Close Relationships With StrangersClose Relationships With Strangers

"Ben is a third-generation Los Vegan itching to leave for LA, a city he thinks is more 'real' than his hometown. He works as a busser in a diner where tourists come to recreate a movie scene starring Jack Whitlock, "the last real movie star," and takes photos of wildlife in the desert on his days off. He meets a man who promises Ben can make a ton of money as a paparazzo, which he likens to wildlife photography; Ben and his girlfriend Ellory move to LA. The job is a thrill and a high that he chases to increasingly damaging ends. A year and a half later Ben is broke, single, and receiving increasingly credible death threats from a pop star's stans. He's desperate for a win. And then photos of Jack Whitlock leak: an affair, a scandal. Ben becomes obsessed with being the first photographer to break new photos of Jack. He follows leads through the absurd horrors of celebrity LA, dodging close encounters with the stans, weaving his way back to Las Vegas and the desert of his redemption or demise"--