Fugitive Moon

A very pleasurable introduction to a unique character. Suspension of disbelief is called for in a big way, but the excitement and genuine feeling created makes for a worthwhile, fun and touching read.

"Fugitive Moon" features a collection of character portraits, particularly of the protagonist: oddball, occasionally institutionalized, relief pitcher Theodore Moon, the Moonman. Author Faust's dialog is as inventive, original, and scathingly clever as the idiosyncratic characters who deliver it. However, the framework of a series of murders of transvestites into which these characters are poured, is unfortunately left so vague that I wondered why it was needed at all. While the murderer is eventually revealed, I didn't really care who it turned out to be. This may, in fact, be Faust's intention in this send-up of late-20th century America, but that wasn't clear enough to me. Nonetheless, reading the thoughts of Teddy Moon and listening to his exchanges with the insane, inane and profane corps of baseball players, ex- wives and girlfriends, asylum residents and assorted non-institutionalized screwballs who surround him make the 300+ pages of "Fugitive Moon" more than entertaining. *********** Bill Lee, a talented pitcher aptly nicknamed "Spaceman", retired after the 1982 baseball season. Faust started writing this novel in 1983, expecting at first to write a more traditional baseball story, according to his Author's Note, before being led splendidly astray by the Moonman character. I wonder if he was consciously or subconsciously influenced by the on and off-field antics of Mr. Lee.