Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains [Paperback]

Susan Elderkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2001

Susan Elderkin's brilliant Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains explores our places in the lives of our loved ones and in the universe. Theobald Moon lives in a lonely corner of the Arizona desert, tending his spectacular cactus garden, his tiny mobile home, and his astounding appetite. He has fled a stifled, cardigan-and-tea-cozy life in south London for this unfamiliar country and is raising Josephine, who has known no other life than their cheerful yet isolated American one. But when a jangling ice-cream truck finds its way into the desert carrying two ill-fated lovers--a pregnant Slovakian shoemaker and a mysterious ice-cream man--it throws Theo's and Josie's careful lives into a chaotic state for which they're totally unprepared. Fantastic upheaval ensues, as well as an inspired redemption. Innovative and accessible, funny and profound, Elderkin's "beautiful, touching story" (Bookseller) explores love and responsibility, and the joys and fears such emotions inspire. It is a rare and tantalizing first novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Arizona desert is the unlikely but stunning setting for this imaginative first novel, the beguiling and unsettling tale of an obese Englishman, a young girl, a Slovakian shoemaker and an ice cream man. Uprooting himself from dreary England when his doting mother dies, 34-year-old Theobald Moon moves to a mobile home on a one-acre plot in the desert outside Tucson, where he plans to enjoy the sun, immerse himself in New Age philosophy and yoga, plant a cactus garden and eat to his heart's content. Reminiscent of John Kennedy Toole's hero Ignatius Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces, Moon is both charming and disgusting, a large man with a sweet disposition and an uncommon interest in his bodily functions. A no-nonsense cowboy named Jersey befriends Theo, teaching him to live in and respect the desert. But just as Theo is beginning to acclimate himself, a young Slovakian shoemaker and her lover arrive in an ice cream truck and take up residence nearby. Four years later, Theo is still living in the desert, the shoemaker and her lover are gone, and Theo has a daughter, four-year-old Josephine. The mystery of Josephine's origins is revealed in flashbacks over nearly a decade as she grows up, with points of view alternating between Theo and Josephine. British author Elderkin has crafted a complex, heartbreaking tale, entwining the lives of quirky characters in an improbable but compelling narrative illustrating the agonizing potential of love to cause more pain then pleasure. The reader occasionally feels distanced from the action, and an abrupt, unnerving ending falls short, but this is a promising debut. Foreign rights sold in the U.K., Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Elderkin's first novel is a disquieting modern fairy tale set in the Arizona desert. Theobald Moon and his daughter, Josephine, live isolated and enchanted lives in a faded blue mobile home, where they are visited only by Jersey, a taciturn cowboy who takes care of practical matters for them. Flashbacks reveal Theo's life in England before he escaped to create a new home for himself in the bleak desert. Gradually, Josephine grows from a happy girl raised on candy and Theo's made-up stories into a rebellious teenager who seeks the truth about her mysterious birth. Meanwhile, Tibor and the pregnant Eva, who have fled Eastern Europe in search of a better life, arrive in town in an ice cream truck and bring further change. Like orally transmitted fairy tales of old, this work contains elements of mystery and beauty as well as cruelty and death. While well written, it is a relentlessly grim tale, and the ending does not satisfy. Recommended for extensive fiction collections.DCheryl L. Conway, Univ. of Arkansas Lib., Fayetteville
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; Reprint edition (May 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802137997
• ISBN-13: 978-0802137999
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,237,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review of "Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains", June 25, 2000

By 

Judith Dring (Western Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sunset over Chocolate Mountains (Hardcover)

"Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains" is an impressive first novel. Theobold Moon is aptly named-bland yet strangely comforting-devoted to his daughter Josephine, and oh so protective of her. Theo is eventually forced to face a stinging reality. His off-sider Jersey provides the perfect foil for this odd couple as the live out their existence in the harsh Arizona environment. Running in tandem with the desert story, is another saga beginning in the ice and snow of Europe, when a Slovakian shoemaker and an ice cream man fall in love. In a series of strange yet believable events, the lives of these people become entwined and the ending- though shocking is nevertheless handled deftly and with compassion. Elderkin tries a little too hard in the first section of the book where some of her descriptions are a little "overloaded" and maybe one event that occurs seems contrived, but I loved reading this book. Elderkin's prose is refreshing in that it is direct but not harsh; poetic without losing the thread of the plot, and above all warm without being sentimental.(There are touches of wry humour which add to this warmth). This novel is rich in detail, and reaches deep inside us because it is about love and sacrifice- joy and disappointment. It is about life.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Susan Elderkin's novel "Sunset over Chocolate Mountain", August 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sunset over Chocolate Mountains (Hardcover)

"Sunset over Chocolate Mountains" by Susan Elderkin gives us a peek into the lives of some unconventional people we wouldn't normally meet except, perhaps, by rubbing shoulders with them in the street. Even then, we might say "sorry" and pass on. Similarly we get a look into life-styles that most of us don't get a chance to experience, and into different environments that, perhaps, we'd rather not visit.

But these backdrops don't spoil a good yarn and it's not a gloomy novel, far from it. The author has gift for descriptive analogies that are quite vivid. it's a well-constructed story and after a few pages you get to know and empathise with the characters, finally sympathising with them because of their trials and tribulations.

She interestingly weaves the separate stories of her characters in and out with mystery, speculation,surprises and coincidences and she cleverly brings them all together at the end. When I came to the end of the novel I had the same good feeling that I get when I've successfully completed a crossword puzzle.

Don't be put off by the opening paragraph--or even believe it. There might be such oddballs living in the Arizona desert, but I haven't met one yet!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Needs a sequel, February 21, 2001

By 

Hugh de Saram (Wiltshire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sunset over Chocolate Mountains (Hardcover)

The good news is that this novel contains some fine prose and strong characterisation. The descriptions of the Arizona desert are so vivid they make you want to jump straight into your own ice-cream van and head for the nearest arroyo.

However, the book ends at the point where all the interesting questions are lined up ready - and not a single answer is offered! Perhaps that was intentional: maybe there is a second volume already half-written; or maybe we need to take up the quest ourselves. But after recently reading Protect And Defend I found this a stark contrast. Protect And Defend takes on some major themes and digs through the possible answers in heroic detail. Chocolate Mountains raises important questions but leaves it there.

For all that, it is a thoroughly good read, leaving you with a powerful desire to visit the deserts the author so evocatively describes. Nor will you forget the characters in a hurry.