Vanishing Moon（ISBN=） 英文原版

　　The Tollman children–spitfire Phil, the eldest; musing
Stephen, his shadow; charming but doomed Margie; and stuttering
Myron–adore their lovely, competent mother and cannot forgive
their lackluster father for allowing her to go blind. So destitute
are they at the worst of the Great Depression that they end up
living in a tent outside Cleveland’s city limits, where life is as
brutal and sporadically transcendent as the moody Midwest’s
meteorologic extremes. Assured and purposeful, first-time novelist
Coulson infuses each surprising and evocative moment with great
feeling and mythic resonance as he leapfrogs forward in time,
subtly tracing the impact of the Second World War, the civil rights
movement, and the Vietnam War on his emotionally damaged
characters. Shifting between Cleveland and Detroit, and among
several points of view, including that of Katherine, a brilliant
pianist with whom both Phil and Stephen fall madly in love, Coulson
writes with surpassing clarity and dignity about grief, anger,
sexual passion, the need for art, brotherly love, and the
resilience of good women, creating a somberly beautiful family
saga. –(Booklist – Donna Seaman )”Vanishing”…will remind
readers of Steinbeck and Zola, or…such contemporary masters…as
Raymond Carver and Russell Banks. – December 7,
2003–(The Buffalo News – R.D. Pohl )A haunting,
powerful, lyrical debut about a family fallen upon hard times and
heart-rendering interactions…Five stars for this one. —
Martin Shepard, Publisher (The Permanent Press )

　　A chorus of candid and poignant voices narrates this novel
about a working-class American family who struggles to succeed
through five turbulent decades, from the Depression to the Vietnam
War. First, Stephen Tollman looks back on his early adventures with
his older brother, Philip, as the boys try to shield their younger
siblings from the vulnerability of financial ruin. Years later, the
vibrant and ambitious Katherine Lennox mesmerizes Stephen and
Philip as they both tragically fall in love with her. Then,
Philip’s son James comes of age in the 1960s, striving to
understand his father’s deep anger amid a summer of assassinations
and civil unrest. Together, these voices create an insightful,
beautiful, and deeply psychological story about the American
working class, about the strength and strain of family bonds, and
finally, about hardships that haunt the human psyche over a
lifetime.

　　Joseph Coulson is the author of three books of poetry and a
full-length play, and has been the recipient of a Gray Writing
Fellowship and the Tompkins Award in Poetry. The Vanishing Moon is
his first novel. Coulson lives in the San Francisco Bay area.