Customer Reviews

A Man of No Moon: A Novel

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This absolute gem of a novel centers around the romantic and sexual threesome of two gorgeous American ex-pats and a naughty minded Italian poet and translator of English novels who gravitates between his fears, his thoughts of suicide, and his fears of artistic inaction. A lover of art, literature, movies, and sex, which he carries with him like a badge of honor, Dante Sabato, tries to live his life with the best of intentions even when he's suddenly hijacked by two beautiful and glamorous American actresses Gladys and Prudence Godfrey, ostensibly in Italy to make movies but to also escape the perpetual sand and grit of Los Angeles.

Beginning in 1948, author Jenny McPhee beautifully captures her three characters' hopes and dreams, lusts and desires as the years of the War remain most prominent in their lives. Certainly, Dante and Gladys are far from conservative. Free-wheeling and sexually adventurous, both are products of their respective societies, and both are decidedly artistic and both very bohemian. It is only the delicate Prudence who seems the more conformist. Yet it is Prudence whom Dante ultimately sets his sights on, becoming ever more obsessed with the actress's unique glow.

There is certainly something familiar about Prudence, her scent "elusive and changeable" that gives Dante the sensation that he had known her all his life. Perhaps it is this feeling that makes him fall for her. But the prospect of true love is too much for Italy's "most famous living poet" with his lack of conviction intuiting his suicide habit right from the start. In the first blush of lust it is Gladys who physically desires Dante. Eager and quick-witted, with a fine nose for the erotic, Dante becomes easily distracted by Gladys's unquenchable desire: "Don't get me wrong, but you suit me, of all the men I've known you seem the least complicated."

A veritable travelogue of glamorous Italy, this novel follows Dante's attractions to both women as the narrative moves from Rome to Venice and Capri to Lisbon, and then to Florence and Dante's home of Castiglioncello on the coast where the sun sits low on the horizon casting an unnatural light over the opal sea. In its genuine glow it is Gladys's complexion that becomes as electric as her mood, while Dante ultimately hopes to be saved by the ever-present Prudence. As the images of these two women become layered in beauty and poetry, Mcphee intersperses real characters (like the actress Anna Magnani) with her fictional creations such as the beautiful and charming Tullio who constantly surprises Dante with his intelligence and who instills in Dante the endless dreams of their voyage to America.

Grappling with a sense of moral failure, Dante remains haunted by the violent pre-war years of fascism, his life as anti-Fascist activist and an assassin, and also his time in prison. It's not surprising then that his life is full of hesitations and a sense of wanting to run away. Filled with an uneasy sorrow for what the future holds, Dante is constantly caught between his adoration for Prudence and his lust for Gladys - at best a truly perplexing dilemma. The joys and tranquility Dante experiences with Prudence are predicated in his continued maelstrom with Gladys. In a story where love is constantly built upon secrets, the past and the present eventually collide and McPhee's gorgeous prose ebbs and flows as she beautifully defines a moment in Italian history even as the poor and vulnerable Dante knows where this threesome with Prudence and Gladys is eventually headed. Mike Leonard February 09.

I'm a fan of Jenny McPhee, having read and enjoyed her first two novels. However, this one was not as good. The story follows a love (read: sex) triangle between Italian poet Dante Omero Sabat and two American sisters in the movie business in post-war Italy. Given that the main subjects are sex, movies, and Italy, you wouldn't think it would be boring, but there are definitely sections where it is. Part of the problem is that it is all in Dante's voice, and that becomes stifling. Her other works have a lot of zest because of the excellent male-female dialogue. Here, it's all Dante, even when the sisters are talking. I feel that the narrator doesn't really accept the humanity of the two sisters, and that starts to get old. Overall, I got the feeling throughout that this was McPhee trying to be important and trying to make this so someone else would like it, rather than doing what she naturally does well.

I also thought of something that Stephen King says in his book On Writing: that the final draft is the first draft minus 15 percent. This book would have been much improved if that 15 percent were taken out. Hopefully her next book will be more like her earlier two books and less like this one.

Not since I was a teenager picking through my mother's books have I actually dog-eared pages to mark the sex scenes in order to pass along to friends! This book is smoking-hot, AND it has a great plot to boot. I've read McPhee's other books and really liked them, but this one just blew me away. Read this book at bedtime with your mate, it will make you both very "happy."