Synopses & Reviews
Praise for Joseph Coulson's debut novel,
The Vanishing Moon:
"The novel at times achieves the quiet beauty of William Maxwell's finest work-generous, episodic, elegiac but not sentimental."-The Nation
"Coulson writes with surpassing clarity and dignity . . . creating a somberly beautiful family saga."-Booklist
"The Vanishing Moonis 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."-The Bloomsbury Review
Of Song and Water tells a tale of the Great Lakes, of singlehanded sailors and jazz musicians, of working-class dreams blighted by family duty, personal betrayals, and the untold violence between fathers and sons.
The story moves from the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Erie to the jazz bars of Detroit and Chicago, from 1920s Rivertown to present-day Humbug Marina, as it follows the life of Coleman Moore, a jazz guitarist who began his career with promise but who now finds himself adrift and in the company of ghosts: his mentor, a black jazz legend trying to live peacefully on the edge of a white town; his grandfather, a Prohibition rumrunner turned ruthless entrepreneur; and his first love, a clear-headed woman who refuses to live in the dark tunnels of the past.
In language that evokes the riffs and rhythms of jazz and the sound and movement of the Great Lakes, Joseph Coulson's second novel is a profound Orphic journey, a story of hidden truths, unfulfilled dreams, and possible redemption.
Joseph Coulson, novelist, poet, and playwright, was born in Detroit in 1957. His first novel, The Vanishing Moon (2004) was selected for the Barnes & Noble Great New Writers series and won the Book of the Year Award, Gold Medal in Literary Fiction, from ForeWord Magazine.
Review
"Love abandoned, violence sustained, guilt, grief, the transcendence of sailing and making music, all play in jazzlike counterpoint. Coulson's rhapsodic novel progresses from harsh equations of black and white to an exaltation of color." Booklist
Review
"[T]he book has a certain flow and rhythm that seems appropriate to its themes, and all loose ends are tied up satisfactorily. Recommended." Library Journal
Review
"Of Song and Water, a more tightly focused novel than Coulson's first, derives its unique style from jazz and does a fine job examining the ways that social tensions exert pressure on individual lives not in terms of historic events, but as manifested in personal conflicts." Donna Seaman, The Common Review (read the entire Common review)
Synopsis
Of Song and Water tells a tale of the Great Lakes, of singlehanded sailors and jazz musicians, of working-class dreams blighted by family duty, personal betrayals, and the untold violence between fathers and sons.
The story moves from the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Erie to the jazz bars of Detroit and Chicago, from 1920s Rivertown to present-day Humbug Marina, as it follows the life of Coleman Moore, a jazz guitarist who began his career with promise but who now finds himself adrift and in the company of ghosts: his mentor, a black jazz legend trying to live peacefully on the edge of a white town; his grandfather, a Prohibition rumrunner turned ruthless entrepreneur; and his first love, a clear-headed woman who refuses to live in the dark tunnels of the past.
In language that evokes the riffs and rhythms of jazz and the sound and movement of the Great Lakes, Joseph Coulson's second novel is a profound Orphic journey, a story of hidden truths, unfulfilled dreams, and possible redemption.
Synopsis
Praise for Joseph Coulson's debut novel,
The Vanishing Moon:
"The novel at times achieves the quiet beauty of William Maxwell's finest work-generous, episodic, elegiac but not sentimental."-The Nation
"Coulson writes with surpassing clarity and dignity . . . creating a somberly beautiful family saga."-Booklist
"The Vanishing Moonis 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."-The Bloomsbury Review
Forced to abandon a musical career and struggling to move his father's sailboat out of dry dock, Coleman Moore finds himself at mid-life in the company of ghosts: his grandfather, a rumrunner and Great Lakes pirate; his jazz mentor, a black man in a white town; and his first love, a woman unafraid of the past. Like a melody or a swift stream, Of Song and Waterpulls us into a world of hidden truths, crushed dreams, and possible redemption.
Joseph Coulson's The Vanishing Moon (available in paperback from Harcourt)was a great success in Germany and France. Born in Detroit, Coulson is the author of three books of poetry and several plays. He lives in Boston.
Synopsis
Orpheus descending through a jazz musician's memories (in a minor key). A powerful second novel.
About the Author
Joseph Coulsons first novel, The Vanishing Moon (2004), was selected for the Barnes & Noble Great New Writers series and won the Book of the Year Award, Gold Medal in Literary Fiction, from ForeWord Magazine. Coulson is the author of three volumes of poetry: The Letting Go, A Measured Silence, and Graph. His first play, A Saloon at the Edge of the World (co-authored with William Relling, Jr.), a noir drama showcased by Theater Artists of Marin, won both popular and critical acclaim in the San Francisco Bay area. Coulson has been the recipient of a Gray Writing Fellowship (selected by Robert Creeley) and a Ph.D. in American literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo. A teacher for many years, he recently served as Editorial Director for the Great Books Foundation in Chicago. He now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.