The Death of the Moon: Stories

Rating:
Summary: An amazing debut
Review: This collection of stories by the lavishly talented Toronto writer Brian Panhuyzen frankly blew me away. Here is a writerly sensibility on a par with some of our greatest authors(Margaret Laurence comes to mind) combined with a youthful vigor and energy that sweeps through the dusty halls of CanLit like a freshening zephyr. (Forgive the poetry, but his work does that to me.)

Panhuyzen probes all the tender corners of human experience, the little moments of intimacy between people and the numinous sense of awe at contemplating the universe. He gets under the skin of his characters, whether it's a callow kid hanging out with his gang, a mental patient recovering from bereavement, or a blind Metis woman stumbling on the ruins of a crashed plane. There is so much more going on here than the clever tricks so many writers play. Here is perception, truth, and the promise of much more to come.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing debut
Review: This collection of stories by the lavishly talented Toronto writer Brian Panhuyzen frankly blew me away. Here is a writerly sensibility on a par with some of our greatest authors(Margaret Laurence comes to mind) combined with a youthful vigor and energy that sweeps through the dusty halls of CanLit like a freshening zephyr. (Forgive the poetry, but his work does that to me.)

Panhuyzen probes all the tender corners of human experience, the little moments of intimacy between people and the numinous sense of awe at contemplating the universe. He gets under the skin of his characters, whether it's a callow kid hanging out with his gang, a mental patient recovering from bereavement, or a blind Metis woman stumbling on the ruins of a crashed plane. There is so much more going on here than the clever tricks so many writers play. Here is perception, truth, and the promise of much more to come.