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Award-winning screenwriter Joseph Dougherty's first book is a cinematic stream of consciousness through pop culture and personal memories. Part "Rememberance of Things Past," part "Mystery Science Theater 3000," "Comfort and Joi" records one weekend in the life of a man suffering a 'low-grade obsession' with real-life bosomy blonde bombshell, Joi Lansing. He shuts himself away in a borrowed house on the coast of California to try to write a book about the minor glamour girl who appeared in such 'classics' as "Hillbillys in a Haunted House" and "Queen of Outer Space." But the deeper he goes into her career, the more questions he asks about himself. Offbeat movie history from the fringes of Hollywood triggers haunting personal memories as he follows this 'beautiful beacon in a Sargasso of bad filmmaking' and finds an unexpected path to his own past.
"Joseph Dougherty is a fantastically gifted writer. His observations are haunting, funny, and completely original."
--Christopher Guest
"Sultry, seductive, remarkably mesmerizing."
--Books to Watch Out For
"A meditation on movie love, structured as tautly as a good noir screenplay."
--Fearless Reviews
"A book about Hollywood and pop culture like no other."
--The Fedora Chronicles
"(Dougherty) ends up with a conjectural, bittersweet, and often funny obituary -- for Joi, for Hollywood, for his own vaporized past."
--Ray Young, Flickhead.com
"Comfort and Joi is part biography, part memoir. It's a refreshing blend of Hollywood history and personal reflection. Through the narrator's weekend experience, you get the feeling you've learned something not only about Lansing but about the nature of being. It is an entertaining read from cover to cover."
--Jason Croft, Java's Bachelor Pad
"The most enjoyable book I've read in years. I couldn't put it down. But if they ever make a movie out of it, that I'll put down! It's my job!"
--Nick Meglin, editor of Mad Magazine
"Mr. Dougherty is a talented man, I swear."
--Walter Kerr, New York Times
"Dougherty is a humanist who argues that each of us has to look, listen, choose, and commit. His work is as encouraging as it is enlightening."
--Douglas Heil, Prime-Time Authorship
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