Malcolm Gephardt, handsome and gregarious longtime bartender at the Half Moon, has always dreamed of owning a bar. When his boss finally retires, Malcolm stretches to buy the place. He sees unquantifiable magic and potential in the Half Moon and hopes to transform it into a bigger success, but struggles to stay afloat. His smart and confident wife, Jess, has devoted herself to her law career. After years of trying for a baby, she is facing the idea that motherhood may not be in the cards for her. Like Malcolm, she feels her youth beginning to slip away and wonders how to reshape her future.
The experience of reading Mary Beth Keane’s absorbing new novel, The Half Moon, feels — pleasantly — like breathing, or maybe just living ... These are not earth-shattering or groundbreaking observations, but they are precisely why it’s such a pleasure to sink into Keane’s quietly luminous prose: Her recordings of the small, significant moments of life have a way of standing for something larger ... A slightly bizarre series of intrigues colors the end of The Half Moon, ... But suffice it to say that the logistics of the plot are secondary: Malcolm and Jess provide the real momentum behind this novel. While marriage may be an endless, evolving equation of events and decisions that increase or decrease the original store of love, in the end, one hopes, there is still, indeed, love. Keane understands this. Her perceptive, generous observations and attention to her characters’ inner lives make for a book that is much, much more than the sum of its characters. She manages to find the extraordinary grace in our achingly ordinary world.
The main characters do not meet face to face, outside of flashbacks, until it feels somehow too early and too late, making for an oddly timed narrative climax. That said, what Keane captures is poignant and piercing.
Keane's prose is luminous and controlled, brimming with insights into her nuanced characters ... The Half Moon is a gripping read with an unexpected and satisfying resolution. We root for Malcolm and Jess to figure out a way forward, whether or not it's together.
