The Blue Velvet of LA Darkness
By Michael McGruther
Mr. Colin Langley is a washed up old movie star who sits alone in his Toluca Lake home, calling out orders to the help that never answers but always does what they’re told. Mr. Colin exists in the place where time stands still… safe and sound in the distant glow of his brilliant illuminating fame and glamour years that are slowly winding down into a subtle and sad ending which never seems to come. Eating breakfast alone and feeling sorry for himself he looks up and sees a well dressed cowboy in an opulent old Western suit topped off with a wide flat-brimmed hat looking at him through his window.
This scene is more than just the mysterious opening of Ernie Mannix’s sublime second novel about Hollywood — Six Angels In The San Fernando Valley — it is a juxtaposition of what is wrong with society. The past visits the future to look on in judgement of it’s shabby condition and frail mindset.
A condition and mindset that we all know is our reality now.
Colin’s neighbor in the adjoining property is none other than beloved 80’s and 90’s sitcom star Gracie Thompson. She was America’s sweetheart for a long run and came from a tragic childhood that made her always seek the approval of others.
And just like Colin, her days of abundant attention and praise were now long gone too. When her doorbell rang she hoped it might be a fan, presumed it would be the pizza delivery guy and was shocked when it was an immaculate clean cut cowboy who watched her slip and fall in a drunken stupor, landing at his feet as if to say “I am not worthy.”
Mannix is a writer who understands nuance and always delivers scenes rich in innuendo, mystery and connectivity to our current culture.
Next we meet Truman Morrow, the reluctant hero of this book and of Mannix’s previous novel - Six Devils In The San Fernando Valley. In Six Devils Truman was chosen by Archangels who came to him in the form of poor Mexican day laborers and informed him, without asking, that he was chosen to join a shadow war against the main cause of all the spiritual pain and suffering that was concentrated in Hollywood, CA and infected the whole culture from there.
Now in Six Angels, Truman lives in the aftermath of a supernatural experience that he is sure nobody would believe was real if he told them. He hardly believes it himself and becomes a loner who defeated a great evil…or maybe not. The memory, like a heavy shadow, haunts Truman and he does his best to try and forget it until he’s visited by Roberto for the first time in long time. Roberto is the stranger who saved his life and changed his life all in the one day by revealing the hidden evil.
Seeing Roberto again is confirmation that he is not crazy but Truman needs to make sure and decides it’s time to see a psychiatrist. The person who ends up being his therapist only makes the confusion worse and we don’t know if Truman is insane or not and neither does he. And this is just the beginning!
The theme of Six Angels is that sometimes we cannot tell what is real and unreal. Coincidences and the perfectly timed appearance of new people in your life is what leads you to true life, true meaning and understanding. Sometimes it’s only found after going through great darkness together but it is the journey we all take. It’s harder for those who have been bound to the world through fame and wealth.
They need a very skilled stranger who can help untie those knots in the realm behind reality where souls suffer until they are saved.
That friend is Truman Morrow.
Six Devils In the San Fernando Valley cover art
