The Book of Illusions

David Zimmer, a professor of comparative literature, lives in a state of alcoholic grief following the death of his wife, Helen, and their two young sons, Todd and Marco, in a 1985 plane crash. After months of isolation and suicidal thoughts at his home in Vermont, he one night sees a clip from a silent film by an obscure comedian named Hector Mann. The scene makes him laugh for the first time since the tragedy, giving him a reason to continue living.

Zimmer learns that Hector Mann mysteriously vanished in 1929, and that between 1981 and 1984, pristine copies of his twelve short comedies were anonymously mailed to six major film archives. As a project to occupy his mind, Zimmer decides to travel to see all of Hector’s films. This quest evolves into writing a book, The Silent World of Hector Mann. He visits archives in Rochester, New York, Washington, D.C., and Berkeley, California. To overcome a paralyzing fear of flying, he obtains a prescription for the sedative Xanax. He then travels to London and Paris, becoming the first person to view Hector Mann’s complete works. Afterward, he moves into a small apartment in Brooklyn Heights and spends nine months in isolation writing his book.

In his book, Zimmer analyzes Hector’s on-screen persona, which is defined by an expressive mustache and a pristine white suit that is a magnet for trouble. Zimmer also provides an in-depth analysis of Mr. Nobody, Hector’s eleventh and most complex film. In it, Hector plays a wealthy man made invisible by a treacherous business partner. As a non-person, Hector frames his partner for a jewel theft he himself commits. He keeps a tender, unseen vigil over his sleeping wife and children before waking up the next morning visible again. The film ends with Hector looking at his reflection and smiling as if he has become a new person. Zimmer concludes that the film is a meditation on Hector’s own impending disappearance.

After completing the book, Zimmer moves back to Vermont, buying an isolated house. In the summer of 1988, he receives a letter from Frieda Spelling, who claims to be Hector Mann’s wife. She writes that Hector is alive, has read the book, and wishes to meet Zimmer at their home in Tierra del Sueño, New Mexico. Zimmer replies skeptically. Frieda’s second letter reveals that Hector made more films after 1929, which he is willing to show Zimmer, but that he is nearly ninety and in failing health. When Frieda does not respond to his next letter for several weeks, Zimmer assumes it was a hoax and reviews his old research on Hector’s contradictory past and mysterious disappearance.

One night, after a minor car accident, Zimmer returns home to find a strange car parked by his house, from which a woman named Alma Grund emerges. She has a prominent purple birthmark on her left cheek. Alma explains that Frieda sent her; the long silence was because Hector had a serious fall and was hospitalized. Alma is the daughter of Charlie Grund, Hector’s original cameraman, and grew up on the ranch with Hector and Frieda. She is now writing Hector’s biography and insists Zimmer must come to New Mexico immediately to see the later films and serve as a witness for her book before Hector dies and the films are destroyed, as per his will. When Zimmer refuses, Alma pulls a gun. In a moment of despair, and fascinated by his own proximity to death, Zimmer dares her to shoot, then grabs the gun, points it at his own head, and pulls the trigger, only to discover the safety is on. Shaken, Zimmer has a change of heart. He and Alma spend the night together, and he agrees to go with her. On the flight to New Mexico, Zimmer has an emotional breakdown, reliving his family’s death, and Alma comforts him.

On the journey, Alma tells Zimmer the true story of Hector’s life. In 1928, Hector, born Chaim Mandelbaum, was engaged to actress Dolores Saint John but was also having an affair with a journalist, Brigid O’Fallon. After he ended the affair, Brigid attempted suicide and later revealed she was pregnant. On January 14, 1929, a distraught Brigid confronted Dolores at her home, and Dolores accidentally shot and killed her. When Hector arrived, he and Dolores buried Brigid’s body in the mountains. As a form of self-punishment and to protect Dolores, Hector vanished, taking the name Herman Loesser. After years of aimless wandering, he ended up in Sandusky, Ohio. There, he foiled a bank robbery to save a young woman, Frieda Spelling, but was critically shot. Frieda, a fan of his films, recognized him. They fell in love as he recuperated.

Hector and Frieda married in 1932, and Hector took her last name. They moved to New Mexico and built the Blue Stone Ranch. Their son, Taddy, died from a bee sting in 1938. To save the devastated Hector from depression, Frieda, who had inherited a fortune, convinced him to make films again. They established a pact: The films will never be shown to anyone and must be destroyed within 24 hours of his death. They built a private studio on the ranch, joined by Charlie Grund and his future wife, actress Faye Morrison, Alma’s mother. Over several decades, they secretly produced 14 films.

Zimmer and Alma arrive at the ranch, and Zimmer has a brief, moving conversation with the dying Hector, who dies overnight. The next morning, Alma informs Zimmer that Frieda is accelerating the plan to destroy the films. They have time to watch only one: The Inner Life of Martin Frost, a 41-minute film about a writer who falls in love with his muse, a woman who comes to life from his story and will die if he finishes it. To save her, he burns his manuscript. After the screening, Frieda orders Zimmer to remain in Alma’s cottage, barring him from witnessing the destruction of the films. While the films are burned, Zimmer stays in Alma’s house and reads one of Hector’s journals from the early 1930s, which confirms Alma’s story. Alma returns, and they spend their last night together, making plans for her to join him in Vermont. The next morning, Zimmer leaves for the airport.

Back in Vermont, Zimmer prepares for Alma’s arrival, and they speak on the phone nightly. Over the next few days, Frieda burns all remaining production materials, including scripts and Hector's journals. One night, Alma fails to call. The next morning, Zimmer receives a twenty-page fax from her, which is a suicide note. It reveals that Frieda, in a final act of erasure, burned Alma’s manuscript. In the ensuing confrontation, Alma shoved Frieda, who fell, hit her head, and died. Believing she is a murderer, Alma takes her own life with the Xanax pills Zimmer had left behind.

Zimmer returns to New Mexico to bury Alma, choosing an inscription for her headstone: ALMA GRUND 1950–1988 WRITER. He learns Frieda has left her nine-million-dollar estate to the Museum of Modern Art for film preservation. Eleven years pass. Zimmer, having survived two heart attacks, is writing this account with instructions for it to be published after his death. He reveals his final theories: first, that Frieda smothered Hector with a pillow to prevent him from breaking their pact by showing the films to Zimmer. Second, he believes Alma secretly made copies of Hector’s later films and hid them, meaning the films are not destroyed, merely lost. The narrative concludes with Zimmer stating this hope sustains him.