When novelist Madison Smartt Bell (All Souls Rising) gets into something, he goes long. His trilogy of novels about Toussaint L'Ouverture and the Haitian Revolution ran to more than 2,000 pages. With similar immersion in history and legend, Behind the Moon digs into Native American mythology and symbolism, and weaves them gently into a story about a group of high school kids out for kicks in the Dakota Badlands. This time, however, Bell tells his compelling story in only 280 pages.
Behind the Moon begins simply enough with two girls and three boys cutting Friday classes to camp out, drink some beer and mess around. When Julie realizes that her best friend's boyfriend, Sonny, and his buddy Marko have more in mind than camping, she has already innocently drunk from a water bottle laced with Ecstasy and LSD. While head tripping and running from the boys' crude attempts to coerce her into a pornographic video, she falls into a dark cave filled with ancient Indian drawings. Only the third boy, Jamal, searches for her and eventually walks to town to get help. Julie's plight, Jamal's friendship and the thuggish boys' attempts to hide their involvement make for a compelling and mystical experience for readers. Furthermore, Bell's challenging dip into magical realism to describe the girl's visions and their transformative effect on her self-discovery give Behind the Moon heft and strength. Bell can mesmerize even when his novels run short. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.