Book explores weird, wonderful filmmaker

The simplest avenue for beginning to understand filmmaker David Lynch might be found in a childhood friend's observation: "David's always had a cheerful disposition and sunny personality, but he's always been attracted to dark things. That's one of the mysteries of David."

Dark things abound in Lynch's signature films - the grotesque infant in Eraserhead (1977), the disfigured adult in The Elephant Man (1980), the violent and perverse Frank Booth in Blue Velvet (1986) - and in his first TV series, the offbeat murder mystery Twin Peaks (1990-91). When his cheerful and sunny side shows itself, and that's not often, the result is The Straight Story (1999).

Like a David Lynch film, the biography-memoir Room to Dream is set in a world we recognize but one with a dreamy, compelling perspective at its core. Co-author and friend Kristine McKenna writes from interviews and other research in one chapter, while the filmmaker's own recollections of events follow in the next. It's a unique structure that's perfectly suited for a cheery fellow with dark fantasies.