Thomas Mallon's books include the novels Henry and Clara, Two Moons, Dewey Defeats Truman, and Aurora 7; a collection of essays, In Fact; and his book on the assassination of JFK, Mrs. Paine's Garage. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The American Scholar, and GQ. He received the National Book Critics Circle award for reviewing in 1998. The recipient of a 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives in Westport, Connecticut.
"One of our finer novelists writing about politics (especially
those of the 19th century) . . . This is a novel that abounds in
rewards."-Frederick Busch, The New York Times Book Review
"The book's blend of brainy repartee, soulful poignancy and
literary game-playing calls to mind the work of Tom Stoppard. . . .
Droll, probing and heartbreaking."-Chicago Tribune
"A wonderful piece of historical fiction. Mallon is a subtle,
careful writer who packs his books with thought-provoking
depth."-The Denver Post
Mallon's fifth novel invokes the central themes of his last three--astronomy (Aurora 7), 19th-century Washington (Henry & Clara) and the common ground of social and sexual politics (Dewey Defeats Truman). Unfortunately, the result is as studied as it sounds, and to the themes that Mallon has built so interestingly upon, he has added little here, despite the enormous promise of the book's Big Metaphor--the two moons of Mars. The story's setting is the nation's capital in the early years of Reconstruction; Rutherford B. Hayes is president, and there is a wave of reform in the air. Two moons--or rather, men--orbit a radiant planet--or rather, a woman. Roscoe Conkling, a corrupt senator from New York, as the larger moon, is entranced by the bright and independent-minded Cynthia May, a Civil War widow in her 30s. Conkling's competition is a fair-haired, diffident Southerner--the smaller moon, Hugh Allison--who has the advantage of Cynthia's affections. Cynthia and Hugh are colleagues at the funds-strapped Naval Observatory, located in the malarial Foggy Bottom section of D.C. But the observatory's discovery of two Martian moons, one large, one small, brings new hope that the astronomy center will get a new building in a healthier setting. Meanwhile, Hugh, a contrarian romantic, convinces Cynthia of a grander celestial strategy: "Stop thinking of what comes to us," he tells her, "[s]uch as the Sun's light.... Start thinking of the light that might come from us." Cynthia embarks on a secret plan to grease the wheels for Hugh to acquire a high-powered lamp from France and get it through U.S. Customs in New York, a "machine" run by Senator Conkling. His intention is to mount it atop the still incomplete Washington Monument and send a light into the heavens. This poorly developed plot element soon gets eclipsed when Hugh is bitten by a mosquito, sealing his fate, and Cynthia's, and abrogating the reader's interest. Although Mallon reliably marshals the kind of period detail that makes him a formidable historical novelist--the nickel dropped into a glass box as fare on the horse carriages of the capital--too often the minutiae becomes annoying in the absence of emotional color or narrative movement. In addition, Mallon's reluctance to expose the passions underlying the characters' lives lengthens the distance we already feel from the Washington of the 1870s. This reticence is a true shortcoming when the parallels between the Foggy Bottom malaria and today's AIDS crisis occur to the reader. The two moons of Mars are glimpsed but for a short time, not to return for two more years to the aided eyes of the observatory. More could have been made of them. (Feb.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Thomas Hardy recognized the romantic potential of star-gazing in his novel Two on a Tower. Mallon's latest book is a reworking of Hardy's tale, set in post-Civil War Washington, DC, where 35-year-old war widow Cynthia May lives on her own. Jobs for women are scarce, but Cynthia is a mathematical prodigy, and she finds employment as a "computer" at the Naval Observatory, inauspiciously located in Foggy Bottom. Here she falls in love with a much younger astronomer, who is already exhibiting symptoms of the dreaded "miasma," or malaria. Like the newly discovered Martian moons, Cynthia and her lover orbit around a powerful "War God," lecherous Republican party boss Roscoe Conkling, who controls the observatory's budget. This is essentially a companion volume to Mallon's doom-laden Henry and Clara (LJ 8/94). Plot takes a back seat to character development, but Cynthia and Conkling easily hold the reader's interest. Recommended for most collections of historical fiction.--Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch., Los Angeles Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
"One of our finer novelists writing about politics (especially those of the 19th century) . . . This is a novel that abounds in rewards."-Frederick Busch, The New York Times Book Review
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
