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Critic's Corner
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A Face In The Moon Reviewed by: Patricia Ann Jones Waldman raised in Chicago, now lives in Rochester, New York. His short stories, poems, essays, and articles have appeared in numerous publications. "A Face in the Moon," is his debut novel. Jack Lohman, protagonist of this novel, is an inexperienced twenty-two-year-old, soon to leave graduate school for who knows what? He has yet to learn that life is often like a fragile, crystal wine glass. A glass that slips from your hand and shatters into a thousand glittering pieces. This life-lesson presents itself to Jack in the person of Loni Forster—a seventeen-year-old, free- spirited girl who in all her bright-eyed exuberance has experienced far too much of life: the good, the bad, the madness. Loni has secrets too deep to reveal. Secrets even she doesn't want to remember, much less relate to another person. Yet, she's searching for love, and as is her usual way, in all the wrong places. Then, she meets Jack Lohman. From these two very different rebellious people, writer Waldman, spins a Shakespearian like tale with a twist. A story readers won't soon forget. In many ways the story is one that could take place today instead of twenty-five years ago. On every college campus, in the year 2001, you'll find your Jacks and Lonis—it is true whether we want to believe it or not. Loni, an Air Force brat, was born in New York, then reared around the country as her father's profession dictated. She grew up wild, lived on beer, pizza and ice cream. Discovered drugs and sex at an early age, but never had she discovered true love. Jack, born and reared in Chicago, is a chili and pizza kind of guy. He has a useless B.S. in Psychology, then entered a Master's program in Advertising at the University of Texas in Austin. This was at his mother's urging. Jack has no interest in being just another ad man. In truth, Jack has no earthly idea what he wants to do with his life. He lives the life of the unattached bachelor with his roommates in Austin, loses one deep infatuation with a girl named Sally, and is ripe for another relationship. Enter Loni! This novel promises a story of young lovers struggling to find each other and their ways in the world. Then, a series of events keeps them apart for an extended period. At this point, it becomes the story of whether their new love can survive the pressures of separation and madness. The author fulfills the promise of his story. The emotional tides pull you first one way then the other. The rich characterizations and the deft narration all tend to hold the mind in awe as each heart tearing event transpires. Maybe you're like Loni, you can see the face in the moon. Or you're a Jack who cannot see the face. Whatever, it is as if you know these young people in this story. They are a part of your present, or your past. You've been to the depths of sorrow, the heights of passion they feel. Somehow, perhaps you found your way out of the maze, maybe your glass didn't shatter. You turn each page hoping against hope that the ending will be a satisfying one. Mitchell Waldman is an author to watch. "A Face in the Moon" is just the beginning. Waldman's style, the grace with which his words flow through dark and troubling waters, offers each reader new hope even in the dark of the moon. I for one, look forward to his next novel with great expectation. "A Face in the Moon" is available online through Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Borders.com, A1Books.com, Buy.com, iUniverse.com or you may
order through your favorite bookstore. Mitchell Waldman's web site is http://mitchwaldman.homestead.com/FACEINMOON.html |
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