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Mooncranker's Gift
In this edgy and masterfully written novel, Booker Prize-winning author Barry Unsworth explores the themes of the corruption of innocence and the complications of lust. Farnaby, a young Englishman in Istanbul researching a thesis on Ottoman fiscal policy, is nervous at his reunion with the celebrated Mooncranker who once so fatefully influenced and disturbed his life. Mooncranker, a famous intellectual, is now a pitiful alcoholic deserted by his secretary and lover Miranda―the woman Farnaby secretly loved with the violence of youth. Mooncranker sends him to find Miranda at a notorious Turkish spa on the grounds of an ancient city where sex is known to come along with the price of the room. There Farnaby tries to understand Mooncranker's gift to him as a boy of thirteen, which has tainted his life ever since, as he finds himself a pivotal figure in the eccentric destinies of the other residents of the spa.
- GenresFiction
290 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
2 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Barry Unsworth
57 books188 followersBarry Unsworth was an English writer known for his historical fiction. He published 17 novels, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, winning once for the 1992 novel Sacred Hunger.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 1, 2023
SUMMARY - A study of human nature that finds rot at the core. Hobbes would recognise this sketch of brutal selfishness, but there is a vein of fonder humanity in here too.
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Underrated. I had some misplaced misgivings, firstly when I saw the 1-2 star reviews, and secondly when I saw Nina Bawden had contributed to the blurb (an author I haven't exactly loved from the Booker shortlists). Unsworth scores for ingenuity (cf sausage-meat Jesus); for narrative propulsion; and for seemingly effortless switching between viewpoints.
Unsworth excels particularly in the latter, to implicate the reader in uneasy relation to often unpleasant situations. This can make Unsworth tough to read - there are plenty of unwanted sexual advances and power imbalances in this book that we see from both sides - but ultimately that's why Unsworth is so worth reading. Few come out of this well (Mooncranker is a cynical exploiter, while those he control try to break free only to confront their own base natures). There are moments of dark humour, but this is the most unremitting of early phase Unsworth's books (1966-1976) before he embarked on historical fiction from 1980 onwards.
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Underrated. I had some misplaced misgivings, firstly when I saw the 1-2 star reviews, and secondly when I saw Nina Bawden had contributed to the blurb (an author I haven't exactly loved from the Booker shortlists). Unsworth scores for ingenuity (cf sausage-meat Jesus); for narrative propulsion; and for seemingly effortless switching between viewpoints.
Unsworth excels particularly in the latter, to implicate the reader in uneasy relation to often unpleasant situations. This can make Unsworth tough to read - there are plenty of unwanted sexual advances and power imbalances in this book that we see from both sides - but ultimately that's why Unsworth is so worth reading. Few come out of this well (Mooncranker is a cynical exploiter, while those he control try to break free only to confront their own base natures). There are moments of dark humour, but this is the most unremitting of early phase Unsworth's books (1966-1976) before he embarked on historical fiction from 1980 onwards.
July 31, 2019
What a tedious slog all the way along. Frankly, the only reason I bothered at all was the settings with which I am familiar. It took about three tries to make my way through and now I wonder why I bothered as I sigh with relief.
There is not one admirable or -- really -- interesting character in the whole gloomy book. I'm an old guy and kept thinking: 'is this what life was like then?' No wonder things seemed so compartmentalized. It wasn't just because Unsworth was British, was it? Oh forget it! The book itself was precious (in the bad way) and tiresome.
There is not one admirable or -- really -- interesting character in the whole gloomy book. I'm an old guy and kept thinking: 'is this what life was like then?' No wonder things seemed so compartmentalized. It wasn't just because Unsworth was British, was it? Oh forget it! The book itself was precious (in the bad way) and tiresome.
August 3, 2019
The first 60 pages, I kind of liked the "Waiting for Godot" vibe. Bizarre character not doing much of anything. But eventually it became a drag that there was essentially no story.
January 3, 2015
For some reason this book reminded me of Durrell's Alexandria Quartet - it's nothing overtly like it, but there was something there that tugged at my memory of those four books and said this was like them.
The main character is Farnaby, who met the titular character as a teen. At that point in Farnaby's life he was religious, reading the Bible and praying daily, but it was one of those turning-point summers: his parents are getting divorced, he discovers the mixed pleasures of "pleasure" and Mooncranker gives him a gift that so horrifies him that he turns from prayer. What's the gift? A figure of Jesus, on the cross, made of sausage and wrapped in cloth; it eventually rots and Farnaby discovers maggots and flies crawling over the dead meat.
For years this has haunted him, both the image and the question of why someone would give him such a "gift." While studying in Istanbul, his Uncle George reintroduces him to Mooncranker, by this time a pathetic drunk mourning the loss of Miranda (another remnant of that long ago summer). After hospitalizing Mooncranker, Farnaby agrees to go look for Miranda at a Turkish spa, a place that seems to be more about illicit sex than healing.
The characters at the spa are vaguely stereotypical, but we don't meet them clearly enough during the two days that Farnaby is there. He does meet up with Miranda and ultimately asks her about this "gift" - whether or not he's happy with the response, or her reasons for why it may have been given, are left open to our interpretation. I didn't get he sense that he'd come to peace with what happened either that summer or with Mooncranker in Istanbul.
Having said all that, I'd be interested in reading more from this author. Why? The style is a little old-fashioned, less plot than character driven and that makes a nice change of pace.
The main character is Farnaby, who met the titular character as a teen. At that point in Farnaby's life he was religious, reading the Bible and praying daily, but it was one of those turning-point summers: his parents are getting divorced, he discovers the mixed pleasures of "pleasure" and Mooncranker gives him a gift that so horrifies him that he turns from prayer. What's the gift? A figure of Jesus, on the cross, made of sausage and wrapped in cloth; it eventually rots and Farnaby discovers maggots and flies crawling over the dead meat.
For years this has haunted him, both the image and the question of why someone would give him such a "gift." While studying in Istanbul, his Uncle George reintroduces him to Mooncranker, by this time a pathetic drunk mourning the loss of Miranda (another remnant of that long ago summer). After hospitalizing Mooncranker, Farnaby agrees to go look for Miranda at a Turkish spa, a place that seems to be more about illicit sex than healing.
The characters at the spa are vaguely stereotypical, but we don't meet them clearly enough during the two days that Farnaby is there. He does meet up with Miranda and ultimately asks her about this "gift" - whether or not he's happy with the response, or her reasons for why it may have been given, are left open to our interpretation. I didn't get he sense that he'd come to peace with what happened either that summer or with Mooncranker in Istanbul.
Having said all that, I'd be interested in reading more from this author. Why? The style is a little old-fashioned, less plot than character driven and that makes a nice change of pace.
February 13, 2016
Not one of my favorite Unsworth novels, but anything by him is worth a read. Begins dark, and follows with a long interlude of dark humor, populated by a series of bizarre characters who float through with almost no purpose, and ends on a dark note again. There isn't a single admirable character in the novel, although it's easy enough to empathize with a number of them. There are basically three extended set-pieces in the book, one in the boyhood of the main character, when he receives the "gift" of the title, and two in late 1960's Istanbul.
March 28, 2013
The least good Barry Unsworth I've read. Really creepy. Not just the titular figure, but the fact that its main theme is the subjection of women by seriously screwed up men. It's been called a satire but I didn't get that at all. Every good writer seems to have one really bad book in him/her. This is Unsworths'.
February 7, 2014
Barry Unsworth is one of my favorite writers. After reading 'After Hannibal' I decided to start reading him from the first of his works I could find which was 'Mooncranker's Gift'. I don't know how I feel about this hence, the 3 star waffle. Yes I liked it. I was intriguing, but I'm not sure I really understand what it was about or the author's intent in writing it.
Want to read
September 25, 2008A Barry Unsworth I had missed; got it recently in a used bookshop in London; looking forward to it!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews