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Title: Two Moons : A novel by Thomas Mallon ISBN: 0-375-40025-7 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 08 February, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.61 (18 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Plodding
Comment: Extremely well-written. Lush. Eloquent. Most interesting when Mallon fleshes out the characters. The "plot," however, is so dull and the characters actions so uninteresting, that the reader is gently lulled to sleep. The premise is fascinating, and the attention to detail remarkable. But after several weeks, I have yet to finish this book.
Rating: 2
Summary: No Unified Theory Here
Comment: In the real world Scientists have been and continue to pursue a Unified Theory Of Everything. In the genre of Historical Fiction, Mr. Mallon with, "Two Moons" appears to be searching for the literary equivalent. The period of History he chose to place his story in was a controversial and colorful period to say the least. Unfortunately this book communicates very little of those events, and when it does it tends to dull them.
The Author had a great deal of History to work with as a stage for the fiction he chose to set upon it. Senator Conkling, the scandals surrounding the New York Ports, and elections so manipulated they make our most recent seem perfectly sane. None of this comes through in the book; the History that is there is a faded backdrop and no more. The fiction that is added is aimless, lacks any sort of focus to prioritize whom we are supposed to be interested in, and vaguely wanders around a goal of an Astronomer that is simply ridiculous.
It's difficult to care about characters when they care so little for themselves. Lack of empathy for the players is compounded when their Histories are fragmented and scattered throughout the work. You could literally remove many of the Observatory staff and the story would lose none of the minimal interest it struggles to generate.
Nineteenth Century Washington D.C. was a very interesting place, both in terms of the miserable place it was to live and work, the issues that resulted from the Civil War, and finding new bodies in the Heavens generally should fascinate as well. In this story the reader is given a great amalgam of gray. Even when the climax of the book's central male character takes place, as a reader you will wonder why it did, and find it difficult to care. The philosophical topic of infinity or eternal existence is so cliché and thin, as to be patently absurd.
This Author may have written some good work, this is not one of them. It is also the first I have read, so it may be the poor exception.
Rating: 2
Summary: Disappointing
Comment: This book was very little about astronomy and the actual history of the discovery of Phobos and Deimos, which is what I was interested in, and much more about the politics in postbellum (that is too a word; I looked it up) America.
I skimmed endless passages detailing the intricacies of the lives of men whose names I didn't know because, well, because they probably didn't have much to contribute to the pagent of history. Maybe I daydreamed through this part in history class, but shouldn't a good historical novel include an engaging introduction to the period, rather than a catalog of the doings of every bit player?
I was unable to sympathise with any of the main characters, who were all self-absorbed and self-pitying. Peripheral (and non-political) characters, like the Irish astrologer, the "Scientific Frenchman" correspondent, and Asaph Hall (the moons' discoverer) and his ambitious wife, were much more interesting to me.
Many passages were clumsily written, telling rather than showing. And before each character comes down with malaria, the author made a point of describing the protentous mosquito bite--but ignores all the other bites that every character would have suffered in the course of the muggy summer.
My interest was in astronomy, not politics, so perhaps I shouldn't blame the author for expounding my favorite subject, but I'm a fairly well-rounded person, I think, and if the political stuff was better written, I might have enjoyed learning about it. However, it failed entirely to engage my interest.
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Title: Devil's Valley by Andre Brink ISBN: 0151004404 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 19 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Everyday People by Stewart O'Nan ISBN: 0802116817 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 20 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Harbor Lights by Theodore Weesner ISBN: 0871137666 Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Mr Phillips by John Lanchester ISBN: 0399146040 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Doctor: A Novel by Patricia Duncker ISBN: 0060196017 Publisher: Ecco Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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