Dueling Lunatics:
Two Views of Bradley Denton's Latest
Glen Engel-Cox and Bill Humphries

Title: Lunatics
Author: Bradley Denton
Publisher: St. Martins
ISBN: 0-312-14363-X
Price: $23.95

Bradley Denton writes about pop culture. While Wrack and Roll and Buddy Holly is Alive and Well and Living on Ganymede covered pop music, his new novel covers another pop trope, the ordinary guy and the extraordinary woman: Danny Kaye and Aphrodite, Darrin and Samantha, Major Nelson and Jeannie, the teenagers in Weird Science and Lisa.

Lunatics is a romantic fantasy set in contemporary Austin. Jack's wife died in a traffic accident, and he has not coped. He acts up in public and has taken to exhibitionism for the sake of his current lover Lily, a Moon Goddess, for whom he must stand naked during a full moon if she is to find him for their assignation. The material where Jack's friends cope with his delusion and its effects is good screwball comedy. The book turns edgy as his friends confront Lily and discover she is unearthly. That edginess makes Lunatics different than a novelized Bewitched.

The sub-plots involve sexual intrigues among Jack's friends. Halle, a professional computer consultant raising two kids on her own, plays counterpoint to Lily. Both Lily and Halle deal with men on her own terms, Halle's kids and Lily's rules screening out all but the most sincere lovers. But Halle's real and sexual, while Lily's unreal but sexual and perceived by Jack's friends as a threat.

The book deals with the problem of a demon lover as a long-term relationship by taking a sudden and conventional turn at the close. Though that conventional turn is something of a disappointment, the book's treatment of Lily's interactions with Jack's friends, and the screwball humor make it well worth reading.

- Bill Humphries

If authors were like rock bands, Bradley Denton would be the Talking Heads. With every book, he completely changes his subject, style, and composition, yet remains the same fun, eclectic author. It's invigorating to approach a new Denton novel, akin to meeting an old friend who's been on an extended safari-you can't wait to see what he's brought back. In Lunatics, Denton's gone hunting in the fertile range of fantasy's past, wrestled with the ghosts of Thorne Smith and James Branch Cabell, and returned with the trophy of a screwball sex romp that will put a smile on your face and touch your heart.

Jack's friends are worried. Ever since his wife's death, he's withdrawn from them, given up his job and his house, and become a hermit. That is until one January night, when the police pick him up in front of his apartment for public indecency. It seems that he was standing nude in the moonlight because that's the only way his new lover, Lily (the goddess of the moon), can find him. His friends make it their duty to watch over him during these regular bouts of insanity every full moon, to help him regain his senses, but they discover Jack's sanity is the least of their worries. With a winged, taloned moon goddess as a central character, it's hard to classify Lunatics as anything but fantasy [Obviously, Glen hasn't read my Slipstream editorial yet. - LP], but the book's heart is realistic character interaction. This interplay is reminiscent of The Big Chill, complete with sexual liaisons gone awry and friendships that sometimes hang on the most tenuous of threads. The fantastical element is the spark that moves the plot, but is otherwise lost in the shuffle of bodies and minds. Strait-laced readers should beware: this is a novel about sex and how it affects people. Although Lunatics is never pornographic, Denton's approach to the subject (as in Blackburn) is forthright. The characters talk like real people and do things that real people do. It's a refreshing change of pace from fantasies where characters have the physiognomy of Barbie dolls and the bedroom life of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Lunatics is Denton's strongest novel-an impressive feat given the strengths of Buddy Holly is Alive And Well on Ganymede and Blackburn. You can't call Denton a promising author anymore. The promise has been fulfilled; the man has arrived.

- Glen Engel-Cox