Customer Reviews

Lunatics

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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Each month, when the moon is full, Jack strips naked and waits
outside for Lily. If he doesn't, she has trouble finding him on her flight
down from the Moon. The Austin police are not pleased. . . but , as
one of his friends observes, Jack's a few bubbles off level. His friends,
thirty-something engineers and academics, are pretty kinky too.
There's Halle, a software engineer, "as straightforward a woman as I've
ever been shat on by," says a former boyfriend. Halle keeps a chart of
who's slept with whom - blue lines are long-term relationships, red
lines are "short affairs, brief mistakes, and one-night stands." Even
numbers are women,

"....and men, of course, are odd." . . . Carolyn
pointed to number 100, which had so many red and blue lines
converging on it that it was surrounded by a solid purple ring. "My
God," she said, "who's the slut?"

Halle made a throat-clearing noise. "Actually," she said, "that's me."

* * *

This month, Lilith the Moon Goddess has gotten confused by the
Austin city lights, and makes a hard landing on Guadalupe St --

Halle ran into the street after her and was nearly run over by a silver
Lexus whose driver leaned out his window and called her a stupid
c*nt. She ignored him and ran on to where Lily sat on the
steps, looking dazed . . . "Why did he say c*nt as if it were a bad
thing?" she asked. She sounded shaken.

"Because he meant it as a bad thing," Halle said . . . "We should get
out of here. I'll help you up."

But Lily was still looking at the Lexus. She scowled, and it gave Halle a
chill. "Nobody should say c*nt as if it were a bad thing," Lily said.

She wiggled her finger at the Lexus as the light turned green, and when
the car began to accelerate, both of its rear tires exploded. The Lexus
groaned to a halt in the middle of Eighth Street, and then the front tires
exploded as well.

Halle stared as a flatbed truck came roaring along Eighth Street. ran the
red light, and hit the right rear fender of the Lexus . . . The driver of
the Lexus emerged just as one of Lily's loose feathers wafted onto the
windshield. When the feather touched the glass, the car's alarm began
whooping. The driver stood there gaping at his wrecked automobile
as if it were a beached whale.

"I've given him scrotum boils, too," Lily said.

* * *
I had occasional suspension-of-disbelief problems - Jack, in particular,
gets a little too loopy at times, and Lily can get pretty weird - but I'm not
a regular fantasy reader, and this is a minor quibble. The ending?
Well, see what you think . . . "soon to be a major motion picture"?

This is Denton's fourth novel; I've previously read, and enjoyed,
"Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede" (a Campbell award-
winner) - similarly quirky, similar amusing Tejano background,
similar problems. I expect urban-fantasy fans would like both books a lot.

Serious Denton fans will want to check out his interview in the Jan 97
Locus - where you'll learn (surprise!) that he is a thirty-something who
lives in Austin, plays in a rock 'n roll band, & hangs with science-
eng'g-academic folks. His BA is in astronomy & English. When he
mentioned this to his wife-to-be, she said, "Oh. What are you going to
do with that - write science fiction?" "YES."

Actually, I'd like to see Denton combine his technical background and
his wonderfully quirky characters in a REAL sf book . .

[...]

I thought of the movie The Big Chill while I read this. I also thought of the small number of writers who write fantasy from their private slice of reality. Denton's writing is a wonder, and unlike the moon with its habit of coming and going, my interest in Lunatics never waned. Every character was unique and worth knowing. I've given this book as a gift many times. Smart, endearing writing.

Someone mentions in another review that this book is unlike Blackburn (another great book.) Which it is. Thus the wonder of Bradley Denton. I'm looking forward to his next book.

Lunatics was my introduction to the world of Bradley Denton. And I must say, I'm very impressed. The characters, while perhaps slightly stereotypical, nevertheless manage to hold onto some depth, and are at all times very enjoyable. Even minor characters, such as Halle's lovers Duane and Tommy, come across as genuine and real. And the tangled web that these characters weave is at times incredibly humorous, and at other times a very poignant and sharp comment on relationships and what they mean to life itself. A measure of a book is if it can keep me up at night. Many books can do this. An even greater measure is if a book gets me out of bed on a Saturday morning. This one did that. Definite must read. (Tom Robinson fans take note.)

I'm only 16 years old but i picked up this book in the library, just to have something to read. I brought i over to a friend's house and read it and it was an amazing story. Every character fit in with the personality of every close friend i had. To tell the truth, the book got really creepy because it was so accurate with the characters. This is one of the few books that i could'nt put down, literally. And surprisingly enough it was a romance novel but still humorous and very very clever witha touch of fantasy in it. Very good novel.

With Lunatics, Bradley Denton spins a magical, delightful tale. The book made me laugh out loud, which earned me some looks askance, yet it also brought me to tears with its sweet conclusion. The blurring of the line between the tangible, workaday world, and the world of spirits, goddesses, and love, recalls the magical realism of such writers of Garcia Marquez. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who is ready to be moved by a tale of the transformative power of love and the curative power of passion

I don't read much fantasy, but this novel is a real treat no matter what your genre leanings are. The frame of the story is a quirky romance between a bereaved man and a literal goddess, but Denton gives us a great deal more to revel in and ponder on. "Lunatics" is a heck of a lot of fun and is also a very rewarding book that I'm sure I'll reread more than once. Denton belongs with that school of Texas writers, Bruce Sterling and Howard Waldrop among them, whose unbridled imagination and integrity have probably denied them the wider audience they deserve.

Every full moon, the goddess Lilith, she of the sumptuous body, black wings and chicken feet, descends to earth. Initially, she was drawn to Jack to help him recover from the loss of the woman he loved. But when Jack's friends become concerned by his peculiar behavior (getting naked in the full moonlight, to begin with), Lilith can't resist "helping" them with their own love lives. What ensues is sweet and sexy, romantic and hilarious. I can't believe I waited this long to read it!

The premise of this book is very creative and romantic, namely that a goddess of the moon comes to earth every full moon to be with her earthly lover, who is a very unusual character in his own right.

The story's form reminded me of parts of Somerset Maugham's "Razor's Edge", where most of the characters are living petty lives filled with trivial pursuits, even though they form a group of friends. But the main character, as in "Razor's Edge", is a unique and extraordinary man. Only at the end of Lunatics do the group members put aside their pettiness to help each other.

Definitely worth a read!

I really enjoyed "Lunatics." I don't care much for love stories, but this is more a story about the people who love the lovers, and how everyone we know is affected by the choices we make.

This is a wacky book. I'm not even sure how to classify it really - fantasy/contemporary/comedy. In a nutshell it's about a guy, Jack, who is in love with a moon goddess. His friends, neighbors, and local cops all think he's a loon because he spends one night a month outside, naked as can be, awaiting his lover from the moon (it's the only way she's able to find him).

In an attempt to save him from a permanent stint in jail his friends spend each full moon with him in a cabin located way out in the boonies. It's not long before his friends begin to become affected by the presence of Jack's moon goddess and they begin to have relationship troubles. The book started out funny and the premise was wild but eventually the story turned dull as more and more time was spent on Jack's self-centered, annoying friends who were lusting after each others' wives/boyfriends/etc. etc. I really liked Jack and his moon goddess Lily - they were the only compassionate characters in the bunch - but his friends hogged up most of the book