Maybe the Moon : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Happy To Recommend
Review: I read this book over seven years ago, and it still ranks as one of my all-time favorite books! It's touching and moving, and will forever be a very special read for me. I give it my highest recommendation. I would also like to recommend Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai and Like People in History by Felice Picano.

Rating:
Summary: Happy To Recommend
Review: I read this book over seven years ago, and it still ranks as one of my all-time favorite books! It's touching and moving, and will forever be a very special read for me. I give it my highest recommendation. I would also like to recommend Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai and Like People in History by Felice Picano.

Rating:
Summary: great read
Review: i really enjoyed this book -- it makes great reading material during changeovers.
really boosts my second serve in the ad court.
i recommend it to tennis players everywhere.

Rating:
Summary: A subtle activist.
Review: I think the last pages of this book are the most depressing (but in a good way!) pages I have read so far! Just for what's written there, you've got to read Maybe the moon. It reveals America in its most obscene way, in a way that makes you shiver with rage. Mr Maupin has this talent to point very accurately what's wrong in the "image culture" today: he's a subtle activist for the great human cause!

Rating:
Summary: One of the most touching novels
Review: I too liked this novel better than the Tales of the City books. Maupin has such a unique gift of prose, and this novel shows how capable he is of narrating an account of someone who is completely opposite of himself. Cadence may not be tall in stature, but her heart and her soul are huge. The reader is never asked to feel sorry for Cadence and I never did. She is a plucky, resourceful, witty heroine who makes no apologies about who she is and what she's accomplished. Anyone who feels different, whether gay or straight, short or tall will cry and laugh along w/Cadence.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most touching novels
Review: I too liked this novel better than the Tales of the City books. Maupin has such a unique gift of prose, and this novel shows how capable he is of narrating an account of someone who is completely opposite of himself. Cadence may not be tall in stature, but her heart and her soul are huge. The reader is never asked to feel sorry for Cadence and I never did. She is a plucky, resourceful, witty heroine who makes no apologies about who she is and what she's accomplished. Anyone who feels different, whether gay or straight, short or tall will cry and laugh along w/Cadence.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and touching memorial to a lost friend.
Review: Maupin bases his first fiction outing since Tales of the City on the life of Tamara de Treaux, one of four little people who brought to life the immortal ET. While ET lives on, Tamara is basically forgotten. Maupin touchingly explores the effect this has on his little friend in Maybe the Moon, his best and most beautiful work to date. Her troubles are painfully, humorously, and insightuflly retold in a style which far surpasses that of Maupin's earlier books. Although homosexuality is central to Maupin's life and work, the gay subplot seems a little out of place here -- the real star with the most absorbing cause is Cadence/Tamara. She is Maupin's most memorable character in all his work, more human and full of more fire than even the venerable Mrs. Madrigal. I wept as the book came to an end because I knew, even though the work is labeled "fiction," it was a story about a real human being. What a lovely way to say goodbye to a dear friend.

Rating:
Summary: This is truly going to be one of my favorite novels!
Review: MAYBE THE MOON by Armistead Maupin

Armistead Maupin does a change of scenery from San Francisco, which was the center of his six books collectively known as TALES OF THE CITY, to Los Angeles with MAYBE THE MOON, Armistead Maupin's first full-length novel. Although TALES OF THE CITY had been written first, these books started out as newspaper columns and have a distinct feel to them. They are more lighthearted and the characters are not fully developed. MAYBE THE MOON is indeed a novel, the story of the life of a spirited woman who learned to deal with a type of disability. It was with great pleasure that I read this book and got to know the character that was Cadence Roth.

Cadence Roth is a pint-sized person, legally classified as a dwarf, and although she is a very small person, her personality definitely is not minute or diminutive. In fact, she packs a punch and from such a little human being, she can shock others with her foul mouth and assertive ways.

Maupin starts the novel with a blurb from a review: Mr. Woods (1981) C-112 m. ****. It's the start of a movie synopsis from the movie critic Leonard Maltin's book "TV Movies and Video Guide 1992 edition".

Thus, the novel begins. Told via her journal, we are thrown into the world of Cady Roth, whose claim to fame was the starring (anonymous) role in the 2nd highest grossing movie of all time, MR. WOODS. She played an elf that befriends a young boy, but because of the type of role she played, she is behind a mask the entire time. The real world never learns who the actor behind Mr. Woods really was. She is forbidden to do any publicity for the movie except in costume, as the director feels the audience would lose the magic if they saw who actually played this beloved movie character. While other actors build their careers upon a breakthrough role, Cady is doomed to have this one big character haunt her till the day she dies.

And so Cady lives on in frustration. She finds whatever work is available, which is not very much since the average movie doesn't usually call for a character that is less than 4 feet tall. She at one point breaks down and takes a job with a small group of people who entertain the rich and famous at parties held in towns like Beverly Hills. She dresses up as a clown, making children laugh at birthday parties and bar mitzvahs.

References to THE WIZARD OF OZ are often made, as she relates to other dwarves who have been exploited or made it in the world of show biz. Her mother had a very important role in Cady's life, helping her become discovered and then pushing her on, making sure that her daughter's dreams were fulfilled despite the handicap of height. When her mother passes on, Cady is devastated but eventually hooks up with a new best friend, Renee, who latches on to Cady in a welcome way and the two become roommates and best friends for life.

Cady's life seems to be on a downward spiral, as the jobs with the entertainment company become scarce, and there doesn't seem to be any hope in her securing an acting job, but she does not give up. When news that there will be a big Star Studded tribute in honor of a major anniversary of the release of MR. WOODS, Cady feels this is her last chance at being recognized. What happens on this big day leads to the climax of the book with an ending that I did not expect, although there were hints of it throughout the book.

MAYBE THE MOON is probably Armistead Maupin's best work yet. The story of the life of Cady Roth touched me in many ways, and indeed I feel envious that Maupin knew the woman that this book was inspired by. Whoever she was, she was indeed a very special person. A story about people overcoming handicaps and differences in a world that abhors such people, MAYBE THE MOON gets five stars from me.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly fantastic
Review: Received this book out of the blue from a seller on Amazon who bundled this with an order I placed. Tossed it aside for half a year before I sat down to read it last night and did NOT put it down until the last page -- then went back to the beginning once more. Touching, warm, creative, full of personality. At worst, it's entertaining. Do read it.

Rating:
Summary: Fact or fiction? Either way this is a mind-bending story!
Review: This book is simply wonderful. The radically odd group of characters are compelling, fascinating, and amazingly real and human. The underbelly of Hollywood--where the struggle is acute, the humiliations constant, and the fame and glitz a nearly-tangible mirage--is perfectly rendered. The story is wonderful, careening from hilarity to tragedy in abruptly jarring transitions yet managing with each event to draw you deeper into the heroine's world.

And the heroine! Cadence Roth is THE most inspiring, aggravating, disturbing, and fascinating character ever written about. This is her story, as told through her journal entries--yet the novel isn't written with the jarring style that usually accompanies 'diary-narrative,' instead the dialog and descriptives are perfectly seamless, and the first person delivery is comforting through even the most trying times.

The most fascinating thing about this novel is that it is clearly inspired by real events, real people, and a real life--and most of it is pretty easily identifiable. This just added to my enjoyment of this book--and I have some research to do to figure out the parts I couldn't identify.

I can't recommend this book highly enough--it's simply wonderful on every level. This book is a huge departure, in many ways, from Maupin's other books (which are also wonderful), but Maupin's ability to create rich, complex characters and bring a subculture to life are in full evidence here.