Having published the final volume (Sure of You, 1989) of his
popular Tales of the City series, Maupin leaves the San Francisco
setting behind, turning his warmth and wit to the Hollywood scene;
he remains equally adept at spotting trends and skewering social
injustice. Cadence Roth, a 31-inch actress, was never credited for
playing the title role (inside a high-tech costume) in Mr. Woods,
an "enduring fable" - a la E.T. - "of almost universal appeal about
the nature of being different." Being a dwarf is apparently being
too different; ten years later, Cady's acting career is entirely
stalled, though her limited celebrity has gained her a star-struck
roommate who helps her negotiate the wrong-scale physical world and
also encourages her to write her life's story. (Maybe there's a
screenplay in it with a starring role for a little person.) Cady's
journals reveal her as intelligent, funny, cleareyed, and subject
to constant discrimination. But even Cady can hope: a comeback
seems imminent; she starts a tender love affair. (But can sexual
love between a tall black handsome divorced father and a white
overweight female dwarf be brought into the light of day?)
Meanwhile, people from Cady's past reappear: the child star from
Mr. Woods (having a secret gay affair while making his adult debut
in a nastily homophobic film); the horrible director who expects
Cady to appear in a televised tribute to him. A sad, funny tale
that - although goodness may not always triumph in the world - will
win readers' hearts. (Kirkus Reviews)
Maybe the Moon, Armistead Maupin's first novel since ending his
bestselling Tales of the City series, is the audaciously original
chronicle of Cadence Roth -- Hollywood actress, singer, iconoclast
and former Guinness Book of Records holder as the world's shortest
woman. All of 31 inches tall, Cady is a true survivor in a town
where -- as she says -- 'you can die of encouragement'. Her early
starring role as a lovable elf in an immensely popular American
film proved a major disappointment, since moviegoers never saw the
face behind the stifling rubber suit she was required to wear. Now,
after a decade of hollow promises from the Industry, she is reduced
to performing at birthday parties and Bar Mitzvahs as she waits for
the miracle that will finally make her a star. In a series of
mordantly funny journal entries, Maupin tracks his spunky heroine
across the saffron-hazed wasteland of Los Angeles -- from her
all-too-infrequent meetings with agents and studio moguls to her
regular harrowing encounters with small children, large dogs and
human ignorance. Then one day a lanky piano player saunters into
Cady's life, unleashing heady new emotions, and she finds herself
going for broke, shooting the moon with a scheme so harebrained and
daring that it just might succeed. Her accomplice in the venture is
her best friend, Jeff, a gay waiter who sees Cady's struggle for
visibility as a natural extension of his own war against the
Hollywood Closet. As clear-eyed as it is charming, Maybe the Moon
is a modern parable about the mythology of the movies and the toll
it exacts from it participants on both sides of the screen. It is a
work that speaks to the resilience of the human spirit from a
perspective rarely found in literature.
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