Billy Moon
A Novel
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1.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
In Douglas Lain's debut novel set during the turbulent year of 1968, Christopher Robin Milne, the inspiration for his father's fictional creation, struggles to emerge from a manufactured life, in a story of hope and transcendence.
Billy Moon was Christopher Robin Milne, the son of A. A. Milne, the world-famous author of Winnie the Pooh and other beloved children's classics. Billy's life was no fairy-tale, though. Being the son of a famous author meant being ignored and even mistreated by famous parents; he had to make his own way in the world, define himself, and reconcile his self-image with the image of him known to millions of children. A veteran of World War II, a husband and father, he is jolted out of midlife ennui when a French college student revolutionary asks him to come to the chaos of Paris in revolt. Against a backdrop of the apocalyptic student protests and general strike that forced France to a standstill that spring, Milne's new French friend is a wild card, able to experience alternate realities of the past and present. Through him, Milne's life is illuminated and transformed, as are the world-altering events of that year.
In a time when the Occupy movement eerily mirrors the political turbulence of 1968, this magic realist novel is an especially relevant and important book.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
What would it be like to be the real-life Christopher Robin? This fascinating question is movingly explored in Lain's imaginative debut novel. In 1959, Christopher is 38 years old and operating a small bookstore that pointedly doesn't stock the Winnie-the-Pooh books. But that choice isn't a shield against their influence, as he finds himself, unconsciously, playing with a piece of garbage in a way that echoes Eeyore's playing with a burst balloon. Things get surreal when, in 1961, Christopher spots a poster that uses Pooh's image as a symbol of protest against the French authorities; dated seven years in the future, the poster is an anomaly that proves prescient. The narrative is laced with humor. One chapter begins, "While Christopher was coping with toy cats, Munchies wrappers, and Kinsey's report on sexual behavior in the human male, a 10-year-old boy in Paris... decided that he was dreaming, during a field trip to the police station." But the overwhelming poignancy, as Christopher prays to be allowed to "finally be an adult," is what gives this book its power.
