John Sayles's stories, like his movies, are panoramic in scope and richly textured. His beautifully drawn characters are often down on their luck, struggling to make ends meet in circumstances where the past has a powerful influence on the present. Dillinger in Hollywood showcases Sayles's uncanny ear for language, his skill at crafting character, humor and atmosphere, and his ability, as Barbara Kingsolver has written, "to pull apart our most cherished myths and icons and see what they're really made of."