THE CROSSING

In Morrison’s novel, a man who’s trying to settle the affairs of his late best friend is bequeathed the script of a love story in the process.

Ben Regan watched his best friend die. He and Taylor Thorne had been close since childhood, when they’d initially bonded over a love of movies. That love continued as they aged, and their friendship eventually blossomed into a brotherhood. Although Taylor was briefly a child star and was dubbed the “Next Big Thing,” neither he nor Ben achieved the careers of their dreams. After settling down, Ben started his own advertising business, while Taylor followed a somewhat rockier path. Although his star had dulled, Taylor’s dreams had not; he plowed on through dissatisfying writing gigs, hoping to regain the marginal fame of his teeny-bopper years: “I came this close…and now I’m doing the writing equivalent of community theater.” Ben then handles his late friend’s estate. When he tracks down Taylor’s financial manager, Joe, he receives a screenplay written by Taylor for an unproduced movie based on Taylor’s relationship with a woman named Natalie. Ben, the main book’s narrator, describes how Taylor and Natalie fell in love (after Taylor almost hit Natalie with his car, his life changed forever), drawing on both his own recollections and the screenplay. In the script, Natalie accidentally crosses into an alternate dimension and appears before Taylor. As her crossings become intentional, the two grow closer; Taylor eventually crosses into Natalie’s reality and learns that she’s a movie star. Later, the screenplay version of Taylor must decide whether he’s ready to give up his cinematic dreams for his interdimensional girlfriend. Meanwhile, in the real world, Ben tries to make sense of his oldest friend’s death and opens up to Joe about his long-simmering resentment; he deplored his habit of “shining his sun on me whenever he needed something, but tossing me to the side whenever Hollywood or a woman batted their eyelashes at him.”

Morrison’s story is original throughout, from concept to execution. Told largely from Ben’s perspective—aside from the screenplay chapters, which focus primarily on Taylor and Natalie’s relationship—the narrative and its format feel fresh, particularly in scenes in which Natalie and Taylor try to figure out the logistics of long-term romance conducted between dimensions. Frustratingly, many of the characters are consistently vague in their dialogue; this approach is necessary for building the mystery of the true circumstances of Taylor’s romantic relationship and death (how much of the screenplay is true?), but as the characters repeatedly deflect questions or infuriatingly answer them with even more questions, the exchanges can grow tiresome. This snag is minor, though, and readers may take comfort in the fact that Ben is similarly frustrated by the enigmatic evasions. Morrison deftly depicts the film business—the story comes complete with a Tom Cruise–like movie star called “Captain Box Office”—but refrains from getting too “inside baseball”for readers who may be unfamiliar with the inner workings of Hollywood. While the plot includes some traumatic events, the ending is deeply rewarding.

An imaginative and moving take on friendship, love, and the movies.