How do you handle a world that has gone dystopian, as pulled off by the Power Elite under the pretext of fighting an apocryphal “virus”? Our hero finds solace by tapping into Nature, running barefoot at the beach as twilight melts into dawn, or on trails in the hills with the last hoots of owls and the first hops of cottontails. Living in L.

A. , the belly of the beast, he connects with his family and close ones, and makes occasional getaways with his gal to the relative serenity of Santa Barbara, with its soft mountains and placid sea, and lively sidewalk restaurants at eventide.

He also slides into another side of reality out in Joshua Tree, where he is joined by various personalities, some of whom have escaped from the pages of a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, and from the reels of a couple of Wim Wenders films. These include his old-time partner JB, as well as the fat cat Behemoth who twirls a revolver, and a young German girl who has never encountered the desert.

At the nighttime campfire, the seasoned characters bat around notions of good and evil, and reminisce about the “outer realms. ” And in the day, Alice hears coyote stories and explores the wondrous rock formations with her momentary guardian.

Meanwhile, the noose around humanity’s neck gradually tightens, and our hero strives to survive amidst the new world disorder. .