THE MOON AND THE GRYPHON

Long’s historical novel combines fanciful, romantic adventure with occult themes.

The tale begins in 1940 with a young couple, English heiress Marian Graves and Montenegrin scholar Stevan Romanov, setting out in a hand-built flying boat to support Stevan’s relatives against the Axis powers. On the way, they encounter Festus Griveaux, a minor despot who harbors demonic servants and plans for nothing less than world domination. The narrative shifts to Egypt in 1945, where Amon-Ra and Dodi, two poor brothers, find a mysterious cache of books while searching for ancient artifacts they can sell. The books are sacred Gnostic texts from the lost Nag Hammadi Library, and are sought after by many, including Stevan and Festus. The story then jumps forward to California in 1973, where Claremont professor of antiquities Griffin MacRobbin is fascinated by a new grad student, the brilliant, beautiful heiress Anastasia Romanov, who has provocative ideas about Gnosticism and the mystical content of the texts. Griffin and Anastasia set off on a globe-trotting adventure through New York City, Yugoslavia, England, and Ireland in search of a sacred object. Aided by friends and relatives, they face hair-raising challenges and bizarre mystical experiences together and separately. The narrative’s opening sections are told in the third person; the characters aren’t well-rounded, and the dialogue often feels artificial (“Stevan said, ‘It seems, Marian, your little exploration underground will be of benefit. You say the passage is adjacent to this garage?’”) For the rest of the novel, the point of view shifts to first person in the quirky voice of Griffin, who combines matter-of-factness with whimsy and snark. The other characters, including Griffin’s colleague Dr. Moe Littlejohn, Anastasia’s aunt and uncle, a Wagner-loving spelunker, and Dick McBride, an Irish mechanic and bishop, are eccentric and colorful. The story fancifully combines elements such as ancient standing stones, runes and hieroglyphs, shapeshifting demons, snippets of poetry and song, antique and modern aircraft, and psychedelic experiments into an implausible but entertaining saga.

A farfetched but entertaining blend of mysticism, romance, and adventure.