Lunatics: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Gordon Van Gelder (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The winner of the 1995 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection (for The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians and A Conflagration Artist), who has received critical claim for his mainstream fiction as well (Blackburn, 1993), now offers up a big-hearted, giddily plotted fantasy about the transformative power of sexual love. Recovering from the death of his wife, Jack, an engineer living in Austin, Tex., meets and falls in love with Lily, a perfect beauty?except, perhaps, for her wings and "clawed bird-feet." Trouble is, Lily is the goddess of the moon and can meet Jack only when the moon is full, and then only if he awaits her outside, stark naked. When this requirement leads to his being arrested for indecent exposure, a motley crew of friends comes to his aid. In Jack's corner are promiscuous Halle, don't-mess-with-me Katy, sensitive Carolyn, bologna-loving Stephen and Artie, a muscular moron. Under Lily's influence, for the course of a year they come together once a month at Halle's cabin in the woods, where they sometimes exchange one another's significant others. Denton's messages?about losing love in order to find it, and loving the one you're with?are neither new nor unexpected, but they're presented with grace and charm, and with a genuine affection for humanity, foibles and all.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In despair over his wife's death, Jack finds love and lust with Lily, the goddess of the moon in Austin, Texas. Each month at the full moon, he strips naked outdoors, and she comes to him. His five friends feel they must protect him from this insanity but find themselves profoundly affected by Lily's seductive influence. Full of snappy dialog and crisp characterizations, this sexy contemporary fantasy probes the meaning of love. For most collections.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 323 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (June 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031214363X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312143633
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,406,289 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very entertaining romantic fantasy. 4.6 stars, January 25, 2005

By	Peter D. Tillman (Taos, NM USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Lunatics (Paperback)

_____________________________________________

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 . .

[...]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars big chill and the moon, April 17, 2002

By	mark heath (Providence, RI United States) - See all my reviews

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sitting naked, waiting for more., August 29, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Corvallis, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lunatics (Paperback)

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.)