First published in 1959, Fade Out is a stunning, surreal criticism of American life in the materialistic, youth-and money-crazed 1950s. Its hero is Dick Twombley, a 74-year old retired bank clerk who struggles to retain what remains of his dignity in a world that regards old age as an embarrassment. When he is mistakenly accused of kidnapping two little girls he has befriended, Dick's daughter packs him off to a suburban New York City retirement home. He soon makes his escape with the help of a fellow inmate, and together the two "fugitives from injustice" embark on a cross-country odyssey that lands them in the abandoned hotel of an Arizona ghost town.