Lunatics

_____________________________________________ Each month, when the moon is full, Jack strips naked and waits outside for Lily. If he doesn't, she has trouble finding him on her flight down from the Moon. The Austin police are not pleased. . . but , as one of his friends observes, Jack's a few bubbles off level. His friends, thirty-something engineers and academics, are pretty kinky too. There's Halle, a software engineer, "as straightforward a woman as I've ever been shat on by," says a former boyfriend. Halle keeps a chart of who's slept with whom - blue lines are long-term relationships, red lines are "short affairs, brief mistakes, and one-night stands." Even numbers are women, "....and men, of course, are odd." . . . Carolyn pointed to number 100, which had so many red and blue lines converging on it that it was surrounded by a solid purple ring. "My God," she said, "who's the slut?" Halle made a throat-clearing noise. "Actually," she said, "that's me." * * * This month, Lilith the Moon Goddess has gotten confused by the Austin city lights, and makes a hard landing on Guadalupe St -- Halle ran into the street after her and was nearly run over by a silver Lexus whose driver leaned out his window and called her a stupid c*nt. She ignored him and ran on to where Lily sat on the steps, looking dazed . . . "Why did he say c*nt as if it were a bad thing?" she asked. She sounded shaken. "Because he meant it as a bad thing," Halle said . . . "We should get out of here. I'll help you up." But Lily was still looking at the Lexus. She scowled, and it gave Halle a chill. "Nobody should say c*nt as if it were a bad thing," Lily said. She wiggled her finger at the Lexus as the light turned green, and when the car began to accelerate, both of its rear tires exploded. The Lexus groaned to a halt in the middle of Eighth Street, and then the front tires exploded as well. Halle stared as a flatbed truck came roaring along Eighth Street. ran the red light, and hit the right rear fender of the Lexus . . . The driver of the Lexus emerged just as one of Lily's loose feathers wafted onto the windshield. When the feather touched the glass, the car's alarm began whooping. The driver stood there gaping at his wrecked automobile as if it were a beached whale. "I've given him scrotum boils, too," Lily said. * * * I had occasional suspension-of-disbelief problems - Jack, in particular, gets a little too loopy at times, and Lily can get pretty weird - but I'm not a regular fantasy reader, and this is a minor quibble. The ending? Well, see what you think . . . "soon to be a major motion picture"? This is Denton's fourth novel; I've previously read, and enjoyed, "Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganym

I thought of the movie The Big Chill while I read this. I also thought of the small number of writers who write fantasy from their private slice of reality. Denton's writing is a wonder, and unlike the moon with its habit of coming and going, my interest in Lunatics never waned. Every character was unique and worth knowing. I've given this book as a gift many times. Smart, endearing writing. Someone mentions in another review that this book is unlike Blackburn (another great book.) Which it is. Thus the wonder of Bradley Denton. I'm looking forward to his next book.

I'm only 16 years old but i picked up this book in the library, just to have something to read. I brought i over to a friend's house and read it and it was an amazing story. Every character fit in with the personality of every close friend i had. To tell the truth, the book got really creepy because it was so accurate with the characters. This is one of the few books that i could'nt put down, literally. And surprisingly enough it was a romance novel but still humorous and very very clever witha touch of fantasy in it. Very good novel.

Lunatics was my introduction to the world of Bradley Denton. And I must say, I'm very impressed. The characters, while perhaps slightly stereotypical, nevertheless manage to hold onto some depth, and are at all times very enjoyable. Even minor characters, such as Halle's lovers Duane and Tommy, come across as genuine and real. And the tangled web that these characters weave is at times incredibly humorous, and at other times a very poignant and sharp comment on relationships and what they mean to life itself. A measure of a book is if it can keep me up at night. Many books can do this. An even greater measure is if a book gets me out of bed on a Saturday morning. This one did that. Definite must read. (Tom Robinson fans take note.)

I don't read much fantasy, but this novel is a real treat no matter what your genre leanings are. The frame of the story is a quirky romance between a bereaved man and a literal goddess, but Denton gives us a great deal more to revel in and ponder on. "Lunatics" is a heck of a lot of fun and is also a very rewarding book that I'm sure I'll reread more than once. Denton belongs with that school of Texas writers, Bruce Sterling and Howard Waldrop among them, whose unbridled imagination and integrity have probably denied them the wider audience they deserve.