonators. However, towards the middle of the book things started to fall flat...and they stayed there...and then towards the end everything took a turn for the incredibly uncomfortable worse.

I couldn't get into this book. The premise sounded intriguing but the characters were flat and I never felt like I really understood why I was reading the story. Well, no, I was reading the story because the blurb sounded good - woman discovers an incomplete John Wayne and James Dean film... which is the equivalent of Hollywood's holy grail. Great premise. The only sad thing is that the book failed to make this the real center of the story.½

Actor and playwright Rick Lenz draws upon several decades of personal experience immersed in the culture of Hollywood in the writing of his novel "Impersonators Anonymous". The engaging idea of the story is the hypothetical question- what if John Wayne and James Dean had starred in the production of an incomplete Western epic film in 1955, a film cut short by Dean's untimely death and then kept secret for the next 20 years?

In this novel, all the characters are neurotic and at least two of them are apparently psychotic. Lenz may be suggesting that the American film industry, at least among actors, directors, producers and screen writers, is not conducive to mental health. The chief psychological problem troubling the characters is their unstable sense of identity. This is particularly true for the two actors who are assigned to complete the roles originally played by John Wayne and James Dean in "Showdown", which was about two thirds through production in 1955 when it was abruptly cancelled. Those two impersonators are chosen for their ability to assume the personas of Wayne and Dean and portray them convincingly on the screen, so that the "missing scenes' in "Showdown" can be filmed and the movie finally can be released, nearly 25 years after the original production.

But the impersonators who play Wayne and Dean are not simply imitating these film icons, they actually channel them, become them, as they impersonate them. The actor who impersonates John Wayne also has episodes in which he sees and talks with the "Duke". We readers can't be sure if he is hallucinatory or if something supernatural is happening. Likewise, the young actor who plays James Dean seems to slowly become possessed by the spirit of the dead rebel without a cause, until he (and the readers) can't be sure where his own personality ends and that of Dean starts. It seems that this sort of identity crisis is an occupational hazard among professional impersonators and so they have a support group for it- Impersonators Anonymous.

The novel generates a fog of mystery- why was "Showdown" such a closely guarded secret? Why does Richard Boone, the actor, reveal its existence after 20 years? How do they keep the news of the discovery and completion of "Showdown" from going public? Lenz doesn't answer these questions fully, as he is working to create a study in psychology and art rather than an account bound by facts and logic.

Identity and impersonation flow through this novel by Ric Lenz. Emily Bennett has a facial recognition condition where she arbitrarily sees famous people in the faces of those around her. She has worked around Hollywood all her life and dreams of becoming a producer. Rumor of a lost, unfinished western called Showdown, starring John Wayne and James Dean, gives her the opportunity to enter that world and the world of celebrity impersonators. The life of these lookalikes carries this short novel and is certainly the most enjoyable. Who plays the role best, the actor or the impersonator who plays the actor playing the role? What can we believe? Do we become dulled to what is real?

I was less interested in the plot of the novel and the completion of the unfinished film, than I was with the lives of the characters, the questions about reality and artifice and how we deal, especially in the world today, with what is real and true.

All about the face...the forefront of who we are...at least in physical identity. This book is much and all and even more about that. A woman with a condition that oddly enough causes her to not be aware of the faces that she should know so well. Faces that are common....celebrities...those are the faces that her brain resonates and replaces facial appearances of those other people with. Then we got male impersonators who transform their faces into household names...celebrities. Things get skewed...just as things are skewed for the woman with the condition. It's all a strange mixture of odd characters with even odder stories...combined to make the oddest of tales.

A unique and wonderful read. I really enjoyed it. One not easy to forget long after having read it.

Every now and then, I finish a book and find myself completely unable to decide whether or not I liked it. This is one of those books.

For the first half or so, I was pretty sure I did like it. I couldn't quite get a read on the tone (was it supposed to be funny? There were definitely moments that made me chuckle, but they seemed awkward and quickly disappeared), but the story was compelling enough to keep me going.

But, by the end, I found myself unimpressed, even frustrated, by the direction the story was going. It almost felt as if Lenz was attempting to artificially ramp up the tension, like he made a list of ideas that could be offensive or shocking or off-putting and just pulled a few of them out of a hat. As a result the drama felt manufactured. The characters, particularly Emily, also felt less than genuine (what was with her attitude toward Solange, exactly?).

Still, I WANTED to like it. I loved the premise, and as a film buff I got a kick out of the details Lenz peppered throughout. The twist teased by Emily's condition was fun, and just preposterous enough to work. But it felt like none of these bits were fully realized, and ultimately I think the book failed to meet its own potential.½

I won this through a giveaway. I consider myself a homegrown cinephile so was looking forward to reading this. This novel is set in the seventies and follows Emily Bennett. She wants to be a movie producers and has a strange affliction that is similar to face blindness but instead of not recognizing faces she sees everyone as a famous actor.
She hears about a rumored movie called Showdown that was to have starred James Dean and John Wayne. She becomes obsessed with the idea of recreating the film and seeks out impersonators to play the roles of Dean and Wayne.
It sounds like a surreal concept and the novel is surreal in many ways. There are many mysteries woven throughout the narrative and connections between the characters that are murky but become clear as the novel progresses. There are some interesting twists throughout. At times I found it difficult to keep the characters straight but this may be playing into the theme of subjectivity or lack thereof that is underlying the narrative. What does it mean to be impersonator; to be two people; how easy it is to become lost in a narrative that isn't necessarily your own. I wasn't sure if I found the ending satisfying: there were a few scenes I think that could have benefited from being fleshed out a bit more, but overall I enjoyed the read. This is a unique and thought-provoking read.

This book took me longer to read than usual because of the way it was written. I personally found it hard to follow. The story line was also different for me and not my preference. I did like the intent of the story overall. I found the book to be overall ok. I wouldn't read it again but I actually would recommend it to others. Although it wasn't what I thought, it was still a readable book.

I was asked to provide an honest review in exchange for an honest review.

Rick Lenz somewhat caught my attention with this Hollywood tale of a lost John Wayne/James Dean film that was never finished. The main character Emily has a condition in which she sees everyone as some some celebrity. It’s this condition that leads her not only to the film industry but to the myth of this lost movie called Showdown.
After years of searching she finds that this movie was in fact real but not finished - in come Dean and Wayne doppelgängers Jimmy and Tom; friends of Emily’s who agree to work with her to try and finish the unfinished piece.
While it was an easy flowing novel, there were times when I found it dragging on. Most of the book was gathering the right people and dialogue between the three main characters that went in cycles. By the time production did get started and you started to see more to Tom and Jimmy than the famous personalities that they portray to make a living the book is nearly over and it feels a little too late?½

This book was an okay read. The amount of characters and how they are all connected throughout the different years was hard for me to follow. The story line was interesting and I like that there was an actual ending to the book and not one that left you hanging.

This is a new author for me, and I feel like the writing had a layer that I haven't penetrated. I think the idea was that we all have different personas that we put on in different situations, and while that is not necessarily bad, it can be if we lose the sense of who we really are because of it.

But I fail to see how a group fashioned after AA but for celebrity impersonators would work. There's no mention of a 12 step program like AA has. I can see celebrity impersonators possibly needing a support group. I'm sure there are common issues that could be discussed: how to find work, how to be paid fairly for your work, how to deal with hecklers, how and when to be in character vs. when to not be in character, etc.

I did find it odd that a person with poor facial recognition sense who sees other people as celebrities on a routine basis would be convinced that she'd found the right people to play John Wayne and James Dean--well, maybe not so much that she would be convinced but that we should be convinced she has--the author does deal with that concern in the book.

For my taste, the book took too long to set up the premise--and then to get to the end without a full resolution was a bit of a letdown (though probably realistic to what would happen in the real world.)

I don't know enough about film to know if there really is a rumor of a movie starring both Wayne and Dean. I could see how that could intrigue many people if there were though, even though I am not a fan of either actor. I could see how it could intrigue an aspiring producer who has an inside track on finding the original film. I would think it would be hard to keep it quiet--something they mostly accomplished in the book.

Note: I received a copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's in exchange for an honest review.