Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 25

ridiculing seen in Errol M orris’ real documentaries such as Gates
o f Heaven and Vernon, Florida.
What Byrne gives us, perhaps most appropriately, is a post
modernist depiction of a Frank Capra world, a successful quest by
a protagonist for meaning through “normalcy,” through love.
Louis Fyne tries all the modem techno-techniques to find his wife.
But when he finally resorts to the folk method, to the primitive
medicine man, he succeeds. We can see the power in Louis as he
takes the potion that Robert has prepared for him. His innocence—
his trust in this final technique— has made him powerful. And he
gets the girl. Happy ending. In like manner, we have a quest by a
narrator (and, presumably, by Byrne) for an America he may not
have known very well, an America that is removed from the East
Coast hipness; and for what makes Americans the people they are:
separate unique entities— sometimes rather bizarre—within a large
and complex whole.
Peninsula College
Port Angeles, Washington

Jack Estes

Bibliography
Byrne, David. True Stories (the book). New York: Penguin, 1986.
Corliss, Richard. “Divine Comedy for the ’80s.” Time Magazine (OcL 27,
1986), 80-81.
_______ . “Our Town: George Bailey M eets 'T rue,’ 'B lue,’ and 'Peggy Sue.’”
Film Comment (NovVDec. 1986), 9-13+.
Clarens, Carlos. “A Talking Head as Film m aker David Byrne is the Renais
sance Man o f Rock.” The World (Jan. 1987), 271- 73.
Coulson, Crocker. “Postmodernism, qu’est-ce que c ’est?: Start Making Sense.”
The New Republic (M ar. 23,1987), 26-29.

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