The sacred and the profane come together with visceral force in Bruce Wagner’s double feature, The Met Gala & Tales of Saints and Seekers. Wagner leads the reader beyond their comfort zone and then pulls them back into the light, performing a literary balancing act in his two novellas—one drenched in transgression while the other embarks on a journey of spiritual guidance. 

The Met Gala follows a prominent family of influencers and would-be philanthropic socialites in the Hollywood hills as they spiral ever further away from reality. Candida is a young actress who sleeps with the “unhoused”—the ultimate charitable act—and her brother, Charlie, transitioned into womanhood at the age of eleven. Their mother and father have long been divorced but still come together to completely traumatize their daughters, ruining their lives, and destroying many others along the way.

Tales of Saints and Seekers is the digestivo, a collection of stories about the journey to enlightenment and the wisdom given by gurus along the way. Where The Met Gala pushes past boundaries and steps over the line, Tales of Saints and Seekers knows that there is no line at all, only characters who travel on their own paths, sometimes straying and other times going completely off the map.

Wagner is able to hold the dichotomy of the sacred and profane in one book, smearing them together, and ripping them apart. The Met Gala & Tales of Saints and Seekers is something that, once read, you won’t stop thinking about.