Shout Down the Moon
By Lisa Tucker
(Downtown Press, Paperback, 9780743464468, 304pp.)
Publication Date: April 6, 2004
Other Editions of This Title: eBook
Categories: General
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Her acclaimed debut, The Song Reader, won her praise as a "brilliant new literary talent" (The Albuquerque Tribune). Now, Lisa Tucker returns with a starkly lyrical novel of page-turning intensity and rare emotional power.
Patty Taylor can handle anything. So what if the guys in her band dismiss her as just a pretty face, hired by their manager to make them more popular? She's already survived a bad childhood, a destructive teenage relationship, homelessness, and working twelve-hour shifts washing dishes. Traveling with the band gives her a way to provide for Willie, the two-year-old son she adores.
But on a hot summer day in Kentucky, when Willie's father shows up outside her hotel room, newly paroled from prison and intent on having her and his son back, Patty begins a journey that will change her from a girl who can put up with anything to a woman with a voice that can bring the house down. Shout Down the Moon is about following dreams and overcoming obstacles, about finding your voice and becoming the hero of your own life. In Patty Taylor, Lisa Tucker has created an unlikely heroine, a gutsy girl with a wry sense of humor, whose life will depend on having the courage to trust in her big talent and even bigger heart.
Lisa Tucker is the author of The Song Reader and Shout Down the Moon; she has also published short work in Seventeen, Pages, and The Oxford American. She has advanced degrees in English and math, and has taught creative writing at the Taos Conference and UCLA. Lisa lives in Pennsylvania and New Mexico with her husband and son. Visit her website at www.lisatucker.com.
Publishers WeeklyWell-drawn, emotionally nuanced characters...[a] compulsively readable tale.
PeopleThe situations Tucker describes here in starkly lyrical prose are as chilling as if they were all derived from her own experiences...but she never gets too sentimental. Instead, Patty's voice just feels honest...As she did in her 2003 first novel, The Song Reader, Tucker uses music to frame this story, and like a well-crafted song it builds in intensity until its explosive ending.
The Philadelphia InquirerPatty is a character searching for her voice...And what a wonderfully drawn character she is. Tucker has the gift of knowing what to say and what to just suggest. She lets Patty tell her own story without self-pity despite plenty of pain and sadness...Much of her strength comes from her love for her son, her deep desire that he have a better life than she. Here, too, Tucker's portrayal is refreshingly real.
BookreporterTucker's debut novel The Song Reader was an original and engrossing premise coupled with compelling writing. With that one book Tucker cemented herself as a strong new voice, a talented writer to watch for in the future. Now in her sophomore effort, Shout Down the Moon, Tucker proves that The Song Reader was no fluke; she has more stories to tell.
The Romance ReaderBeautifully written, heartbreakingly real and ultimately hopeful...Tucker is a writing force to be reckoned with.
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