Synopsis
In this coming-of-age novel set in West Texas in the 1960s, Johnny fears his abusive father has murdered his mother, and considers his own life in danger. Guided by his friend, the wise José, Johnny eventually escapes his father, joins the army as a Green Beret in the Vietnam war, and ends up in Mexico, where he falls for José's widow.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1997-06-01 |
| Size | | Length: | 267 pages | | Height: | 9.3 in | | Width: | 6.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 21.6 oz |
Publisher's Note
Pat McAfee's On Rims of Empty Moons is the sometimes violent, always lonely spiritual journey of a lifetime that takes John McBride from the hardscrabble plains of Texas to the jungles of Vietnam. It's a bruising trip that too many tough but unprepared young men from the West have taken. The lucky ones came home alive. The luckiest came having learned the hard way what is most important in life - a deep and abiding love of the land, a woman and a family - simple values that transcend national borders, political empires, generations.
Industry Reviews
The first half of McAfee's initially promising but ultimately disappointing second novel (after Slow Walk in a Sad Rain) concerns young Johnny McBride's struggle to maintain his integrity in the hardscrabble desert of deep West Texas. This is rough stuff for a coming-of-age novel: Johnny is at war with his abusive sheep-herding father, who may have murdered Johnny's mother and seems bent on killing him too; he's also in love with Sarah Eberhard, who belongs to one of the richest families in the small town of Van Horn. Fortunately, Johnny comes under the wise, gentle influence of Jos? Navarette, an old Villista and foreman of the Eberhard ranch. Unfortunately, this attractive, serio-comic narrative of growing up on a 1960s desert ranch is the prologue to the weaker Part Two, in which Johnny's story jumps abruptly six years forward to North Vietnam, where he's serving as a Green Beret. After a botched mission, a series of improbable, Odysseus-like adventures eventually brings Johnny, now a deserter, to Mexico and into the home and arms of Jos?'s widow. This rushed conclusion lacks McAfee's previous feeling for the land, the people who inhabit it, their history and their hearts. Clearly, the novel wants more length, more development. McAfee is a potentially powerful writer, but he needs a broader canvas to tell this tale of generational change and global scope. (Nov.)
Lopate
The first half of McAfee's initially promising but ultimately disappointing second novel (after Slow Walk in a Sad Rain) concerns young Johnny McBride's struggle to maintain his integrity in the hardscrabble desert of deep West Texas. This is rough stuff for a coming-of-age novel: Johnny is at war with his abusive sheep-herding father, who may have murdered Johnny's mother and seems bent on killing him too; he's also in love with Sarah Eberhard, who belongs to one of the richest families in the small town of Van Horn. Fortunately, Johnny comes under the wise, gentle influence of Jos‚ Navarette, an old Villista and foreman of the Eberhard ranch. Unfortunately, this attractive, serio-comic narrative of growing up on a 1960s desert ranch is the prologue to the weaker Part Two, in which Johnny's story jumps abruptly six years forward to North Vietnam, where he's serving as a Green Beret. After a botched mission, a series of improbable, Odysseus-like adventures eventually brings Johnny, now a deserter, to Mexico and into the home and arms of Jos‚'s widow. This rushed conclusion lacks McAfee's previous feeling for the land, the people who inhabit it, their history and their hearts. Clearly, the novel wants more length, more development. McAfee is a potentially powerful writer, but he needs a broader canvas to tell this tale of generational change and global scope. (Nov.)
Publishers Weekly (11/10/1997)
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