The sacred and the profane come together with visceral force in Bruce Wagner’s double feature, The Met Gala & Tales of Saints and Seekers. Wagner leads the reader beyond their comfort zone and then pulls them back into the light, performing a literary balancing act in his two novellas—one drenched in transgression while the other embarks on a journey of spiritual guidance.
The Met Gala follows a prominent family of influencers and would-be philanthropic socialites in the Hollywood hills as they spiral ever further away from reality. Candida is a young actress who sleeps with the “unhoused”—the ultimate charitable act—and her brother, Charlie, transitioned into womanhood at the age of eleven. Their mother and father have long been divorced but still come together to completely traumatize their daughters, ruining their lives, and destroying many others along the way.
Tales of Saints and Seekers&