Sun & Moon

by Niccolò Tucci

In The Sun and the Moon , Niccolo Tucci celebrates the comic courtship of Mary von Randen, introduced in the previous novel Before My Time, and poor Italian country doctor Leonard Claudi. After not seeing each other for nine years, the couple finally meet again in Rome in 1902. The Sun and the Moon tells the story of the nine tumultuous days and nights of love, guilt, misunderstanding, confusion and ecstasy that follow this second encounter.

657 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1977

About the author

Niccolò Tucci (May 1, 1908 – December 10, 1999) was a short story writer and novelist who wrote in English and Italian.

Born in Lugano, Switzerland of a Russian mother and an Italian father who became a Swiss citizen, Niccolò Tucci grew up in privileged circumstances that were eliminated by the Bolshevik Revolution. His family relocated to Tuscany. In 1938, he resigned a position with Mussolini's Press Ministry and immigrated to the United States. He wrote numerous short stories and a few longer works, many of which are largely autobiographical in their subject matter.

His daughter, Maria Tucci, is an actress married to her father's former editor, Robert Gottlieb.

Reviews

[Krit · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a lot of charm, but is WAY too long, at 660 pages. It starts out well and delights with it's humour, and fascinating insight into the psyche of the Italian people. The story is set in 1900 in Rome, which is artfully bought to life, and chronicles the events of 9 days, in which Mary and Leonardo, who are both married, decide to leave their spouses on an impulse and begin a new life together. Mary is a well cultured, whimsical, wealthy Russian, living in a palace in Rome with her controlling mother. Leonardo is an endearing Doctor from a poor province in the South of Italy, with a generous and honest heart. Their passionate love is always being shaken by comical misunderstandings stemming from their cultural and class differences. The proud Leonardo is a fish out of water in Mary's world, and the reader is sympathetic and amused by his ignorance to the ways of the upper class. Leonardo is also feeling constantly humiliated by the Romans, and the exploration of class distinction amongst the provinces of Italy is enlightening and funny. Throughout the whole story, for one reason or another, the tormented Leonardo is deprived of food and sleep and his quest for these comforts create a tension that is never released, even on the last page. This a story definitely worth being told, but it could have been a third of the length. It became very repetitious, less funny and more painful to read, as Leonardo shamed his hungry and tired soul over and over again. The author refers to the story as a romantic fairytale but it feels more like the stomach ache resulting from over indulgence. I was hoping for a more climactic ending, but it was in keeping with the rest of the book; one storm in a tea cup after another.