“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
[…] love, a clear-headed woman who refuses to live in the dark tunnels of the past. In language that evokes the riffs and rhythms of jazz and the sound and movement of the Great Lakes, Joseph Coulson’s second novel is a profound Orphic journey, a story of hidden truths, unfulfilled dreams, and possible redemption.
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 […]
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 […]
[…] 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 to […]
[…] & Sarah Varet, Martha Cooley & Antonio Romani, Richard d’Albert, John Darnielle, Moyra Davey, Nicole Dewey, Susan De Witt Davie, Charles De Wolf, Annie Dillard, Assia Djebar, Joseph Donahue, Martin Duberman, Heather Ewing, Sheila Fischman, Christine Fletcher, Katharine Freeman, D. W. Gibson, Jody Gladding & David Hinton, Michael Greenberg, Clarence Hahn, Russell Hanks, Lawrence […]
[…] O’Brien Jill Schoolman Peter von Ziegesar Matthew Brogan Jonathan Baskin Ludovic Tiako Leslie Maslow Assal Ghawami Lorraine Gallard Advisory Board Ammiel Alcalay Pat Begley Elisabeth Beyer Joseph Coulson Edwin Frank Katie Freeman William Gass Zelimir Geljanic David Hinton Henry Holman Philippe Hunt Bill Johnston Elias Khoury Ernesto Livorni Julie Schaper Lynne Sharon Schwartz […]
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 […]
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 […]
[…] 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 teenage son. The […]
