LoveReading Says
Absolutely fascinating, a beautiful yet quirky read, this is a tale to make you wonder, to make you feel… A grandfather, on his deathbed, tells his grandson about his life, from rocket ships to prison, from love to aching for revenge, all is revealed. The story isn't released in sequence, instead it flits around in time, I was initially thrown but soon got used to, even welcomed the sudden disturbance to the storyline.
Michael Chabon writes with an understated, elegant, yet wickedly spiky hand. There were times when I lost myself in the words that danced across the pages, others when I was brought up short, shocked and surprised. The author’s note at the beginning suggests there is a connection to his family, the acknowledgment at the end gives source to information, how much is actually true though, isn't revealed, but I have fallen in love with the memories scattered on the page.
In the vast open thrilling space of ‘Moonglow’ is a wonderfully intimate collection of meandering, amusing, achingly sad, and truly fabulous stories. ~ Liz Robinson
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Moonglow Synopsis
A
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
'A wondrous book that celebrates the power of family bonds and the slipperiness of memory...A thoroughly enchanting story' Washington Postt From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Wonder Boys, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Yiddish Policemen's Union. 'The world, like the Tower of Babel or my grandmother's deck of cards, was made out of stories, and it was always on the verge of collapse.' Moonglow unfolds as a deathbed confession.
An old man, his tongue loosened by powerful painkillers, his memory stirred by the imminence of death, tells stories to his grandson, uncovering bits and pieces of a history long buried. Why did he try to strangle a former business partner with a telephone cord? What was he thinking when he and a buddy set explosives on a bridge in Washington, D.C.?
What did he feel while he hunted down Wernher von Braun in Germany? And what did he see in the young girl he met in Baltimore after returning home from the war? From the Jewish slums of pre-war Philadelphia to the invasion of Germany, from a Florida retirement village to the penal utopia of a New York prison, from the heyday of the space programme to the twilight of 'the American Century', Moonglow collapses an era into a single life and a lifetime into a single week.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780007548927 |
| Publication date: |
21st September 2017 |
| Author: |
Michael Chabon |
| Publisher: |
Fourth Estate Ltd an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
430 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Modern and Contemporary Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Michael Chabon Press Reviews
'A wondrous book that celebrates the power of family bonds and the slipperiness of memory ... A thoroughly enchanting story about the circuitous path that a life follows, about the accidents that redirect it, and about the secrets that can be felt but never seen, like the dark matter at the centre of every family's cosmos'
The Washington Post
'Mixes in generous dollops of meaning, a sprinkling of fancy metaphors and an abundance of beautiful sentences so that it becomes a rich and exotic confection. Too strict a recipe would have spoiled the charm of this layer cake of nested memories and family legends ... This book is beautiful'
New York Times Book Review
'A poignant, engrossing triumph'
People
'An often rollicking, ultimately moving read. And like the song, it's liable to stay with you'
NPR
'Elegiac and deeply poignant ... Chabon weaves these knotted-together tales together into a tapestry that's as complicated, beautiful and flawed as an antique carpet ...Chabon is one of contemporary literature's most gifted prose stylists ... In Moonglow, he writes with both lovely lyricism and highly caffeinated fervor'
Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
'Vibrant ... A feast for fans of the Pulitzer winner's magical prose'
Entertainment Weekly
About Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon is the author of two collections of short stories A Model World and Werewolves in their Youth and three novels, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Wonder Boys and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Wonder Boys has been made into a film starring Michael Douglas and Robert Downie Jr. and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire and Playboy. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter. Search Michael Chabon on Instagram and hear an excerpt on audio.
Author photo © Ulf Andersen/Getty
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