"In this collection of mordant, poignant and playful essays, a wry and incisive critique is couched in a gonzo mix of pop culture, autobiography, misremembered movie plots, fiction and literary history that plays with the notion of what it is to be "American. " Rebecca Brown lets her imagination run wild and envisions unlikely meetings and fantastical connections that span the course of America's cultural history: Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson intersect as representatives of east coast puritanism and west coast hedonism; Gertrude Stein presides over a same-sex religious cult; John Wayne and Shane stand in for the author's father who may or may not have been JFK's wing man during the Cuban Missile Crisis; H. G. Wells' invisible Man reveals his/her secret sex life. "--BOOK JACKET.