Short Story Wednesday: Carolyn See on William Kotzwinkle's JEWEL OF THE MOON

Book Review: Mixed Bag of Stories From Kotzwinkle
By CAROLYN SEE
FEB. 13, 1986 12 AM PT

Jewel of the Moon by William Kotzwinkle (Putnam’s: $14.95)

Suppose you’re a 19-year-old girl, and smart as well as beautiful. You can have any basketball player you want, but a sky-high intellectual with John Lennon glasses gives you a book for Christmas--”Le Desire Attrappe par le Coeur,” Pablo Picasso’s only play--and now smartypants (your classmate) has a birthday coming up. What do you do about it, since you know he’s already read everything, in that insistent undergraduate way of his? Scoot on out to your nearest independent bookstore and buy him a copy of William Kotzwinkle’s Jewel of the Moon.

No one’s read it yet, it looks spooky and delicious and the author’s picture on the back looks like a combination of Merlin and Lennon himself. Direct the intellectual’s attention particularly to “Sun, Moon and Storm,” which chronicles the life of the artist Antonio Correggio as he painted his masterwork on a cathedral dome for venal theologians who care nothing for genius. . . .

Or, suppose you’re 19 and beautiful as well as smart. The basketball center on the college team has been hanging around, giving you woof-eyes and you think he’s pretty cute, so--in Math, probably--you hand him “Jewel of the Moon,” wrapped carelessly in newspaper. “No big deal,” you tell him. “No biggee. Just read ‘Victory at North Antor.’ When I read it, I don’t know why, I thought of you.”

Jumble of Stories

What we are addressing here, then, is a book of short stories, wildly different, thematically chaotic, attractively written. The stories are a jumble. No one (outside of the author) seems to have given them much thought or attention: A lax publicity release announces that only two of these stories have been published before: “All the others are being published for the first time,” but the author’s agent has countered that nine of these have already seen print.

And no one seems to know what to make of them. Again, the publicity release quotes Kurt Vonnegut: “William Kotzwinkle’s materials seem to come from way down deep.” Well, OK, but don’t most writers of fiction scramble around, dredging up their materials from “way down deep”?

The truth may be that these stories are so varied in tone that if you like some, you probably won’t be able to stomach the others: the volume is a mixed review. For instance, the title story is an erotic myth of creation, a god and goddess on a steamy honeymoon of sorts, creating the universe.

Again, in “Fana,” a tale of a Middle-Eastern dancing girl who is the very embodiment of the winking universe, the same themes are suggested: “There waited a white camel bearing a noble sheik. In the hoof-beats of the camel Al-nujum heard the drumming of time, and in the eyes of the sheik he saw the race of man. The sheik’s own heart was a flame which no man could extinguish, and here Al-nujum was inclined to rest--but Fana undulated once more.”

Clearly, here is a man who holds the sexual act in high regard, and who could argue against that? But readers who dote on this silken-pillow literature can’t be expected to like “Victory at North Antor,” which depicts life in a working-class high school, in a fiendish small town, in the middle of Northeast nowhere--a town where the adults live in mill shacks and have, as vocational opportunities, “the button mill, the pillow factory, or the sewer works.” Is it possible for there to be heroism in such grim and forgotten worlds? Certainly, for some--and that heroism heartens even the inarticulate gnomes still locked inside these hells of the imagination.

Great Fun to Read

“Victory at North Antor,” with its rich cast of characters--Shrimp Sondoni, Tootzi Zonka, Tony One-Punch and Franky Plunger--is great fun to read, as is “Star Cruisers, Welcome,” in which an invincible space ship full of invincible aliens (who literally eat Earth for lunch) makes the mistake of landing in the South Bronx, where the ship is taken apart, with terrific casualness, by a gang called the Walton Avenue Baldies, who sell their space parts to the local fence and break out the space booze.

A wonderful story, but where does that leave the lavender intricacies of Fana and Zahir and Al-nujum? It seems that this slim volume literally isn’t big enough for Fana and Tootsie Zonka.

More than 100 years ago, as they never tire of telling us in literature classes, Wordsworth and Coleridge got together and decided that for a project they’d work--separately--on making “strange things familiar and familiar things strange.” Thus, that host of golden daffodils from Wordsworth, and that Ancient Mariner from Coleridge. But, for the sake of their own fevered minds, they didn’t try doing both at once, as does Kotzwinkle. Never mind. Give this book to nice male undergraduates of every stripe. They’ll appreciate the culture and like the sex; they may grow their hair long, and buy a monocle like that pixie author on the back.

From the FictionMags Index:

Jewel of the Moon by William Kotzwinkle (Putnam, December 1985, 0-399-13113-2, $14.95, 160pp, hc, oc)
    Collection of 15 stories, only five of them previously published [possibly more accurate than either figure provided to See, but still in need of confirmation, particularly since 7 are given previous publication credits here.--TM]. Most are very short fantasies.
• 9 · The Day Stokowski Saved the World · William Kotzwinkle · ss
• 15 · The Curio Shop · William Kotzwinkle · vi Omni September 1980
• 21 · Jewel of the Moon · William Kotzwinkle · ss Viva November 1973
• 41 · Postcard Found in a Trunk · William Kotzwinkle · ss
• 49 · Sun, Moon, and Storm · William Kotzwinkle · ss
• 65 · Tell Her You Love Her with a Ring from Dave’s House of Diamonds · William Kotzwinkle · ss
• 69 · Disturbance Reported on a Pipeline · William Kotzwinkle · ss
• 77 · Mr. Jones’s Convention · William Kotzwinkle · ss Penthouse (US) November 1974
• 87 · Fading Tatoo · William Kotzwinkle · ss
• 93 · Victory at North Antor · William Kotzwinkle · ss Penthouse (US) May 1975
• 113 · A Man Who Knew His Birds · William Kotzwinkle · ss Omni February 1985
• 123 · Letter to a Swan · William Kotzwinkle · ss Transatlantic Review #58/59, February 1977
• 133 · Star Cruisers, Welcome · William Kotzwinkle · ss
• 141 · That Winter When Prince Borisov Was Everybody’s Favorite · William Kotzwinkle · ss
• 151 · Fana · William Kotzwinkle · ss Penthouse (UK) September 1972

For more Short Story Wednesday posts, please see Patti Abbott's blog.

Mason, briefly, about this collection.

Kotzwinkle reviews and mentions on this blog. Carolyn See on this blog.

FFB: Algis Budrys BLOOD & BURNING (Berkley 1978); William Kotzwinkle JEWEL OF THE MOON (Putnam 1985)

Two collections, the third of Budrys's short fiction and the first of Kotzwinkle's (after a linked collection, Trouble in Bugland, aimed at young readers), by two writers who have been among those (many) who have through no great polemical effort but simply through their artistry put the lie to the notion of a legitimate and inherent distinction between the literary and the popular, between the "serious" and the "generic"...a distinction that so many of us who enjoy fiction of all kinds are too willing to insist is indeed a something that must be reckoned with, aside from the mere prejudices of the ignorant, whether those ignorant be reviewers or marketers who have decided they know their marks (or do I mean customers) very well...and in many cases, but not all, are not incorrect.

And, certainly, the careers of both men can be instructive, as Budrys is perhaps most widely remembered today for his involvement with the Scientology-funded Writers (and Artists) of the Future program, which became through his involvement somewhat similar to the venerable Clarion Writer's Workshop with more (and vastly more controversial) money behind it; Kotzwinkle has become best known, not for his often subtle and usually extraordinary playful but grounded moral fiction, nor even at this date for his E. T. -related fiction, but for the work of his and his writing-partners' and his illustrator-partner Audrey Colman (in for the usual Joe Servello) on a series of easy-readers about Walter, the Farting Dog. Thus, the rewards of furthering the art. (Berkley and Putnam were the same corporate entity, and note the undistinguished covers given these books, seven years apart, and I can assure you the promotional effort for both was about as lackluster.)

The books in question today are fine slices through the career of Budrys and the early career of Kotzwinkle; such major Budrys stories as "The Master of the Hounds" (an Edgar winner) and "Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night" (and the grim little fable "The Price," which he read for his album reviewed here last week) are cheek by jowl with the likes of "Scream at Sea," an interesting example of a contemporary-mimetic oceangoing survival story, aimed at Ziff-Davis's all but stillborn 1950s Tales of the Sea fiction magazine, and then published in Fantastic (editors and publishers have for some reason been more comfortable putting contemporary-mimetic stories in fantasy magazines over the years, perhaps because they've tended to be more eclectic with horror and frequent sf content).

While the Kotzwinkle groups longer examples of borderline fantasy/historical fiction such as the title story with telling little mimetic vignettes such as "Tell Her You Love Her..." and some slight fantasies of perception as "The Curio Shop", all imbued with the kind of wit and hints of strangeness (when strangeness is not a main ingredient) that his later work, tending toward fantasy and fable when aimed at adults (Walter's adventures being a bit more prosaic, though not entirely), would continue to deliver. Even when what Borges would refer to as the unfortunate temptation to the young author of Fine Writing is in evidence, Kotzwinkle's wit helps, even in the example of the slightest of the work here. His early patronage by Penthouse perhaps is in some evidence as well...a young literary man's fancifulness about sexuality is expressed frequently.


From the Contento and Locus Indices:

Blood & Burning Algis Budrys (Berkley 0-425-03861-0, Sep ’78, $1.75, 227pp, pb)
1 · Introduction · in
4 · Be Merry · nv If Dec ’66
51 · Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night · nv Galaxy Dec ’61
74 · All for Love [“For Love”] · nv Galaxy Jun ’62
93 · A Scraping at the Bones · ss Analog May ’75
110 · The Price · ss F&SF Feb ’60
114 · The Ridge Around the World [“Forever Stenn”] · ss Satellite Dec ’57
124 · The Girl in the Bottle · ss Fantastic Universe Dec ’59
131 · The Last Brunette [“The Ultimate Brunette”] · ss Playboy Sep ’65
146 · Scream at Sea · ss Fantastic Jan/Feb ’54
155 · The Master of the Hounds · nv The Saturday Evening Post Aug 27 ’66
184 · The Nuptial Flight of Warbirds [Laurent Michaelmas] · nv Analog May ’78

Jewel of the Moon William Kotzwinkle (Putnam 0-399-13113-2, Dec ’85 [Nov ’85], $14.95, 160pp, hc) Collection of 15 stories. Most are very short fantasies.
9 · The Day Stokowski Saved the World · ss *
15 · The Curio Shop · ss Omni Sep ’80
21 · Jewel of the Moon · ss *
41 · Postcard Found in a Trunk · ss *
49 · Sun, Moon, and Storm · ss *
65 · Tell Her You Love Her with a Ring from DAVE’S HOUSE OF DIAMONDS · ss *
69 · Disturbance Reported on a Pipeline · ss *
77 · Mr. Jones’s Convention · ss Penthouse Nov ’74
87 · Fading Tatoo · ss *
93 · Victory at North Antor · ss Penthouse May ’75
113 · A Man Who Knew His Birds · ss Omni Feb ’85
123 · Letter to a Swan · ss *
133 · Star Cruisers, Welcome · ss *
141 · That Winter When Prince Borisov Was Everybody’s Favorite · ss *
151 · Fana · ss Penthouse Sep ’72

For more of today's books, please see Patti Abbott's blog.

Friday "Forgotten" Books: William Kotzwinkle's THE EXILE

William Kotzwinkle is one of the most evocative, and one of the wittiest, of our writers; frequently but not always a fantasist (his first masterpiece and one of his most exhilarating books, The Fan Man; a mass-market chapbook, no less, of his contemporary mimetic short story The Swimmer in the Secret Sea; and one of his most harrowing novels, the autobiographical/recent-past historical Jack in the Box are the major exceptions to the fantasticated trend I've read so far). Perhaps his most impressive novel, in a career studded with impressive novels, is one of his few that are, one hopes temporarily, out of print: The Exile.

David Caspian is an aging actor facing the typical runaround that a non-star encounters in Hollywood; simultaneously, he's increasingly finding himself living a parallel life as a black-market vendor back under the Nazi regime, named Felix. Increasingly, the Felix reality is taking up more and more of Caspian's life...and as dire as things are in 1980s/contemporary Hollywood, they are unsurprisingly that much grimmer under the Reich.

This is the novel of Kotzwinkle's that Michael Chabon might've written, and that D.M. Thomas did, less effectively, as The White Hotel...even if the Thomas was an unlikely bestseller. Happily, a number of Kotzwinkle's novels and novellas (the latter often heavily intertwined with Joe Servello's illustration) are in print, even if he's perhaps best known these days as the auteur of the Walter the Farting Dog easy readers...which might eventually outsell his only bestseller, the E.T. novelization (to which Kotzwinkle wrote a sequel...haven't tried these, but suspect that they are solid work, as much as the subject would allow).