MOON AND THE MARS

Historical fiction set in New York City’s Irish and Black communities before and during the Civil War.

Theodora “Theo” Brigid Brook, born in 1850 to an Irish mother and Black father, grows up in Five Points. An orphan from an early age, Theo is raised in two cultures—one Irish, at Grammy Cahill’s, the other Black, at Grammy Brook’s. Both multigenerational families feature intriguing, well-imagined characters, especially Auntie Siobhan, who runs a tavern she inherited from her late husband, and Auntie Eunice, who starts a ladies salon in Greenwich Village; and both are further enriched through fostered characters, the Cahills with cousin Ciaran, an Irish immigrant who struggles to stay out of trouble, and the Brooks with Auntie Maryam, a former slave who escapes north via the Underground Railroad. Theo is present for many major events, like Illinois Rep. Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Institute speech, and discusses everything she misses with her hypererudite relatives, who are as informed about politics and current events as any internet-era journalist could dream of being. The novel relies heavily on contemporaneous newspaper articles, scores of which are partially reprinted, quoted from memory, read aloud, or teased by newsboys shouting from street corners. And while these and other recitations of historical fact, about Tammany Hall, the Dred Scott case, the Hall Carbine Affair, and so much more, are unquestionably informative, characters who speak like Wikipedia entries don't necessarily make for engaging fiction. Theo has the outlines of a truly memorable character, but it feels as if Corthron chose the comprehensiveness of a textbook—there is a 20-page bibliography—over a narrative that would catalyze an absorbing novel.

An ambitious, educational novel that tries to do too much.