Dusty Trails applauds Dustin Hoffman. Tales from Dusty Trails combines collections of stories featuring characters developed from roles which Mr. Hoffman acted during his honored and ongoing career in movies, stage plays, TV, and voiceovers. The isolated southwestern community of Dusty Trails sits in a sea of desert surrounded by massive mountain ranges. It blisters in the summer sun and smolders from a severe shortage of available women. Always on the verge of erupting, the antiheroes of Hoffmanity vent their frustrations and anger outward on one another.

Characters recognizable from films include crippled pickpocket Ratzo Rico, dirty-mouthed stage comedian Lenny Brash, gangster boss Dutch Slutz, and Native Desert Dweller Big Little Man. College graduate Benjamin Broadick, confused about his future, marks time as a lounge waiter. Part-time actress and bartender Dottie Michele reverts to alter ego Michael Dotty, actor and aide at the Institute for the Unusually Gifted. Among Michael's charges are eccentric savant Rainman Bobbit and 122-year-old storyteller Crabby Jack. With a claw for a hand, pirate Captain Jorge Hawk travels across time, space and imagination from magical Musty Dustyland to wreak havoc in Dusty Trails.

Mr. Hoffman once voiced lines for an animated cross-dressing cockroach that walks upright and talks in a deep gruff voice: a smartly dressed insect with four opposable thumbs, an orange beehive wig, and a colorful vocabulary. The bug wears perfume.

The directors with whom Mr. Hoffman has worked have inspired the names of businesses, streets, and landmarks. In Dusty Trails, there's a Spielberg Department Store, Nichols' Dime Store, Roach Exterminators, Beatty Building, Levinson Boulevard, and Pekinpah Mountains. Fosse's Lounge reigns as the most popular gathering site in this expected Hollywood classic.

Richard E. Hartman