The Man Who Walked to the Moon: A Novella

by Howard McCord

A cat-and-mouse game in the hills of Nevada between a retired assassin and the man sent to assassinate him. The protagonist is William Gasper, veteran of the Korean War and professional killer, living out his retirement in solitude. On a hike one day he realizes he is being stalked.William Gasper relates the story of what happens on the Moon--a mountain in the Steen mountains of Montana--and gradually reveals who he really is and what he will do when he comes down from the mountain

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Garret Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

An odd but glorious novella. It demands (and rewards) a great amount of the reader’s attention during its 123-page romp. It’s sorta Humbert Humbert without the pedophilia… a guerrilla-educated hiker’s winding mull over morality, man, and fate as he traverses The Moon, “the mountain of no where”, apparently stalked by the curious goddess Cerridwen.

Any number of adjective could rightly be assigned to “The Man Who Walked to The Moon”. Read it, try one, and you’ll see it fits somewhere… except for expected, I suppose. Author McCord is clearly both intelligent and a poet.

Well, the greats have their gods, all the adoration and hatred and what falls between… “The Man Who Walked to The Moon” (the greatest flaw, by the way, is this sterile title) doesn’t. Find this book however you do (it fell in my lap, though I believe it’s available via Amazon) and give it a go. It’ll offer something. If you do and find otherwise, take a walk… or send me an angry message.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book d this week about the mental disintegration / post-traumatic stress suffered following war (the other being the excellent Bent by Joe Thomas that I wrote about a few days ago).
McCord, now in his late 80s, is the author of poetry, fiction and travel writing, usually about his passion, hiking.
In this case, his narrator, William Gaskell, has taken to a life of solitude, walking in the wildernesses of Scandinavia and Iceland, but in this case, Nevada. I suspect elements of it are autobiographical. After serving in the Marines Gaskell has had enough of society..

I would tell you the safe procedure to avoid lightning while on an exposed ridge, but I see no reason you should not learn it as I did. If you get tweaked by God’s electric finger, I can hardly be to blame. You are a fat-assed nerd anyway, incapable of running more than three miles without the last rites. You, fart-brain, are a reader, and the only thing I despise more, is a writer, who simply ought to announce himself as a public masturbator and be done with it. But I am telling you my story, you are listening, so we have a truce, if not respect. I am a writer, you are a reader, and if there were a God, he might be amused to have mercy on our souls. Or piss on them. In long electric streaks.

He lives beside a store in the middle of nowhere in the Nevada desert in a container, though spends most of his time sleeping under the stars or in his tent. The book is his description of a hike to Moon mountain, a few days from his ‘home’.
On the mountains final ridges, having seen no other person for days, he spots a solo climber, and his mental trauma kicks in.

There are several times, usually when describing the landscape, in this almost forgotten piece of literature when McCord’s writing is

When I am away from the mountains, I grow cross, and my dreams are populated by baleful images of prairie, or the suppuration of architecture. I can hardly sleep in my bed any longer, and long have up a tent for my wanderings except in the foulest of climes. I have slept in caves with some gladness, but only for short periods. They seem kin to my bivy sack. Some old memory of troglodyte or troll lingers in my blood, but my gods are fundamentally those of the sky, however profoundly otiose.

McCord could have just as easily written a travel journal of a trip to a mountain he must have visited several times, but chose to settle for quirk; a hybrid of noir and nature with a touch of the surreal, that really is a pleasure to read.

[Hubert Antoine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chef-d'oeuvre, puissant, dur et profond.

[Yohan Lanier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très très sympa, un thriller bien ficelé abordant entre autres les syndromes post traumatiques des vétérans de guerre. A lire d'une traite si possible (le livre est assez court, 120 pages).

[Chani · Rating 4 out of 5]

The musings and reflections of a former veteran of the Korean War, ex-sniper, or rather an assassin, as he walks a Nevada Mountain called The Moon. Often accurate and lyrical; sometimes cruel and horrible; hilarious at times. McCord makes us walk on the ridge with his anti-hero and the higher the walker gets, the deeper the reader falls, taken by vertigo and shot by words. Towards the end the narrator sums it up saying about his tale: "It is, as far as the teller knows, a veritable account of a lucid insanity of long duration, an oblique confession, an apologia pro vita sua, a fantasy spun in a cold winter, or out of night."

[C. James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novel of this sort is difficult to describe. Words such as "magical," "strange" and certainly " "violent" apply. McCord is known mainly for his poetry. I always like fiction written by poets as they use language much more effectively and surprisingly than main-line novelists, many of whom can barely do more than put together a coherent sentence, often not worth reading. McCord has a flair for interesting and unusual imagery. This book is one I reread to study its construction.

[Emilie · Rating 2 out of 5]

J’ai aimé les descriptions de la montagne, de l’aridité du Nevada, de la nature... c’est souvent ce qu’on recherche quand on lit des romans édités par Gallmeister.
Mais l’intrigue m’a parue bancale, incomplète. Plusieurs pistes sont ouvertes et laissées sans dénouement.

[carl theaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Howard Mccord was my prof for several of my writing classes at
Bowling Green State University. He was always a good prof and
I'm returning the thoughts, and I liked the book too.