Disaster Mon Amour

“Erudite.”—Publishers Weekly

“Erudite. . . . Engaging. . . . A cri de coeur about art’s struggle to keep up with reality.”—Kirkus Reviews

“In this brilliant book, David Thomson tells the story of how we came to make disaster and catastrophe our best friends—how we let terror cocoon and take over our imaginations to avoid seeing the things that really frighten us. Riveting and totally original.”—Adam Curtis, BBC filmmaker and political journalist

“David Thomson is, I think, the best writer on film in our time. He is our most argumentative and trustworthy historian of the screen.”—Michael Ondaatje, author of The Cat’s Table

“With bracing prose and intensity of feeling, this book will rivet any serious reader concerned about the world—climate change, COVID, war, and other menaces. A grim but burnished book.”—Diane Johnson, author of Lorna Mott Comes Home

“David Thomson’s Disaster Mon Amour is a piñata of literary pleasures: acid thoughts, film lore, historical meditations, and astute observation, especially about the culture’s gourmandizing of despair. His high-stepping book is informed, alert, full of fury and fun.”—John Lahr, author of Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh

“Any book that takes Laurel and Hardy and Rachel Maddow as prophets of doom—and makes you want to see a Laurel and Hardy movie with Rachel Maddow as much as you want to see Laurel and Hardy as guests on her show—is going to be read at least twice.”—Greil Marcus, author of Mystery Train