Tabloids invite us to gorge ourselves on tales of epic personal failures, and so many of us eagerly oblige. Guilty pleasures, we savor these stories most satisfactorily with a garnish of sex scandal, a dash of fiscal malfeasance and a generous dollop of social corruption. Next, we expect a weeping dessert of shame and regret to follow. Afterward, everything ends in a dumpster or the backseat of an aging sedan before we stagger home again, sated, smug and full of improving condemnations. Cup your ears and shade your eyes now. Peer into the gloom of your neighbor's windows to eavesdrop. Hear the doom of a malign understanding bent before a wickeder will; of lost nobodies disappeared into countless nowhere holes; of narcissistic egotism, neglectful self-absorption and conscienceless intellect; of evil embodied in mediocrity and of all the demonic power brokers that grind our bones; such twisted threads weave life's strange tapestries. Of tragically flawed characters, here find deplorable examples, and of losers, legions.