The Miranda Complex Volume 3: The Man Behind The Curtain

The final installment in Barry Smolin’s trilogy The Miranda Complex finds Lance Atlas, as he has been all along, splayed on the grass at the La Brea Tar Pits, summer of ‘79, in the aftermath of the previous night’s party where he encountered Miranda Savitch for the first time since graduation. In this volume, centered mainly in 1977 & 1978, Lance tries to remember what he spent the night before remembering, something about a Grateful Dead show at the Shrine Auditorium, his friend’s marriage to their teacher, AP English class, an unusual dinner party, heart troubles, the prom, and, of course, the ongoing bundle of torn attentions that makes him so confusing to the human female. When the saga comes to a close, Lance is finally utterly present just as the story catches up with itself. The rest is now.