Hollywood Must Be Destroyed! by Daniel Wade Schroder

1stBooks, 1588204510, $12.95

Once upon a time, Tom Brantley and Michael Lewis were two investment bankers happily muddling through life in a tony New York firm. While they enjoyed their work and a never-ending game of guessing the artists of bad 80s pop tunes, their boss assigns them to investigate the books of an important client, a movie production company based in Hollywood. What sounds like a routine job to both men is quickly likened to a trip through Wonderland, where everybody is a Mad Hatter.

Classic Pictures, producer of soon-to-be epics like Natural Born Idiot and Teen Sexpots in Seattle, has been consistently losing money on its recent releases, and is spending too much for films that otherwise could be made on small budgets. Tom and Mike set out to learn where the firm's money is going, uncovering a scheme more outlandish than any movie plot - Hollywood funding of political agendas and twisting of morals. Hooking up with Classic executive Linda Wilson, Tom discovers Hollywood itself is more outrageous than any movie Classic could fund. Spiritual guides, actors parading around nude in public, and a general anti-Christian sentiment create an atmosphere more tempestuous than anything the Georgia-bred Tom has experienced, so much that he risks his job to see to it that Hollywood is destroyed before it destroys everybody else.

Though a short tale overrun with typographical errors (a problem 1stBooks truly needs to solve), Hollywood Must Be Destroyed! has its moments of wit and absurdity that will leave any reader who has never been to LA nodding in agreement ("I went to Harvard," responds Linda after being asked if she believes in God.). Though this story would not be normally classified as "Christian" literature in the sense that other titles reviewed here are, Hollywood deserves a mention for its finale, a bold statement alluding to the Culture of Death, as coined by Pope John Paul II, one that deserves some attention. Author Schroder shows a talent for satirical prose, which he will hopefully continue to hone.

posted by Leigh Ellwood at 10:02 AM