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A review by jackieeh
The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon by Tom Spanbauer
4.0
Oh God. There are so many things wrong with this book, most of which come down to the author's ability to get the reader to sit through incredibly nasty and graphic descriptions of pretty much everything you can think of. Spanbauer downplays rape and incest in ways I think are really icky, and wades into puddles of problematic descriptions of racial minorities here and there, both of which were troublesome, but nothing even approches the grossness of the amputation scene. It made me think of my first time watching Ben Hur when I was too young to realize that the camera was going to cut away at the last moment. Spanbauer's camera doesn't cut away.
The thing is, though, it's not clear how much of that is Spanbauer and how much of that is his characters who, problematic descriptions aside, are fantastic. Spanbauer's cast of incredibly eccentric (some are nicely kooky, some are batshit insane) characters live at a time when the Wild West is losing steam, in a part of Idaho being taken over by Mormons. They form the mother of dysfunctional families and get along as best they can telling stories, getting drunk, and having sex with each other. The stories are great, the characters are hilarious, and Spanbauer guides you through it all showing you the charm and the grit of their lives in equal measure.
This novel bridges the gap between the settings of Lonesome Dove and Louise Erdrich's work. Spanbauer is as unforgiving as both McMurtry and Erdrich can be, but he also has the same affection for his characters. Plus there is a lot of Erdrich-ian magical realism going on, which is never a bad thing.
SOMETHING in this book was really well done. I'm having a hard time quite putting my finger on it. Nonetheless, it gets four stars despite having bothered me so much, so that must mean something.
The thing is, though, it's not clear how much of that is Spanbauer and how much of that is his characters who, problematic descriptions aside, are fantastic. Spanbauer's cast of incredibly eccentric (some are nicely kooky, some are batshit insane) characters live at a time when the Wild West is losing steam, in a part of Idaho being taken over by Mormons. They form the mother of dysfunctional families and get along as best they can telling stories, getting drunk, and having sex with each other. The stories are great, the characters are hilarious, and Spanbauer guides you through it all showing you the charm and the grit of their lives in equal measure.
This novel bridges the gap between the settings of Lonesome Dove and Louise Erdrich's work. Spanbauer is as unforgiving as both McMurtry and Erdrich can be, but he also has the same affection for his characters. Plus there is a lot of Erdrich-ian magical realism going on, which is never a bad thing.
SOMETHING in this book was really well done. I'm having a hard time quite putting my finger on it. Nonetheless, it gets four stars despite having bothered me so much, so that must mean something.