THE HALF MOON

In a New York commuter town during the week of an epic blizzard, a married couple’s crisis comes to a head.

Is the Half Moon—a popular bar in Gillam—waxing or waning? And what about owner Malcolm Gephardt’s marriage? The bar has been struggling since Malcolm fulfilled his dream and bought both the business and the building, the latter against the advice of his lawyer wife, Jess. But Malcolm, 45, “handsome and charming and people liked him instantly,” who worked at the bar for 24 years before buying it, has always wanted to run the place and also feels that the expense of purchasing his baby somehow compensates for the fortune Jess has spent on IVF in pursuit of her own dream of fertility. The couple’s history is capably delivered in nonsequential descriptions and flashbacks from both perspectives. They’ve been together for 15 years, loved each other passionately from the start, married because of Jess’ pregnancy, which failed, yet lost their way in more recent times, leading Jess to move out some four months earlier. Now, as the heavy snow falls, Malcolm learns she has been seen with Neil Bratton, a recently arrived, divorced lawyer with three children and a house at the posh end of town. Family, commitment, work, and class all underpin this sympathetically drawn portrait of a stuttering marriage and also its wider community of parents, friends, and employees, although the emotional territory is less visceral than in Keane’s bestselling Ask Again, Yes, also set in Gillam. Subplots involving a missing Half Moon regular and the threatening visits of a man pressuring Malcolm to repay his debts interleave developments in the marriage. But it’s the contemplation of a meaningful relationship after early dreams have faded that best showcases Keane’s inviting empathy, even if the ending is too neatly resolved.

Keane’s satisfying storytelling is the takeaway.