Synopses & Reviews
In 1931, during the Depression, the Tollman family descends into poverty, and brothers Stephen and Phil try to shield their siblings from the dangers of financial ruin. Later, as World War II approaches, Katherine Lennox, a musician and political activist, is caught between Stephen's reserved affection and Phil's unyielding desire. Finally, it is James, Phil's son, coming of age in the Vietnam War era, who strives to reconcile his father's rage and regret.
"A beautifully told story about family bonds, love, loss, and the power of memory over our lives."--The Bloomsbury Review
"Meditates on the collision of personality with history . . . Coulson's impressive first novel should leave his readers eager for a second."--The Dallas Morning News
"Abounds in passion and wonder."--The San Diego Union-Tribune
Joseph Coulson is the author of three books of poetry and a produced play, and has been the recipient of a Gray Writing Fellowship and the Tompkins Award in Poetry. This is his first novel.
Review
"Coulson writes with surpassing clarity and dignity about grief, anger, sexual passion, the need for art, brotherly love, and the resilience of good women, creating a somberly beautiful family saga." Booklist
Review
"A rich, variegated book, The Vanishing Moon meditates on family, need and the collision of personality with history. Joseph Coulson's impressive first novel should leave his readers eager for a second." Dallas Morning News
Review
"Coulson's richly-textured narrative abounds in passion and wonder." San Diego Union-Tribune
Synopsis
A chorus of candid and poignant voices narrates this novel about a working-class American family who struggles to succeed through five turbulent decades, from the Depression to the Vietnam War. First, Stephen Tollman looks back on his early adventures with his older brother, Philip, as the boys try to shield their younger siblings from the vulnerability of financial ruin. Years later, the vibrant and ambitious Katherine Lennox mesmerizes Stephen and Philip as they both tragically fall in love with her. Then, Philip's son James comes of age in the 1960s, striving to understand his father's deep anger amid a summer of assassinations and civil unrest.
Together, these voices create an insightful, beautiful, and deeply psychological story about the American working class, about the strength and strain of family bonds, and finally, about hardships that haunt the human psyche over a lifetime.
About the Author
Joseph Coulson was born in Detroit in 1957. His full-length play, A Saloon at the Edge of the World (co-authored with William Relling Jr.), was staged as a showcase production in the 1995-96 T.A.M. Season of New American Plays. He has published three books of poetry: Graph, A Measured Silence, and The Letting Go. Coulson has been the recipient of a David Gray Fellowship, selected by Robert Creeley, and the Tompkins Award in Poetry. A literary memoir, short fiction, and literary criticism have appeared in several journals and anthologies including Barnabe Mountain Review, Walt Whitman of Mickle Street, Cemetery Dance, The Critical Survey of Poetry, and The Greenfield Review.<br><br>From 1999-2003, Coulson worked as Senior Editor and Editorial Director at the Great Books Foundation in Chicago, a non-profit educational organization founded by Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler. Working with a team of editors, Coulson created and published several books in philosophy, science, and literature, including Modern American Poetry, a major anthology that highlights over forty American poets from Walt Whitman to Li-Young Lee.<br><br>Coulson studied at Wayne State University and Oxford University, and he holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His dissertation, Word Music, draws on his experience as a musician, exploring the techniques that poets and musicians share, the similarities between organic form in poetry and improvisational jazz. His talks, workshops and readings, which often include music, have been presented in a variety of settings, including the Michigan Poetry Festival, the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, Upstairs at the Improv in Los Angeles, and the University of Notre Dame Literary Festival.<br><br>His first novel, The Vanishing Moon, will be published by Archipelago Books early in 2004. Current projects include a new play, Junkyard of the Gods, and a second novel. <br>
Reading Group Guide
In his acclaimed debut novel, poet and playwright Joseph Coulson presents a stirring, unique depiction of twentieth-century America. From the Great Depression to the Vietnam War, The Vanishing Moon chronicles three generations of a working-class family bearing the scars of tragic loss. With keen perception and taut, evocative prose, Coulson brings to life brothers Stephen, Philip, and Myron Tollman, who cope in different ways with poverty, their mother's burgeoning blindness, desertion by their father, and the haunting death of their sister. A new decade brings Katherine Lennox into their lives. A musician and political activist, she leaves indelible memories on the Tollmans as World War II envelops Philip in its grip. And when he returns, the family struggles against a torrent of memories as Philip's own sons come of age in an era of assassinations, civil unrest, and another call to war. Capturing the bittersweet fissure between fateful reality and abandoned, passionate dreams, The Vanishing Moon charts a legacy you will not soon forget. We hope that the following questions and topics will enhance your discussion of this mesmerizing novel. For additional guides from Harvest, visit us at www.TK. Questions and Topics for Discussion 1. To what extent is the Tollman family a microcosm of America's last century? Does their family dynamic reflect the nation's character as a whole? 2. Discuss the literary elements Joseph Coulson uses to evoke a broad range of characters. Which scenes seemed particularly vivid to you, and what devices do you credit with this vibrancy? 3. What is the effect of the varying points of view and first-person narration? In the end, is this essentially Stephen's story, or are assorted protagonists given equal significance? 4. How were the brothers' perceptions of women formed? What were the repercussions of losing both sisters (including the newborn twin) and growing to adulthood with the knowledge of these losses? To what do you attribute the different temperaments among the Tollman brothers? 5. Phil demonstrates a compassion for frailty on many occasions, such as the abuse of Myron when they are children and the destruction of the birds nesting in his yard when he lives next door to Knute. What determines whether he responds to a situation with tenderness or with rage? Is there anyone who could have quelled his pain? 6. Describe the various backdrops created by Coulson: Cleveland, Mayfield, Detroit, the West Coast. Do these descriptions reflect their corresponding emotional landscapes presented in the novel? 7. What accounts for the gradual separation between Jessica and her sons? Was her diminished role in their lives inevitable? 8. While the novel's early chapters portray severe material poverty, they reflect a family with rich emotional bonds. What does the novel convey about the nature of comfort, in its tangible and intangible forms? Was the world of the brothers' youth more dangerous than the one they inhabited as adults? 9. What does each generation express about the nature of love and commitment, including Jessica? What was the source of Katherine's appeal-a force strong enough to captivate both Phil and Stephen for so many years? What prevented Phil from remaining with her? What prevents James and Maria from staying together? 10. Discuss the notion of social dissenters in the novel. Which characters are the true rebels? Who are the artists? 11. Does Lethea Strong inhabit a world that is very different from the Tollmans'? Is her death a more honorable one than Jessica's? 12. What is the "large, incomprehensible thing" that Stephen discovers he must do after discussing women with Jake at the restaurant bar? What is the significance of the call from Carrie Ann while he is immersed in Katherine's realm? 13. How would you characterize the Tollman brothers' legacy? Is this a family in which history repeats itself, or will brothers Jim and Paul bring about a generation of healing? 14. In the last paragraph of The Vanishing Moon, Stephen asserts that he and Phil are alike. Do you agree with him? He also observes that memory is all. For him, and for the other narrators, is there a common reality expressed by these memories? 15. Does this family history reflect your own in any way? What are your recollections or storytelling traditions regarding these chapters in American history? 16. The novel's epigraph, from Li-Young Lee's poem "The Moon from Any Window," encapsulates the individual nature of perception. Who and what vanishes in this novel? In what way does each narrator present a different perspective on loss? And, like the moon, what remains constant in the end? Critical acclaim for The Vanishing Moon: "The Vanishing Moon is a beautifully told story about family bonds, love, loss, and the power of memory over our lives. This is Joseph Coulson's first novel, and I hope not his last."-Lori Kranz, The Bloomsbury Review "Coulson's richly textured narrative abounds in passion and wonder. Loss may be catastrophic, but for Coulson it is never final. His real subject is not loss but the art of losing, the infinitely varied ways in which people try to live on in the wake of loss."-The San Diego Union Tribune "Assured and purposeful, first-time novelist Coulson infuses each surprising and evocative moment with great feeling and mythic resonance . . . Coulson writes with surpassing clarity and dignity about grief, anger, sexual passion, the need for art, brotherly love, and the resilience of good women, creating a somberly beautiful family saga."-Booklist "[The Vanishing Moon] explores human frailty with the simplicity and directness of haiku . . . The novel at times achieves the quiet beauty of William Maxwell's finest work-generous, episodic, elegiac but not sentimental."-The Nation About the Author Born in Detroit in 1957, Joseph Coulson is the author of three books of poetry: Graph, A Measured Silence, and The Letting Go. His full-length play, A Saloon at the Edge of the World (coauthored with William Relling, Jr.) was staged as a showcase production in the 1995-96 T.A.M. Season of New American Plays. He has been the recipient of a David Gray Fellowship, selected by Robert Creeley, and earned a Ph.D. in American literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife Christine. This is his first novel.
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