The Moon Pinnace

by Thomas Williams

Against the violent backdrop of post-World War II America, John Hearne and Dory Perkins fall in love, are separated, and finally reunite

352 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1986

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful prose in places, but I couldn't get into these characters. I considered not finishing it.

[Chuck LoPresti · Rating 2 out of 5]

An utterly loathsome pile of crap. You will certainly not meet your next favorite book here. Thankfully this is out of print and unless, like me, you've read Leah New Hampshire or The Hair of Harold Roux - and felt the need to seek out his other works - you'll probably never have to deal with this. I hated the book, I hated the characters and I even hated the night I read most of it. It's pretty solid through the first third - then - instead of the fairly nauseating love story that you've come to expect - Romeo runs off to see the road and you get the story of what floats in his wake until he makes his heroic return. What floats should have sunk. Our male protagonist rides to Cali to meet his dad who now leads some bullshit cult of morons and his prize awaits his return while, as a relative child, she runs a hotel for European cast offs that screw and kill each other as Williams apparently intends to do to his reader as well. Why? Who could possibly care about who he might fuck and why? And why have a down syndrome character to simply act as a disgusting point of comparison to the less physically addled characters? Why do you write so well and think so clearly at times then produce this garbage? To call it filth misses the mark - it's filth in parts for sure. I'm no prude - but when you start throwing around descriptions of child-like sex organs - I'm fucking OUT. About two thirds in - I overcame my urge to make a fire on a 6 degree night for the sole purpose of burning this - but I figured it would be more easily purged from my mind if I didn't arrange any such activity that might memorialize it otherwise. Instead - I am going to put it my creepy Jesus-lady's "little free library" down the block because there's no law against disposing of your unwanted books in such a manner - but if I am charged with a crime for doing so - I'd have no effective means of defending my choice. I won't have it in my house because I'm afraid my kids would one day read it and decide I was an asshole for owning it. I can settle for being the moron that paid $15 for a used copy with enough shame.

Two stars because Williams CAN write - but in this case - it would better if he didn't. Someone should have intercepted this before it was published. Let's hope it never sees a reissue and it remains where it belongs - largely forgotten.

[Holly Deitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book in the mid-90s in a used book store while on vacation in Vail. It was on a table of .50 books. I read it and kept reading it, but I don't remember why. I must have read it at least 8 times, but for the life of me I can't even remember the plot now. I do know that it was long after the last reading that someone took it off my shelf and said "The Moon Pinnace. What a weird title." I was that many days old when I realized the title was NOT The Moon Pinnacle.

Y'all.

Sometimes I think I don't deserve to read books. Giving it a 3 because who the hell even knows.

[Giovanni Gulisano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Forse non ci capisco io, ma mi ha annoiato terribilmente, lui è un bastardo, un traditore che si fa trascinare un po' da come girano le cose, lei è inutile. Però se Williams voleva descrivere quello scempio di stagione che è l'estate... Beh ci è riuscito alla grande.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in the laundry room of my old apartment building. People always left cast-off books scattered across the table there. I read the first chapter of this while waiting for my clothes to dry, tucked it into my laundry basket, took it home with me, and years later, I read it.

In essence, it's about a young man who comes back from the Second World War after seeing a minimal but life-changing amount of combat. He hooks up with Dory, the neighbour girl, who he's known most of his life. He's about to travel across the U.S. on his motorbike but says he'll be back. She's skeptical, but she believes him.

He goes on his journey. Traumatic things happen to her back at home. I won't spoil the ending, but it's a satisfying one. The plot veered back and forth a little, but the writing was solid and had a lyricism to it that earns this book four stars for me.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda sad.