The book is essentially written with two alternating timelines: one that focuses on Greg Sestero's friendship with Tommy Wiseau and the effect it had on their lives and careers, and the other that focuses specifically on the making of "The Room."
In the first timeline, Sestero recounts meeting Wiseau in a San Francisco acting class where he watches him butcher a Shakespeare sonnet before the class and then has the gall to tell the teacher that she is the one in the wrong for criticizing him. Impressed by his unfounded confidence and courage, Sestero decides that he must do a scene with him, a decision that leads to the oddest of friendships. At first Wiseau is a great friend, giving encouragement and assistance when Sestero has no one else who supports him, going on sponteneous adventures to sites significant to James Dean, one of their mutual favorite actors, and being optimistic about both Sestero's career and his own. However, as Sestero's career starts to take off and Wiseau remains stagnant, things start to become strained between them. Somehow they end up hostile roommates before Wiseau disappears for months and comes back with the idea to write his own play/screenplay to prove that he can be not only an actor but a director, producer, and writer. The book draws parallels of their relationship to the main friendships in The Talented Mr. Ripley and Sunset Boulevard, which is exactly as unnerving as it sounds.
This part of the book is mostly the story of their friendship but there are a lot of interesting things to it. Aside from just recounting how close friendships and competition can be a volatile mixture, you also get Sestero's personal story of how difficult it can be to find fame in Los Angeles and how his career is simultaneously helped and harmed by his friendship with Wiseau (along with some hilarious commentary on Wiseau from his mother). This part of the story also shows many of the quirks about Tommy Wiseau that make him such a strange person and often, explain parts of "The Room." Sestero talks about Wiseau's reluctance to reveal his age, origin, or job, and perpetually acts like he is already famous. He's endlessly paranoid about people poisoning his food and records all his phone conversations to listen to later, and is deeply ageist in spite of no one knowing what his age really is.
In case you're wondering if the book answers any of these questions, I would say it partially does. While Sestero can't confirm Wiseau's origin or job, the books does offer plenty of hints and offers a rather detailed potential back story of which Wiseau frequently changes the details. His age is offered but the answer is still unbelievable to Sestero and to anyone else who has seen Wiseau. The only truth Wiseau seems to offer Sestero in their friendship is that he has been in two very serious car accidents which might explain something, but what?
While pieces of Wiseau's life may still be somewhat shrouded in mystery, in the portion of the book surrounding "The Room"'s production many questions you may have had about the film get answered. Sestero manages to explain how a movie that looked so cheap cost $6 million dollars, why there are so many lapses in logic and consistency, and just how much power Wiseau had over the movie (literally all of it). Sestero also talks about the actors in the movie which really makes the reader understand why anyone would agree to appear in something so horrible. Sestero himself ended up in the movie because the day before they started filming Wiseau pleaded him to be in it, insisting that he wrote the part of Mark for him and offering him a ton of money and a new car to play the role . . . without firing the guy who was originally offered the part or telling him until they had been filming a few days. You learn why Juliette Danielle who plays Lisa took the role when so many other actresses balked out, how everyone felt so bad for Philip Haldiman being stuck playing the endlessly creepy character of Denny who was supposed to be about ten years his junior, and about the fascinating back story of Dan Janjigian who plays Chris-R. Sestero really makes you feel for these actors and crew members as he had, watching them fruitlessly offer suggestion, suffer in poor working conditions, and, often, furiously quit, all in the name of Wiseau's vanity project.
"The Disaster Artist" is captivating and hilarious and touching and terrifying in equal parts. Every fan of "The Room" should read it and, honestly, if you aren't a fan of "The Room", I would assume it just means you haven't seen it yet and therefore should.
As a final note, it must be said that earlier this year Seth Rogan's production company got the rights to the book and there is a film planned with James Franco directing and his younger brother, Dave Franco, playing Sestero. So that's a thing.
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