View source for Papa on the Moon by Marco North

{{infobox1
|title=Papa on the Moon
|author=Marco North
|reviewer=Jill Murphy
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=314
|publisher=Bittersweet Editions
|date=September 2022
|isbn=978-0989715331
|website=https://www.marconorth.com/
|cover=0989715337
|aznuk=0989715337
}}

''Some frogs had gotten into the well.''

''Walter stood waist-deep in the fragrant water, naked except for his beaten leather hat. Long strands of their eggs wove around him, sticky gray pearls with tadpoles inside them. Two of the dogs leaned over the opening and barked down at the strange noise of the buckets as he filled them.''

How is that for an opening? The style of this novel in the form of interconnected short stories goes from succinct and laconic to wistful and musing, turning on a sixpence. And author Marco North, who has the most wonderful turn of phrase, starts as he means to go on.

There are eleven stories in all but we don't meet central character Paul until the second. Paul is the son of a pig farmer and his upbringing has brought him into close contact with the vicissitudes and the brutalities of life, as well as its joys. Paul is looking to make sense of all these things and the stories follow this quest for meaning, diverting sometimes, always for good reason - we'll meet Trish and Charlie, her disabled son, Hitch, a guitarist and traveller, and even detour to Russia to meet Anya, Paul's wife. 

And horses. Pay attention to the horses. The first ten stories take us to where we need to be and the final one, ''The Year of the Horse'' is the pivot. I wish I could say more but I really don't want to spoil anything.

I was reminded of the short vignettes by Richard Brautigan. There is so much deep observation and reflection in these stories and such rich depth, yet relatively few words. A novel-from-stories like this is a challenging undertaking at the best of times and I admire North's ambition and the success of that ambition even more.

''Papa on the Moon'' may prove a challenging read for some, especially those who enjoy a clear plot progression leading to a resolution they can guess at. But for those who like to get inside the skin of an author's observation and trust a vicarious experience, it will be thoroughly enjoyable. The resolution is worth it: sit with it for a while and everything in this set of interlocking stories becomes a wonderfully coherent whole and you think - how could it have been otherwise?

If you like writing you want to return to and that gives you something new each time you do, ''Papa in the Moon'' is one for you. I'll certainly be returning to it. My thanks to North for sending it to us for review.

You might also enjoy [[Revenge of the Lawn by Richard Brautigan]], a set of highly evocative short stories.

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