Oct 14, 2025
Novelist and screenwriter Bruce Wagner returns to discuss his
exceptionally timely new novel Amputation—a strange, exuberant, and
ultra meta work set against a topic I’ve talked about a lot this
year, the January LA wildfires. Bruce, an L.A. native and prominent
literary figure in the city, explains how the book came together in
less than two months, why he resists “political novels” even when
writing inside a political moment, and how language (not legacy)
keeps him making art.
We also talk about real-life figures who appear as characters
(Stephen Colbert, Mayor Karen Bass, Debra Winger, and a Timothée
Chalamet student double, among others), the surrealism of driving
through miles of leveled neighborhoods, and the deranged
comic-tragic chorus of the Nextdoor app. Bruce also reflects on
being an L.A. “outsider who outsided his way inside,” why the book
is opera, not noir, and what it means to keep walking the “narrow,
burning road to the palace.”
Guest Bio:
Bruce Wagner is the author of fifteen novels, including the “cell
phone” trilogy, The Marvel Universe, The Met Gala and Tales of
Saints and Seekers, Roar: American Master, and now Amputation. A
longtime Hollywood insider/outsider, he has written for film and
television and is currently published by Arcade.