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A review by kaje_harper
The Moth and Moon by Glenn Quigley
4.0
This is a gentle, warm story of the fictional island of Merryapple in the summer of 1780, as her residents are beset by a hurricane. Among those residents are Robin, a middle-aged heavyset, sweet gay fisherman whose father left behind a scandal that has shadowed his life. Duncan, maker of fascinating mechanical wooden toys, who was the love of Robin's life before changes between them pushed them apart. And Edwin, local baker trying to go it alone in his business after the loss of his brother, who has had a crush on Robin for years.
These men are all ordinary people in many ways, not handsome, not athletic, not brilliant, just people with strengths and weaknesses. The folk around them are an interesting array of characters, from the lesbian couple with money, to the reluctant innkeeper, to the fishmonger too prissy to get close to his wares, to the small girl with an entrepreneurial spirit. On this fictional island, the idea that marriage or love should be only heterosexual has been soundly rejected, so there is no echo of homophobia and no axe of prison time hanging over these folk, as there would be in a typical historical.
That absence lets this unfold as a quiet tale of a weather disaster opening up old secrets and old wounds, getting people who have known each other a long time to see each other in a different light, regardless of the gender of the person they have wanted or loved. There is a happy ending, but this is not a romance. Its focus is broad across the characters, and even though Robin is the heart of the story, it is about him finding himself, understanding his past, and building his future, of which romantic love is only a modest part.
If you enjoy quiet, quirky, character-driven fiction (like, say, [a:Elizabeth Goudge|50786|Elizabeth Goudge|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1413290451p2/50786.jpg]'s het fiction like [b:A City of Bells|1490695|A City of Bells (Torminster, #1)|Elizabeth Goudge|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1259355495l/1490695._SY75_.jpg|841394]) then this story brings some of the same reading pleasure.
These men are all ordinary people in many ways, not handsome, not athletic, not brilliant, just people with strengths and weaknesses. The folk around them are an interesting array of characters, from the lesbian couple with money, to the reluctant innkeeper, to the fishmonger too prissy to get close to his wares, to the small girl with an entrepreneurial spirit. On this fictional island, the idea that marriage or love should be only heterosexual has been soundly rejected, so there is no echo of homophobia and no axe of prison time hanging over these folk, as there would be in a typical historical.
That absence lets this unfold as a quiet tale of a weather disaster opening up old secrets and old wounds, getting people who have known each other a long time to see each other in a different light, regardless of the gender of the person they have wanted or loved. There is a happy ending, but this is not a romance. Its focus is broad across the characters, and even though Robin is the heart of the story, it is about him finding himself, understanding his past, and building his future, of which romantic love is only a modest part.
If you enjoy quiet, quirky, character-driven fiction (like, say, [a:Elizabeth Goudge|50786|Elizabeth Goudge|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1413290451p2/50786.jpg]'s het fiction like [b:A City of Bells|1490695|A City of Bells (Torminster, #1)|Elizabeth Goudge|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1259355495l/1490695._SY75_.jpg|841394]) then this story brings some of the same reading pleasure.