“Vanishing Moon is the lyrical account of the Tollman family’s demise, but it is so beautifully crafted that one keeps turning the pages rapidly; that is, when one isn’t stopping to ponder its poignantly poetic phrases and sentences depicting the scenery and dynamic characters. ”
—The Historical Novels Review
“Coulson balances the heartbreak of reality with scenes of unearthly beauty, the tenderness and passion of first love and the impulsive yearning of young men for a world that has a place for them. The fully-fleshed characters serve to remind us that the stories of our ancestors may be obscured by time, but are no less relevant today.”
—curledup.com
“The Vanishing Moon…explores human frailty with the simplicity and directness of haiku…at times achieves the quiet beauty of William Maxwell’s finest work—generous, episodic, elegiac but not sentimental…Coulson seems to want to bring Faulkner to Ohio.”
—The Nation
The jazz scenes crackle with energy and authority…Coulson moves fluidly between the past and the present, and the novel is ultimately quiet, affecting and redemptive.
— Publishers Weekly
Will remind readers of classic authors like Steinbeck and Zola, or perhaps such contemporary masters of wounded male pride and self-doubt as Raymond Carver and Russell Banks.
— The Buffalo News
An ambitious effort that heralds the arrival of an intriguing talent…Achieves the quiet beauty of William Maxwell’s finest work—generous, episodic, elegiac but not sentimental…
— The Nation
Joseph Coulson 2004-01 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 […]
Loss saturates Joseph Coulson’s new novel, The Vanishing Moon. This chronicle of three generations of a Midwestern working-class family opens in the Depression, with the Tollmans having had to leave their home in Cleveland and stay in a tent on the outskirts of town, and closes in the era of Nixon and Vietnam, with the […]
I live in the city where my brother and I grew up, where we made our choices, and choices were made for us,” laments the no-longer-young narrator of Joseph Coulson’s first novel “The Vanishing Moon,” which will be published next month by New York City based Archipelago Books. “I go to the old places […]
Archipelago Books gratefully acknowledges our donors: Founders’ Circle Anonymous (8), Charles Klingman & Susan F. Beard, Brian Dice, Anne and Nick Germanacos, Polly & John Guth, Adam & Diane Max, Breon & Lynda Mitchell, Deborah Pease, Henry Reese & Diane Samuels, Jean Stein, Eva Usdan, Margo Viscusi, Jonathan A. Weiss, Alexander & Vanessa Wolff $2,000–4,999 […]
Staff Jill Schoolman, Publisher Emma Raddatz, Editor & Development Associate Sarah Gale, Editor & Director of Publicity Jillian Kravatz, Development Associate & Memberships Coordinator Gopa Campbell, Zoe Guttenplan, and Megan Mangum, Book Design Interns: Sophie Lellman & Cameron Saltsman David Bullen, Founding Designer Board of Directors David Dean Lisabeth During Dan Frank Edwin Frank George […]
from Donna Seaman, Booklist — “Joseph Coulson,” a review of The Vanishing Moon 2004-01 The Tollman children — spitfire Phil, the eldest; musing Stephen, his shadow; charming but doomed Margie; and stuttering Myron — adore their lovely, competent Vanishing Moon – Booklistmother and cannot forgive their lackluster father for allowing her to go […]
The distinction a great sage drew between make-believe secrets and real secrets is uniquely applicable to Joseph Coulson’s first novel, The Vanishing Moon. A make-believe secret, the sage said, depends on concealment, and it stirs interest only as long as its core is hidden. When the core is revealed, the secret loses its fascination […]
Consider, for a moment, the people around you. How would you look — who would you be — if your soul and character existed only through their eyes? In poet Joseph Coulson’s debut novel, The Vanishing Moon (Archipelago) this is the way we meet Phil Tollman — through a younger brother, an abandoned lover, and a […]
