Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
82nd out of 100 books
—
38 voters
Please Don't Come Back from the Moon
The summer Michael Smolij turns sixteen, his father disappears. One by one other men also vanish from the blue-collar neighborhood outside Detroit where their fathers before them had lived, raised families, and, in a more promising era, worked. One man props open the door to his shoe store and leaves a note. "I'm going to the moon," it reads. "I took the cash." The wives...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
January 2nd 2006
by Mariner Books
(first published 2004)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
1,138)
Please Don't Come Back from the Moon is a rare creation - surrealism without pretension, grit without artlessness, sorrow without self-pity. Even where the story sinks into its own inexpressible core, or the scenes feel rushed, or you start to feel that the book is something Bakopoulous had to put outside of himself before he could begin, you know that you're holding something special and different and true.
Michael Smolij and his friends are the sons of a generation of working-class Detroit men...more
Michael Smolij and his friends are the sons of a generation of working-class Detroit men...more
May 19, 2008
Amanda
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Detroiters, Michiganders, Midwesterners, products of suburbia
Recommended to Amanda by:
History 364: American Suburbia
More accurately 3.5.
Set in Maple Rock, a fictional Ukrainian working-class suburb of Detroit, where one year all of the fathers in town went to the moon. Narrated by the son of one of the fathers, sixteen at the time his father disappeared, the book spans the subsequent decade as Mikey grows into a restless manhood. There is hope that he'll escape the fate of this father -- both the reasons he went to the moon, and the moon itself.
Much of the story is set in and around Detroit and Ann Arbor, wh...more
Set in Maple Rock, a fictional Ukrainian working-class suburb of Detroit, where one year all of the fathers in town went to the moon. Narrated by the son of one of the fathers, sixteen at the time his father disappeared, the book spans the subsequent decade as Mikey grows into a restless manhood. There is hope that he'll escape the fate of this father -- both the reasons he went to the moon, and the moon itself.
Much of the story is set in and around Detroit and Ann Arbor, wh...more
This book was a gift from a very lovely woman at Harcourt, who interviewed me for a position in the publicity department well above my level. It became quite clear--approximately fourteen seconds into the interview--that I wasn't quite right for the gig, and that I only half-heartedly wanted the job anyway.
So we just wound up chatting about novels and as I was leaving, she made me wait in reception so that she could find a copy of this book for me. It was well worth the wait, and a gesture that...more
So we just wound up chatting about novels and as I was leaving, she made me wait in reception so that she could find a copy of this book for me. It was well worth the wait, and a gesture that...more
One of the reviews mentioned "magic realism" and I thought of 1Q84 which I liked a lot and Stone Raft which was okay. So I thought I'd try it for that reason, plus it was also written by a now local college professor. Except that this is more of a slice of life, coming of age gritty realism depressing book. Not my type of genre (that and the Romance genre--yech). Hence the low rating from me. Maybe this is a greatly written book, but the genre overwhelmed me. I did manage to finish the book, but...more
This book was marketed as Magic Realism. It is not Magic Realism, not even if you have a rediculously liberal idea of what that term means. It is social realism that explores the power of the main characters personal mythology concerning his absent father. Magic realism is a term that gets thrown around too much these days, which is pitiable, because it is an awesome term. It describes its particular "ism" farm more accurately than most. However, it gets attached to a lot of things that don't qu...more
2 likes
·
like
· see review
view all 3 comments
A different kind of coming-of-age story. This is set in a small town near Detroit that gets hit with economical troubles of the early 2000s. The fathers of Maple Rock one day up and leave one after the other. One of them leaves a written message saying that he will be going to the moon. From then on everyone thinks of them as having gone to the moon.
The families that are left behind struggle through the changes and the book focuses on Michael, one of the sons who has to come to terms with living...more
The families that are left behind struggle through the changes and the book focuses on Michael, one of the sons who has to come to terms with living...more
Set in an Eastern European ethnic neighborhood somewhere near Detroit called "Maple Rock" (read Hamtramak) the story begins with the disappearance of a couple dozen fathers from this blue collar community. The young sons grow up believing their fathers all "went to the moon" based on a note one of the father's left behind.
The young men grow up but never leave the neighborhood and eventually become family men themselves, still struggling, still living in the homes their fathers' left.
Haunting,...more
The young men grow up but never leave the neighborhood and eventually become family men themselves, still struggling, still living in the homes their fathers' left.
Haunting,...more
Dean Bakopoulos' first book is a sad, beautiful, haunting novel. Like the stories of Benjamin Percy, his colleague at Iowa State, Please Don't Come Back From the Moon is about boys becoming young men in the absence of fathers--rough, blue-collar men who disappear without a trace when the narrator is sixteen: the boys believe, more or less literally, that their fathers have gone to the moon. These boys, raised by saddened, bewildered mothers, must try to achieve manhood without proper role models...more
Apr 05, 2013
Mary
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Mary by:
Rosianna
Shelves:
2013
Highly recommended to people who like The Virgin Suicides. A lot of aspects of Please Don't Come Back from the Moon reminded me of Eugenides's book. Though I guess this is more the movie version of The Virgin Suicides than the book, both stories are set in Detroit suburbs -- Eugenides's in the 1970's and Bakopoulos's in the 1990's. Both books at times use first person plural narration, which I love reading and think always lends a great air to the storytelling. Moreover, the prose of Please Don'...more
Let's see ... why did I read this book ? Oh, I know. I heard the author was a local kid, that he used local streets and parks in the story about his made-up town, Maple Rock. I heard the book had won some award and some praise including high marks from respected reviewers.
Praise and high marks for "use of the "f" word most frequently on a single page" is the mark I would give it. The storyline and it's effect on the characters is interesting making it an evaluation of absent fathers and their e...more
Praise and high marks for "use of the "f" word most frequently on a single page" is the mark I would give it. The storyline and it's effect on the characters is interesting making it an evaluation of absent fathers and their e...more
I can't recommend this without a warning-- so there it is! Don't pick this up if you want an entertaining squeaky clean read.
I picked this up because I stumbled across it at a used book store, and had flashbacks of high school and Dean's name scrawled in hearts on every notebook I owned my sophomore year. There's a Michigan loyalty I think as well, I would have read & bought a book written by a local just out of hometown pride.
The themes of this book are thought-provoking and raw. Michael'...more
I picked this up because I stumbled across it at a used book store, and had flashbacks of high school and Dean's name scrawled in hearts on every notebook I owned my sophomore year. There's a Michigan loyalty I think as well, I would have read & bought a book written by a local just out of hometown pride.
The themes of this book are thought-provoking and raw. Michael'...more
The term "heartbreaking" appears frequently in reviews of this debut novel, whose title is derived from a Charles Mingus jazz composition. With its undercurrent of magic and social satire, Michael's coming-of-age story struck a strong chord with most critics. The main character is, at times, annoyingly indecisive, but the 12 years of his life presented in this compelling story ring true. Please Don't Come Back From the Moon should be read as a tribute to the past generation of working-class Amer
...more
Jul 30, 2011
AP
added it
I read it all in one sitting, in a library, no less! I am tempted to try to get to a "super review" and the little word counter on the right hand side is so distracting I can't focus on what I want to say. I cried at the end. And I can't wait to talk about it with someone else. So, READ IT! And we can discuss: role of mothers in the book, why the boys DON'T want their fathers to come back from the moon, the connection between education and religion, and some other things I made copious notes on....more
This is the story of a factory-dependent suburb of Detroit where the jobless adult males begin disappearing one by one until they've all left. The remaining women and children refer to the men as having gone to the moon and learn to reorder their lives without husbands and fathers. The desertions have a devastating affect on the male youth who must become men much too quickly and without examples of any kind. I found the book depressingly accurate in its portrayal of the Michigan economy, yet to...more
I really enjoyed reading this book. Which is perhaps the best you can ask of anything. Of course, it was set in Michigan, concerned a bunch of guys who talk like me, and featured all of my old friends, or some version of them. So I could be biased.
Thanks to Knickers who lent this book to me. She's a great lady. But she's in Wisconsin, so she can't have it back because the post office is taking a nine month furlough on a account of the lagging economy. Who wants it next? Jeremy? You have to read...more
Thanks to Knickers who lent this book to me. She's a great lady. But she's in Wisconsin, so she can't have it back because the post office is taking a nine month furlough on a account of the lagging economy. Who wants it next? Jeremy? You have to read...more
Interesting concept that didn't quite live up to its potential. It's a book that can be interpreted several different ways and it leaves with us with many unanswered questions. Where are the fathers? Why did the leave? Where did they go? And what is going to happen to the young sons left behind when they grow up? I read this is less than a day, and thought it was enjoyable and at times through provoking. But I was left with the feeling that the author didn't delve into the story as deeply as he...more
Beautiful, accurate, frank book about the cloying feeling of being half-conscious in your own life, of looking at everything through an unwashed pane of glass and realising that while the cast might change over the years the scenery is, in fact, the same. The year Michael Smolij turns 19, his father, and all the fathers in his blue-collar 'burb of Detroit, disappear. Myth has it, they've gone to the moon.
As the years pass, the economy continues to run the gamut from crap to awful, and Mikey and...more
As the years pass, the economy continues to run the gamut from crap to awful, and Mikey and...more
I was torn between 3 and 4 stars. This books definitely gets points in my opinion for originality and uniqueness. I've definitely never read anything like this. This was a coming-of-age story in which the young men of a Michigan town struggle after their father's vanish or "go to the moon." There is a sense of mystery about the "moon" if the fathers are really on the moon, or where they could be. But there is a very realistic, disturbing pull these young men feel as they have their own families...more
I read this for my new book club. I was really into the Detroit connection. I surmised that the neighborhood of Maple Rock could be nothing other than Warrendale. However, I was dismayed at the reference to Plymouth as a "northern suburb," and to "driving north on Warren." The magical realism thrown in for good measure did not ring true for me, and the ending came quickly and was not satisfying. However, I did enjoy the read; in fact, for the most part I could not put it down.
Not sure how I missed this book several years ago! The setting is Maple Rock, MI, where the (mostly) Ukranian men have disappeared and "gone to the moon." We hear this story from the point of view from the son of one of these men, and we follow the son, Mikey, from this point in his history to his own adulthood. I am used to reading books about absentee fathers from the mother's point of view, so this point of view was fresh and interesting. I also enjoyed the setting and could feel those cold,...more
I'd never heard of this book until our curriculum leader suggested it as upplemental reading for our sophomore students. I'm really, really glad he recommended this book. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from students, and I really enjoyed reading it as well. This novel is so contemporary and so honest, it hits home in that gut-punching way that not many books accomplish.
This is a true Gen-X book, and I mean that in a good way. Anyone who grew up on that fine line between the middle and th...more
This is a true Gen-X book, and I mean that in a good way. Anyone who grew up on that fine line between the middle and th...more
Maybe it was just my mood, but this book really got to me. The main characters' melancholy, disappointment and hopelessness was almost effortlessly conveyed. This book really explores wanting to go somewhere, but not quite knowing how to do it - and underscores just how important it is to have someone helping you find your way. It also contains some great writing both in form and style (unlike this review!) :)
I teach at the high school that Bakopoulos attended and heard about his book through other staff members who had read it. It was exciting to read a book where I recognized many of the locations, street names, malls, etc., not to mention the people in the acknowledgments. It reminded me a great deal of Jeffrey Eugenides' work in that respect; I felt intimately familiar with the characters and setting, despite the fictional nature of the storyline. For me, I found the main character compelling and...more
Whether it was just my mindset at the time or not... but I did not like this book. I had no sympathy for the main character. I kept wanting to tell him to stop whinning and get on with his life - to be the best that he could be - rather than wallow in his own self pity. I skimmed through to the end because it was our book club book, but would not recommend it to others.
The men in a suburban Detroit neighborhood are disappearing one by one and the boys have to grow up fast top take their place. The title comes from a Charles Mingus tune and it is somewhat of a coming of age novel. I read this a few years ago and still remember that I enjoyed it. It was the authors first novel and I'm excited to see he has a new book coming out soon.
I read "My American Unhappiness" by Dean Bakopoulos a few weeks ago and didn't give it the best rating. I decided I would read this book after reading all the positive reviews. I absolutely loved "Please Don't Come Back from the Moon"! It was really refreshing and I could relate to some of his references to the crazy college life and growing up. Read it!
Bakopoulos seems to have taken a leaf out of JD Salinger's book....almost literally. Michael Smolji reminds me fondly of an older Holden Caufield and the the writing styles were similar. It didn't take long to fall into the easy rhythm of Bakopoulos' prose. For once, the character seemed more important than the plot and I cherished that.
Ok, if you are going to write a book about any town, realize that there is probably more than "major" road and more than one university within a billion miles of that town. Warren Road leads to University of Michigan (where everyone apparently wears a blue sweatshirt). The last couple of chapters were brutally bad.
I read this through compulsively, blown away by the stark, blue-collar prose. The protagonist is superficially nothing like me, and yet Bakopoulos has attempted and succeed to plumb an issue that lurks in the heart of every man, and done so with enough incite that I identified with the character.
Cvbf 2010 author. When fathers vanish from the blue-collar neighborhood outside Detroit, the children were told by the moms that the fathers had "gone to the moon." The Detroit Free Press wrote: Something about Michael's earnestness and the hopelessness of it nearly broke my heart. Mine too.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Dean Bakopoulos was born in Dearborn Heights, Michigan on July 6, 1975 to a Ukrainian mother and a Greek father. A child of immigrants, he grew up speaking both Ukrainian and English, was shy to the point of psychosis, and avoided group gatherings and rarely left his mother’s side. He ate copious amounts of borscht and cabbage rolls. When his grandfather, Gregory Smolij, retired from 25 years on t...more
More about Dean Bakopoulos...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
