Lost Pages

When Paul Di Filippo unleashes his imagination, watch out. He envisions "Frank" Kafka as the scourge of Gotham's mean streets -- by day, the mild-mannered advice columnist behind "Ask Josephine," by night, "the Jackdaw," a superhero who terrifies evildoers. Anne Frank, having escaped the German invasion of Holland, becomes the Hollywood stand-in for Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and later the drug-addled ex-wife of Mickey Rooney. Little Prince author Antoine de St.-Exupery appears as the pilot who can save the remnants of Western civilization in the aftermath of a devastating plague, and along the way has a passionate affair with Beryl Markham. Henry Miller: messenger for Western Union. Philip K. Dick: hardware store salesman and husband of a chronically depressed, alcoholic (and unrecognized) Linda Ronstadt.