Synopses & Reviews
A dispatch from a foreign land, when crafted by an attentive and skilled writer, can be magical, transmitting pleasure, drama, and seductive strangeness.
In The Moon, Come to Earth, Philip Graham offers an expanded edition of a popular series of dispatches originally published on McSweeneys, an exuberant yet introspective account of a years sojourn in Lisbon with his wife and daughter. Casting his attentive gaze on scenes as broad as a citywide arts festival and as small as a single paving stone in a cobbled walk, Graham renders Lisbon from a perspective that varies between wide-eyed and knowing; though hes unquestionably not a tourist, at the same time he knows he will never be a local. So his lyrical accounts reveal his struggles with (and love of) the Portuguese language, an awkward meeting with Nobel laureate José Saramago, being trapped in a budding soccer riot, and his daughters challenging transition to adolescence while attending a Portuguese schoolbut he also waxes loving about Portugals saudade-drenched music, its inventive cuisine, and its vibrant literary culture. And through his humorous, self-deprecating, and wistful explorations, we come to know Graham himself, and his wife and daughter, so that when an unexpected crisis hits his family, we cant help but ache alongside them.
A thoughtful, finely wrought celebration of the moment-to-moment excitement of diving deep into another culture and confronting ones secret selves, The Moon, Come to Earth is literary travel writing of a rare intimacy and immediacy.
In The Moon, Come to Earth Philip Graham takes us on the best kind of journey, as he simultaneously reveals the fascinating city of Lisbonits neighborhoods, its writers, its customs, its cuisineand offers an intimate portrait of his beloved family. With his far-reaching intellect Graham is the ideal traveling companion, and The Moon, Come to Earth is a beautiful and surprising book.”Margot Livesey
I have long been a great fan of the delicately nuanced, keenly perceptive, beautifully articulated sensibility of Philip Graham. In his dispatches from Lisbon, The Moon, Come to Earth, he is at his exquisite best. I am very happy to follow this wonderful mind wherever in the world it wishes to go.”Robert Olen Butler
A good part of the reason I feel so passionately positive about The Moon, Come to Earth is how well Graham is able to convey his compassionate, generous, and comic spirit to the reader. Unfailingly endearing, whether hes trying to figure the number of cobblestones in Lisbon or trying to find an ATM to buy tickets for a futebol match, Graham becomes the readers traveling surrogate in the best sense. But this book is as much about parenthood as it is about Portugal, with Grahams daughter Hannah as the most constant figure in the narrative. The portrait of this father-daughter relationship is about as lovely as Ive seen.”Robin Hemley, author of Do-Over!
A beautiful Valentine to Lisbon. Philip Graham and his family take their artistic keenness to Portugal and capture its mystery and contradictions: Whether its visiting the set of a reality TV show where famous writers play hosts, or overlooking a gorgeous stone labyrinth used to trap wolves, Graham adores the offbeat even as he captures the soul of the city with good humor. Theres a taste of wine here, and giant sardines, and carnivals, and saudade, and a moon made of canvas with a light like a glowing heart. This is about a family living everyones dream of trying out a year abroad. But it might be the saga of the daughter, Hannah, and how the adventure abruptly becomes a journey into the loss of childhood, that grips the reader most deeply.”Katherine Vaz, author of Saudade, Mariana, Fado & Other Stories, and Our Lady of the Artichokes and Other Portuguese-American Stories
Part travelogue and part memoir, Philip Grahams The Moon, Come to Earth brings us the news of Portugal past and present, touching on food and sports, religion and language, music and literature and art. Grahams greatest strength is his ability to observe sharply and think clearly through the varied roles of public spectacle: the many ways in which the Portuguese tell stories of and to themselves through fireworks festivals and bullfights, medieval fairs and theater, magic shows and soccer matches and transformational public art. Given structure by his repeated return to the concept of saudadea complicated feeling that combines sorrow, longing and regret, laced perhaps with a little mournful pleasureand given buoyancy by the ebullience of his voice, The Moon, Come to Earth shows Graham at the top of his game.”Roy Kesey
The Moon, Come to Earth offers manifold delights. For an uninitiated reader, its an introduction to Portuguese culture, language, literature, and history. At the same time, Graham speaks eloquently to the wider processes of discovering emotional truths through self-reflection and of revealing philosophical and political insights through a close attention to particulars. Grahams voicewith its stunning metaphors, elegant turns of phrase, and delightful witcarries such warmth and charm that one keeps reading partly for the pleasure of his company.”Kirin Narayan, author of My Family and Other Saints
Review
"I have long been a great fan of the delicately nuanced, keenly perceptive, beautifully articulated sensibility of Philip Graham. In his dispatches from Lisbon,
The Moon, Come to Earth, he is at his exquisite best. I am very happy to follow this wonderful mind wherever in the world it wishes to go."
Review
"Graham's writing is unobtrusive and gentle, and . . . there is a pleasant luminosity that renders this little books of essays serene and enjoyable."
Review
"
The Moon, Come to Earth offers manifold delights. For an uninitiated reader, it's an introduction to Portuguese culture, language, literature, and history. At the same time, Graham speaks eloquently to the wider processes of discovering emotional truths through self-reflection and of revealing philosophical and political insights through a close attention to particulars. Graham's voice--with its stunning metaphors, elegant turns of phrase, and delightful wit--carries such warmth and charm that one keeps reading partly for the pleasure of his company."
Review
"
The Moon, Come to Earth offers manifold delights. For an uninitiated reader, its an introduction to Portuguese culture, language, literature, and history. At the same time, Graham speaks eloquently to the wider processes of discovering emotional truths through self-reflection and of revealing philosophical and political insights through a close attention to particulars. Grahams voice--with its stunning metaphors, elegant turns of phrase, and delightful wit--carries such warmth and charm that one keeps reading partly for the pleasure of his company."--Kirin Narayan, author of
My Family and Other SaintsReview
"In
The Moon, Come to Earth Philip Graham takes us on the best kind of journey, as he simultaneously reveals the fascinating city of Lisbon--its neighborhoods, its writers, its customs, its cuisine--and offers an intimate portrait of his beloved family. With his far-reaching intellect Graham is the ideal travelling companion, and
The Moon, Come to Earth is a beautiful and surprising book."
Review
"The Moon, Come to Earth: Dispatches from Lisbon is so enchanting: It dances and sighs. It twitches and hums and stumbles and then rights itself, with a winsome smile. It's like a living thing, filled with desire and uncertainty and joy and regret . . . Graham is a nimble, witty writer with a penchant for teasing out the small, telling detail from the crowded scene around him. . . and this book is the perfect companion as one contemplates those mysteries, those ceaseless journeys outward and inward."
Review
"A good part of the reason I feel so passionately positive about The Moon, Come to Earth is how well Graham is able to convey his compassionate, generous, and comic spirit to the reader. Unfailingly endearing, whether he's trying to figure the number of cobblestones in Lisbon or trying to find an ATM to buy tickets for a futbol match, Graham becomes the reader's traveling surrogate in the best sense. But this book is as much about parenthood as it is about Portugal, with Graham's daughter Hannah as the most constant figure in the narrative. The portrait of this father-daughter relationship is about as lovely as I've seen."
Review
"A beautiful Valentine to Lisbon. Philip Graham and his family take their artistic keenness to Portugal and capture its mystery and contradictions: Whether it's visiting the set of a reality TV show where famous writers play hosts, or overlooking a gorgeous stone labyrinth used to trap wolves, Graham adores the offbeat even as he captures the soul of the city with good humor. There's a taste of wine here, and giant sardines, and carnivals, and saudade, and a moon made of canvas with a light like a glowing heart. This is about a family living everyone's dream of trying out a year abroad. But it might be the saga of the daughter, Hannah, and how the adventure abruptly becomes a journey into the loss of childhood, that grips the reader most deeply."
Review
"Part travelogue and part memoir, Philip Graham's The Moon, Come to Earth brings us the news of Portugal past and present, touching on food and sports, religion and language, music and literature and art. Grahams greatest strength is his ability to observe sharply and think clearly through the varied roles of public spectacle: the many ways in which the Portuguese tell stories of and to themselves through fireworks festivals and bullfights, medieval fairs and theater, magic shows and soccer matches and transformational public art. Given structure by his repeated return to the concept of saudade--'a complicated feeling that combines sorrow, longing and regret, laced perhaps with a little mournful pleasure'--and given buoyancy by the ebullience of his voice, The Moon, Come to Earth shows Graham at the top of his game."
Review
"Philip Graham shows us how to write honestly and well about an unfamiliar culture . . . Written like a poem, and full of the poignant details one only notices when embedded in a new culture, not just passing through . . .
The Moon, Come to Earth should be required reading for all those about to travel abroad, especially if they plan to pack along pen and paper."
Review
"The wonderful collected memoir . . .
The Moon, Come to Earth lifted me up from my humdrum life and transplanted me into the Graham familys Lisbon adventure. It was a day-to-day adventure, full of the familiar, full of new routines and small struggles. It was a bit sad to leave it all, a bit of saudade creeping into my own life."
Synopsis
A dispatch from a foreign land, when crafted by an attentive and skilled writer, can be magical, transmitting pleasure, drama, and seductive strangeness.
In The Moon, Come to Earth, Philip Graham offers an expanded edition of a popular series of dispatches originally published on McSweeneys, an exuberant yet introspective account of a years sojourn in Lisbon with his wife and daughter. Casting his attentive gaze on scenes as broad as a citywide arts festival and as small as a single paving stone in a cobbled walk, Graham renders Lisbon from a perspective that varies between wide-eyed and knowing; though hes unquestionably not a tourist, at the same time he knows he will never be a local. So his lyrical accounts reveal his struggles with (and love of) the Portuguese language, an awkward meeting with Nobel laureate José Saramago, being trapped in a budding soccer riot, and his daughters challenging transition to adolescence while attending a Portuguese school—but he also waxes loving about Portugals saudade-drenched music, its inventive cuisine, and its vibrant literary culture. And through his humorous, self-deprecating, and wistful explorations, we come to know Graham himself, and his wife and daughter, so that when an unexpected crisis hits his family, we cant help but ache alongside them.
A thoughtful, finely wrought celebration of the moment-to-moment excitement of diving deep into another culture and confronting ones secret selves, The Moon, Come to Earth is literary travel writing of a rare intimacy and immediacy.
About the Author
Philip Graham is the author of two short story collections, The Art of the Knock and Interior Design, and a novel, How to Read an Unwritten Language. He teaches at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
I Dont Know Why I Love Lisbon
So Who Says Objects Are Inanimate?
365 Days of Pork Surprise
Alchemy: From a Rube to a Local
Bread, Bread; Cheese, Cheese
Lets Throw a Festival!
Isnt There a Law against Filching Calçadas?
The Moon, Come to Earth
Those Tricky Subgestures
Nearly the Same Substance
Go, Whatchamacallits!
Chama-me Ismail
Another History Lesson
We Capture the Castle
Salvage
Light for Light
Este espectáculo cruél
Three Churches
Particle and Wave
Fairly Medieval
Goodbye, Good Luck
Sip by Sip
On This Side of the Ocean
Epilogue
End Notes
Mini-dispatches
Sources of Literature Quoted