The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon

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Summary: among the highest of reads, and suggestions for salt lake
Review: this book has been for me also one of those life-changing experiences, in which i felt a part of me open up through the characters and their experiences. hoping there's another one by him soon! there are few other books that had a similar effect on me, and they are (for salt lake city, who asked for suggestions) The Bone People by Keri Hulme, Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris, Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. Good luck --

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Summary: The mind's eye and that left eye too.
Review: This book was spectacular. In fact for some reason or other I found myself attached to Shed because I share some of those same characteristics as he. I took the idea of what to do with the left eye and tried it out on the streets.. and to my surprise it's true. When you look into a person's left eye, of course if they let you, you can see into their soul.. and what you discover can you handle it?

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Summary: A briliant American Odyssey
Review: This is an unforgettable, breakthrough book -- big, wild, moving, wildly funny, heart-breaking and ultimately life-enhancing. It's the best novel I've read in decades, and I can't understand why it's so little known or why it was published (so far as I can tell) as a paperback original.

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Summary: My Number One Book of all Time!
Review: This is my number 1 deserted island book! I took almost 6mos to read this book.Not because I'm a slow reader(and I am)but because I never wanted the story to end! The characters will stay in your mind long after reading this captivating book. This is story telling at it's best! Wonderfully written characters create a wild west you never knew.Or maybe always wanted to? Our storyteller Shed,a bisexual half breed boy,takes us on a romantic adventure through the old west of Excellent,Idaho.Weaving a vivid and heartwarming story of love,family and identity.I'm not a fan of old west novels. This one being the only exception!This book is a must for any fan of great storytelling.I hope there's a film adaptation in the future!

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Summary: Oh, those Tybo reviews...
Review: This is one of those that goes straight to your unconsciousness. What I though I was doing was reading a story, but what I was doing was linking feelings with ideas in an unexpected and revolutionary way. Maybe it just came at the right time, a friend of mine sent this book to me. The story's not that great, I'd never buy a western book, but Shed's expression is rich and colorful, with hypnotic effects. Even though you don't like the theme, Spanbauer's skills are worth the reading, great writer. Ok, I'm not going straight to the point, I'm leaving.

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Summary: "Without Moves Moves we are nothing"
Review: This may be the most remarkable novel I've ever read. And one of the most original. Oh, there are echoes of other great books, such as "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" (other reviewers have mentioned "Little Big Man") but Tom Spanbauer's vision is unique: his subject is nothing less than the American identity, our dreams of reinvention and assilimilation, our fears and illusions, and the "human-being story" that is unique to each of us. Shed (tribal name Duivichi-un-Dua) begins life as the son as Buffalo Sweets, an Indian prostitute in the employ of Ida Richelieu, purveyor of Ida's Place, in Excellent, Idaho, a backwater in transition from frontier town to Morman community sometime at the beginning of the 20th century. When Billy Blizzard, who has been Ida's lover since he was thirteen, goes crazy, raping Shed and killing his mother, Shed goes to work for Ida as a male prostitute who lives "out-in-the-shed." But when Alma Hatch, ex-Bible salesman and exotic dancer, pays to sleep with Shed, he panics and leaves town in search of his own identity. That's when he meets Dellwood Barker, the Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon. And that's only the beginning of this incredible story, which eventually brings Shed full circle to Excellent, where he, Dellwood, Ida, and Alma form a family ("better than any Morman family" and briefly to include a traveling troop of "authentic Negro" minstrels) that tests them all in ways they could never have imagined. As John Donne said of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales": "here is God's plenty." With "The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon," Spanbauer has earned a special place in American letters. I can think of no book since "Moby Dick" that offers such a vivid mosaic of American life, and no book so profound in its understanding of the human condition. This one goes beyond cult; it's a classic for all time.

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Summary: Lonesome Lunacy
Review: This Tybo was deeply moved by Shed, his family and their human being stories. Enough truth here to fill up any heart that's open wide. Maybe too much for some. A straight, male Tybo like me can't follow those moves, moving in deep, dark, pernicious places that moves shouldn't go. My Tybo Dad loves me, and I love him, but a simple handshake moves plenty enough love and truth for both of us. But still, the soul of this story transcends all of its body-penetrating tortures and pleasures. Read it with your left eye wide open and you'll see your own spirit there. Unless, of course, you're a Mormon.

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Summary: A very clever retelling of a classic story....
Review: To truly appreciate this very engaging book, you must know the story of Oedipus (read Oedipus Rex by Sophocles)...I'm amazed no other reviewer has mentioned the connection!

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Summary: a crazy story, makes you wonder
Review: What a fantastic book! It grabbed me from the first sentence and its grip only tightened. During the last 50 pages I was crying my eyes continually, at times laughing, sometimes reeling and gasping from the brutality and sadness, but above all the deep truth of the story. I can't remember when I cried so much while reading a novel! As far as I know, this novel is sui generis and quite unique. It is as though you looked right into the soul of the man "Shed." One thing I must denigrate is the slaughterhouse scene. It seemed a little too gratuitiously yucky for effect, to make a point. That part was the toughest to get through and it reminded me of the horrifyingly gray world of "Gorgemghast." But overall, what a book! Phew! I feel just like I took a vacation in Idaho of the 1880s.

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Summary: Magical Realism meets the Gay far West.
Review: When I read this book for some reason I was reminded of Garcia Marquez and his 100 Years of Solitude. The town of Excellent, Idaho has the same fantastic feel of end of the road as Macondo had. And the characters are as loony and misfits as Buendia and his relatives were. Except that now we are dealing with bisexual, or was that really gay, characters, overt prostitutes and all the little world of the remote frontier station. The harshness of the frontier is vividly recreated among the anything goes atmosphere of these people that had run away of everything and just could not be bothered anymore with details and conventions. I did not care much for all the spiritual subtext but somehow it went well with the story, as the author convinces you to forget about your points of reference and let yourself go elsewhere. The writing is excellent and I shall look forward more writing from this author, which by now is overdue.