Moon Women: A Novel [Hardcover]

Pamela Duncan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 7, 2001

With the grace of a natural storyteller, debut novelist Pamela Duncan crafts a mesmerizing tale of family and love, revelation and forgiveness. Beautifully wrought, deeply affecting, Moon Women is a resounding portrait of three generations of remarkable women, separated by a secret only one of them can tell.

In the lush North Carolina foothills, the Moon women have put down roots: matriarch Marvelle Moon, who’s starting to lose her grip on the world after more than eighty years of life; her middle-aged daughters, Ruth Ann and Cassandra; and Ruth Ann’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Ashley, fresh out of rehab, unmarried, and three months pregnant.

Despite Ruth Ann’s best efforts to live a life that’s all her own, her family is coming together around her. Marvelle and Ashley need a place to live and Ruth Ann is unable to turn either of them away; and her womanizing ex-husband has been coming around again, dredging up the past. Now a flurry of outbursts, emotions, and outrages is shattering Ruth Ann’s separate peace. And as this flawed family comes together, so, too, do the stories of the people Ruth Ann thought she knew best.

For here is Ashley, who has spent nineteen years running furiously away from home, now finding herself on a strange journey with her unraveling grandmother. And here is Cassandra, protected by layers of obesity and loneliness, wondering how to put magic back in her life. And Marvelle, slowly losing touch with reality, privately contemplating the story of her life and the secret that would change everything for everyone — if they only knew....

By turns fierce and tender, harrowing and heartbreaking, Moon Women resonates with emotional power, holding us captive under its beguiling spell. It is an astonishing debut from a powerfully original new voice in contemporary fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the tradition of Fannie Flagg and Rebecca Wells comes a Southern-fried debut from novelist Duncan. Taking place in rural North Carolina (the author's home ground) in the early 1990s, the story spans nine months just long enough for unwed Ashley to carry and deliver her "young'un." After a stint in rehab, the troubled 19-year-old goes home to her mother, 51-year-old Ruth Ann, whose carefully organized life is about to be turned upside down. Between her ne'er-do-well, philandering ex-husband, A.J., who still comes around, her octogenarian mother, Marvelle, for whom she must care, and Ashley's tense return, Ruth Ann has much to worry about. She wants her family to be happy, but at the same time wishes they would give her some space ("Pure and simple, every damn body got on her damn nerves"). This novel is chock-full of stereotypical Southern speech, which some may find quaint or humorous (brung instead of brought, taters instead of potatoes, foller instead of follow), but more refined grammarians may simply be annoyed or even cringe at nondialogue colloquialisms ("It amazed Ashley that him and Ruth Ann got along as well as they did"). Duncan succeeds in defining her characters' differences, but in her effort to make them all "strong," they sometimes just come across as grumpy complainers. The most sympathetic and well-rounded character is Cassandra, Ruth Ann's obese young sister, who dreams of escaping her family, her body and her life as it is. The plot becomes a bit unfocused at times, but Duncan shows promise as a from-the-heart quirky storyteller. (Aug. 7)Forecast: A major advertising campaign and author publicity will help give this first novel a foothold, as will an appealing jacket.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Add newcomer Duncan to your reading list of Southern women writers. Set in western North Carolina, this first novel follows three generations of Moon women during the months of granddaughter Ashley's unplanned pregnancy. While both male and female characters resonate, this novel is definitely about the women as they struggle with relationships, roles, and their place in the world. Dialog is true to the region, and intertwined throughout are 80-year-old matriarch Marvelle's memories of her family and its secrets. Duncan expertly demonstrates that ordinary lives are worth illuminating. Her novel should make her mentor, author Lee Smith, proud and provide strong competition to another new regional novelist, Adriana Trigiani (Big Stone Gap, Big Cherry Holler). Strongly recommended for all fiction collections.
- Rebecca Sturm Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press; aFirst Edition First Printing edition (August 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385335180
• ISBN-13: 978-0385335188
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,242,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You can go home again!, November 24, 2001

By 

Paula Hess (Iowa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moon Women: A Novel (Hardcover)

I heartily applaud Pamela Duncan for her first novel, "Moon Women". The book tells the story of 4 women trying to come to grips with the reality of their lives. Ruth Ann is the mother, just getting used to her freedom being divorced from her husband A.J. But in one day her life suddenly does a complete turn around and she finds herself trying to once again relate with her daughter Ashley 19, who has just gotten out of rehab and come home to stay and who is pregnant. Then there is Marvelle, Ruth Ann's mother who at 84 is slowly sliding into senility. Her mother has been living with Ruth's sister Cassandra but, Marvelle decides she would rather stay with Ruth Ann and Ashley.
Thus starts the story of nine months out of these women lives as they learn from and about each other. Ashley who has spent 19 years running away from home now finds herself on a journey to find herself, Cassandra who has always hid behind her obesity and lonliness trys to come to terms with the life she has been dealt. Marvelle living between today and the past and has stories she wants her daughters and granddaughter to know before she passes. Ruth Ann is just trying to hang on to each of them and somehow find herself too. This is a heartwarming story that will leave the reader glad they took the time to listen.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful tale about intergenerational relationships, May 5, 2002

By 

"cymoncompanies" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moon Women: A Novel (Hardcover)

Take three generations of women from the same family, add in their problems and secrets, and mix it with the understanding, but at times unorthodox, support they give each other, and you have a heart-warming story from Pamela Duncan. "Moon Women" is a solid 4 read. If not for a slow start, which made me wonder if I should give it up, this would have earned a 5 from me. Duncan weaves the story of life's lessons and the need for ties between mothers, daughters, grandmothers and granddaughters. By the end of the story, I loved each of these women, who started out like a portrait of dysfunction. It also displays the strength of women who can forgive the men in their lives, and shows why this is oftentimes the best path to take.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just for Women, August 10, 2001

By 

G. Turner (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moon Women: A Novel (Hardcover)

The author spends a great amount of time developing the characters in this book and I thank her for it. Now, the Moon women are friends of mine too. These folks live, as most of us do, surviving the bad times, savoring and remembering the good times, and always looking forward with anxiety and hope for the times to come. Most people who read this book will look at Ms. Duncan's creations and see pieces of themselves or their family members embedded in the words she wrote. I know I did. I had a gandma with some of Marvelle's traits and a sister somewhat like Ruth Ann. Come to think of it, there's probably a few A.J.s, Cassis and Ashleys around too.

This book is a different genre for me - no detectives, serial killers, sports, courtroom scenes, or blood & guts at all. Still, there was a mystery in each character, an unknown that kept me turning pages and wanting to know more about these women and the few men they had under their spells. If anyone thinks this book is just for women, they are going to miss one heck of a good read.