Table of Contents
About The Book
Unraveling the tumultuous, decades-spanning story of the Dolan family’s friends, lovers, and adversaries, Double Feature is about letting go of everything—regret, resentment, dignity, moving pictures, the dead—and taking it again from the top. Against the backdrop of indie filmmaking, college campus life, contemporary Brooklyn, and upstate New York, Owen King’s epic debut novel combines propulsive storytelling with mordant wit and brims with a deep understanding of the trials of ambition and art, of relationships and life, and of our attempts to survive it all.
Reading Group Guide
Introduction
Sam Dolan is a young man just trying to get by. After watching his debut film be destroyed by an unstable assistant before he’d had the chance to show it off, only for it to reemerge later as a dramatically altered cult hit, Sam withdraws, living in near-anonymity and working as a weddingographer. It will take a mountain to shake him out of his sullen complacency—or more precisely, a mountain of a man: B-movie actor Booth Dolan is a boisterous, opinionated, lying lothario whose screen legacy falls somewhere between cult hero and pathetic, and who happens to be Sam’s father. In the hands of Booth and Sam’s precocious, frequently violent half sister Mina, as well as a deep supporting cast—a conspiracy-theorist second wife; an Internet-famous roommate; a contractor who can’t stop expanding his house; a retired Yankees catcher; the morose producer of a true crime show; and a slouching indie film legend—the tumultuous, decades-spanning story of the Dolan family’s friends, lovers, and adversaries rises up to confront Sam when he’d most like to forget it. Double Feature is about letting go of everything—regret, resentment, dignity, moving pictures, the dead—and taking it again from the top.
Topics & Questions for Discussion
1. As we follow Sam through the narrative of Double Feature, how does our perception of Who We Are evolve? Alongside or differently than its director’s? What was your first impression of the conceit and goal of Sam’s original film?
2. On page 43, we first learn of Sam’s central criterion for judging movies: dishonesty. How did this strike you initially as a critical goalpost? How does Sam’s journey affect his evaluative rubric? Where does Sam end up, in terms of his judgment of movies?
3. Sam explains the purpose behind Who We Are as giving shape to the idea that his generation was uniquely screwed, and “their shared realization that nothing made sense until it was too late to be changed, that they were never given anything like a real chance” (p. 46). Is this statement true of Sam’s generation, or any generation? Does every college graduate think this is their lot in life?
4. Most of the main characters in Double Feature revolve around Booth like planets around his massive sun. What did you think of the charming bastard? How did your relationship with him evolve through the course of the novel?
5. As Booth’s friends and family alternately attack and defend him, a general refrain of “You don’t know him like I know him” is frequently heard. Compare how this statement is used, particularly by Sam, Mina, and Allie. Does anyone know the true Booth?
6. Compare Allie’s and Booth’s life goals for Sam on page 79. How do these affect Sam throughout his life? Does Sam listen to either of them? Which advice would you give?
7. One of Double Feature’s many themes is the purpose of movies. Booth, Sam, Allie, and Tess all give their own rationales or explanations for what movies should do. What’s your position on movies? Are they pure fun, or something larger? Escapism, or something more?
8. The structure of Double Feature allows us a peek into the lives of Sam’s parents. How do these sections shape your understanding of Booth and Allie, and therefore Sam?
9. Sam’s initial difficulty in connecting with Tess is his fear of disappointing her. Where are the origins of Sam’s relationship with disappointment? How has his fear of disappointing others, and being disappointed himself, shaped his life?
10. Booth’s speech on page 240 partially explains the title Double Feature. How does Booth’s concept of the double feature influence Sam? How does it influence your understanding of the novel? What other interpretations did you make of the title, before or after reading the speech?
11. Sam frequently refers to Tess’s influence on him as making him feel naked. How is she able to accomplish this where others, like Polly, cannot? What does this encourage Sam to realize about himself? Can vulnerability be a good thing?
12. As readers we get to observe as both Sam and Booth make their only directorial efforts. How do their directing styles differ? What does this say about their characters, for good or ill? How do you think you would or should behave in the director’s chair?
13. What’s the deal with E.T.? Spielberg’s film about the little lost alien is a recurrent subject throughout Double Feature. How does its significance for each of the characters help explain their relationship to the movies and to each other? What do you make of E.T.?
14. Read the Jack Gilbert poem “A Brief For the Defense” that reverberates through Double Feature. What resonance does it have with the themes of the novel? How does it help explain both Booth and Sam’s attitude, or change in attitude?
15. Although Sam thinks of himself as an adult as he makes Who We Are, it isn’t until “The Long Weekend” that he truly grows up. What does growing up mean in the context of the novel? What are the main realizations Sam has about being an adult, especially in relation to Tess and Booth? Do you agree with this conception of adulthood?
Enhance Your Book Club
1. From Orson Welles’s Yorick to Devil of the Acropolis, from Cheeks and The Pit to Quel Beau Parleur!, one of Double Feature’s most entertaining tropes is the slew of fake movies that populate the book. Whether it’s a family feature or a thriller, Hitchcock’s lost attempt at claymation or Jurassic Park 11, what movie do you think should exist but doesn’t? Flesh it out—cast it, write a sample scene or three, design the poster, pick out the soundtrack, and definitely pick a killer title. Share your mockup masterpiece with your group.
2. It would be crazy not to watch a film with your group after reading a novel starring so many movie-mad maniacs. You could choose something from Double Feature itself—E.T., perhaps? Or Dog Day Afternoon?—or simply pick something the book reminds you of, whether a cult hit, comedy, or post-college coming-of-age tale. Whatever you choose, be sure to do it up right—dim the lights, pop the popcorn, project that sucker if you can, and of course remember Booth’s rule: “Thou shalt not speak during the movies!”
3. Naturally, the character of Booth is largely inspired by the larger-than-life career and, well, life of the inimitable Orson Welles. Do some research on the cinema master—read one of the books King cites in the credits, watch a documentary, or just get sucked into the deep black hole that is the Orson Welles YouTube search (“Frozen Peas” and “Wine Commercial” are particularly stunning highlights). What are the parallels between Booth and his idol? How does the character of Orson cast a shadow over Sam’s life and Double Feature itself?
About The Author
Owen King is the author of the acclaimed novel The Curator, Double Feature, and We're All in This Together: A Novella and Stories. He is the coauthor of Intro to Alien Invasion and the coeditor of Who Can Save Us Now? Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories. He lives in upstate New York with his family.
Product Details
- Publisher: Scribner (March 19, 2013)
- Length: 432 pages
- ISBN13: 9781451676914
Raves and Reviews
"Owen King has spun a story with great compassion and humor. And in examining the creative process, it's also horrifyingly accurate."
– Bill Hader, Saturday Night Live
"Wonderfully, organically funny. Owen King has a gift."
– Dave Barry
"Double Feature is a many-headed comic monster. Its concerns are varied; it’s hilarious first and foremost, but it’s also a heartbreaking and poignant meditation on the vagaries of art. The sweep of the novel is epic."
– Los Angeles Review of Books
"Tartly delicious."
– Tampa Bay Times
“[An] ambitious and warmhearted first novel…King writes with witty verve.”
– Entertainment Weekly
"Fresh, new, and original."
– Christian Science Monitor
“[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
“Epic, ambitious, and dedicated to the uncontainable…[King] has a captivating energy, a precision and a fondness for people that are rare…King loves people as well as words, and he has the reach of a novelist…this is the real stuff, I think, and there’s plenty of it.”
– The New York Times
“The son of horror master Stephen, the younger King delivers a darkly humorous and often heartfelt work that's part ode to low-budget movies, part family drama and part screwball comedy with a slew of oddball characters… the only scary thing here is the new novelist's potential as a writer.”
– USA Today
“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
“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
“Double Feature is a beautiful, wrenching beginning, and Owen King is a young writer of immense promise.”
– Larry McMurtry
“Dear Reader: With this amazing tour de force, Owen King hasmore than lived up to the great promise of his debut collection. You will fallin love with Booth Dolan (just try not to) even as you’re giving thanks he’snot your father. This is a big, generous American novel from a dazzlingnovelist I’ll be watching for years.”
– Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
“What a kinetic, joyful, gonzo ride—Double Feature made me laugh so loudly on a plane that I had to describe the plot of Sam's Spruce Moose of a debut film (it stars a satyr) to my seatmate by way of explanation. Booth and Sam are an unforgettable Oedipal duo. A book that delivers walloping pleasures to its lucky readers.”
– Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!
“Owen King shows incredible heart, humor and structural mastery in his debut novel. Double Feature, as the title might suggest, has both glorious comic sweep and poignant intimacy.”
– Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask
“I didn't believe the species existed any more: a fun, goodhearted and readable to the point of being addictive epic, contemporary novel. To delve this smoothly into the film world, art, this winningly into the complex mess between sons and fathers, this compassionately into life after a man has taken his shot and is no longer the talented, bright-eyed prodigy... it just doesn't happen. Owen King is some kind of impressive novelist, and Double Feature is a goddamn unicorn.”
– Charles Bock, author of Beautiful Children
“Owen King has a generous heart and a devious mind; there’s no other possibility that would explain the ways this novel turns from the beautiful and the true right into the bizarre and hilarious. Tackling the act of creation (parents and children, artists and art), King writes with such assurance that the only option for me, once I finished this epic tale, was to start over and hope to experience it anew.”
– Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang and Tunneling to the Center of the Earth
... 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
“King’s first novel, about facing reality and failed aspirations, is irreverent and ambitious. Its sweeping scope covers several generations in a humorous and cynical narrative that bounces between decades. Entertaining and thought-provoking…”
– Booklist
"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
"One of the year's best debuts... Double Feature is funnier than any movie to come out this year."
– Complex
Resources and Downloads
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- Book Cover Image (jpg): Double Feature eBook 9781451676914
- Author Photo (jpg): Owen King Photograph by Anne Raftopoulos(0.1 MB)
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