In the sequel to the critically acclaimed Outré, a novel that explores the future of cinema through the unlikely vehicle of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, D. Harlan Wilson turns to James Joyce’s Ulysses as a source of inspiration, entertainment, and social commentary. Outré tells the story of an aging movie star battling the tyranny of filmmaker Donovan Ogg and an antagonistic, seemingly omnipotent Studio. Set in an irreal dystopia, Usurper focuses on Donovan’s prodigal son, Caliban Ogg, who cannot crawl out from under the shadow of his father’s massive legacy as he struggles to adapt the so-called “Doomsday Edition” of Ulysses for the big screen. But this tale is ultimately a point of departure for a broader study of our benighted culture.

Multifaceted and interdisciplinary, Usurper transcends storytelling to expose and analyze the relationship between commercialism, art, and identity. Wilson’s crushing grip on the text collapses science fiction into psychohistory, film studies into gonzo journalism, memoir into manifesto, and theories of truth into myths of the future. With as many intellectual and artistic layers as any connoisseur of modern literature could desire, Usurper’s dominant quality may be the darkly playful humor that drives home the thesis of Wilson’s entire oeuvre: Reality is shaped by the forces that destroy it.