(Low Moon)

Low Moon is a book of five short stories by a Norwegian man named Jason. Each of them are very different from each other. I won't reveal the plot of every story, but I will delve into the plot of my favorite story in the book.

The story I like the most is about a husband and a wife who get into a fight. The wife storms into the kitchen where she finds an alien. She faints from shock and the alien takes her to his ship and flies away. The husband begins to build a rocket the next day.  His son soon starts to realize that his mother is not coming back. The next few pages follow the son as he goes to school, hits puberty, has his first girlfriend, goes to college, gets married, has kids and gets divorced. Finally the father calls the son to tell him that rocket is finished. The father and son get into the rocket and fly into space. I'm not going to spoil the ending for you, but trust me, it's very ironic. I know I'm not doing the story justice, but trust me, its really good.

The stories are 90% silent. When you're reading the book, it feels like you're watching a silent movie. There's a little bit of text here and there, but only when it's absolutely necessary. Speaking of silent films, someone on YouTube made a silent film of one of Jason's stories.

The work of Jason is very genre oriented. A lot of the time, he writes noir stories, but he has also done western, prehistoric and sci-fi. He once  said, in an interview, "Genres are sort of open frames that you can fill with whatever you want to talk about". Brilliant.

 

The art in this book is quite different then anything I've seen before. Most of the characters are depicted as humans with dog heads. They have blank eyes and extremely deadpan expressions. If I had been told of this choice of depiction before picking up the book, I would have assumed that I wouldn't like it. As a stage actor, I've been taught to be very expressive, but this really utilizes the theory that less is more. I know it isn't always the case, but this time, it is.

Low Moon is not for children in any way, shape, or form. The first depicts a little bit of that old sex-for-murder, and the fourth story also has some of the old in-and-out, if you know what I mean, wink wink, nudge nudge, whistle. If you think you can handle it, find Low Moon by Jason and buy it or borrow it.  I would give Low Moon 10 father-son trips to space out of 10.

P.S. Jason doesn't use a last name. It's not a typo.