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Cloud By Day
Novel.
"Cloud By Day describes eight and a half hours of a summer's day during which a Californian brush fire approaches and sweeps through the village of Lugar Pass. The population - a mixed one of different races, incomes, and interests - spends an excited and active day. Working alongside their bodies, but behaving far less commendably, their minds are equally busy. As if lit up by the advancing flames, the private thoughts of Lugar Pass are revealed in all their richness - or poverty - by an uninhibited commentator sitting in the brain of each inhabitant."
"Cloud By Day describes eight and a half hours of a summer's day during which a Californian brush fire approaches and sweeps through the village of Lugar Pass. The population - a mixed one of different races, incomes, and interests - spends an excited and active day. Working alongside their bodies, but behaving far less commendably, their minds are equally busy. As if lit up by the advancing flames, the private thoughts of Lugar Pass are revealed in all their richness - or poverty - by an uninhibited commentator sitting in the brain of each inhabitant."
275 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1956
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About the author
Ward Moore
77 books38 followersJoseph Ward Moore was born in Madison, New Jersey and raised in Montreal and New York City.
His first novel was published in 1942 and included some autobiographical elements. He wrote not only books but reviews and articles for magazines and newspapers.
In early 50s, he became book review editor of Frontier and started to write regularly for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. His most famous novel was Bring the Jubilee (1953), and his other works include Greener Than You Think (1947) and the post-apocalyptic short stories "Lot" (1953) and "Lot's Daughter" (1954).
His first novel was published in 1942 and included some autobiographical elements. He wrote not only books but reviews and articles for magazines and newspapers.
In early 50s, he became book review editor of Frontier and started to write regularly for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. His most famous novel was Bring the Jubilee (1953), and his other works include Greener Than You Think (1947) and the post-apocalyptic short stories "Lot" (1953) and "Lot's Daughter" (1954).
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April 5, 2019
Ward Moore (1903-1978) was an American author who is best known now for his science fiction. He published two fine science fiction novels that he wrote alone, Greener Than You Think (1947) and Bring the Jubilee (1953). He also wrote two novels in collaboration, another science fiction novel, Caduceus Wild (1981), written with Robert Bradford, and a science fantasy, Joyleg (1962), written with Avram Davidson. As I recall, Joyleg begins engagingly and becomes progressively sillier. I have read Caduceus Wild but I really don't remember it; I think that I found it disappointing. He also wrote some fine short science fiction.
Moore also wrote two "straight," non-genre novels which appear to be largely forgotten. Neither one of them had been mentioned on Goodreads until I recently added them. One was Moore's first published novel, Breathe the Air Again (1942), which I have not read yet. The other is Cloud By Day (1956).
The title Cloud By Day comes from Exodus 13:21. The New American Standard Bible gives that passage as:
The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way and in a pillar of fire at night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.
The cloud in this book is made of smoke, smoke from a rapidly spreading brush fire in the California community of Lugar Pass. In a helpful map at the front of the book, the town is shown to be six miles from Camp Pendleton, on what was then California Highway 76. Lugar Pass has one African American family, one Jew, a smattering of Mexicans, and a number of other folks, most of whom dislike African Americans, Jews, and Mexicans.
Text on the book jacket says that "Ward Moore handles a huge cast, all vitally alive, and mixes the moving and the comic in a way which any novelist or dramatist might envy." There are actually so many characters, most having parts of the book told from their viewpoints, that the book cries out for one of the lists of characters and brief, salient facts about them that used to appear at the front of 1940s mystery novels, in this manner:
Myra Throckmorton ........................
Harold's beautiful red-haired wife, she held a secret more dangerous than she knew
Perhaps the best thing about the book is watching Moore juggling increasingly more balls, trying to keep now fifteen, now twenty, now twenty-five in the air at once. He does not succeed, I think, but it is a noble effort.
It is also fascinating to see Moore try and characterize that many people in a not very long novel. And some of the characterizations mix and meld in strange ways. There are, for example, two people in the book who work in the arts, the brave, neighborly sculptor Ulysses Bork and the uncaring (and ironically named) novelist Eliot Tender. Likewise there are two women who feel a connection to God, the saintly, generous Anna Bistroke, foster mother to a horde of developmentally challenged children, and the sour postmistress Julia Nick.
Some of these folks pass through the challenge of the fire seemingly unchanged. Others, and the community itself, are transmuted by it.
There are oddities of spelling and punctuation that constantly gave me pause. Some of these are just that this book by an American writer and set in California was printed in England, so English spellings are used for occasional words, such as "tyre" or "endeavour"; these are perfectly correct, just uncommon in the United States.
Other spellings are just odd. See, for example, this one sentence:
Leg struck out through the truckdoor, the darkgrey pants rucked up over a hairy, purpleveined calf, sock sneaking shamefacedly into decrepit paletoed shoe, he was sleeping soddenly on the seat.
Moore also has his own idiosyncratic ideas about the use of apostrophes. "Ive," "doesnt," "neednt," "mustve," "whatll" and the like are used throughout the book. But so are "who'd," "don't," "I'll," and similar words. I can find no logic for this.
I don't think that Cloud By Day is even close to Moore's best work but it is by no means negligible. It is a pity that it seems to be so thoroughly forgotten.
Moore also wrote two "straight," non-genre novels which appear to be largely forgotten. Neither one of them had been mentioned on Goodreads until I recently added them. One was Moore's first published novel, Breathe the Air Again (1942), which I have not read yet. The other is Cloud By Day (1956).
The title Cloud By Day comes from Exodus 13:21. The New American Standard Bible gives that passage as:
The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way and in a pillar of fire at night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.
The cloud in this book is made of smoke, smoke from a rapidly spreading brush fire in the California community of Lugar Pass. In a helpful map at the front of the book, the town is shown to be six miles from Camp Pendleton, on what was then California Highway 76. Lugar Pass has one African American family, one Jew, a smattering of Mexicans, and a number of other folks, most of whom dislike African Americans, Jews, and Mexicans.
Text on the book jacket says that "Ward Moore handles a huge cast, all vitally alive, and mixes the moving and the comic in a way which any novelist or dramatist might envy." There are actually so many characters, most having parts of the book told from their viewpoints, that the book cries out for one of the lists of characters and brief, salient facts about them that used to appear at the front of 1940s mystery novels, in this manner:
Myra Throckmorton ........................
Harold's beautiful red-haired wife, she held a secret more dangerous than she knew
Perhaps the best thing about the book is watching Moore juggling increasingly more balls, trying to keep now fifteen, now twenty, now twenty-five in the air at once. He does not succeed, I think, but it is a noble effort.
It is also fascinating to see Moore try and characterize that many people in a not very long novel. And some of the characterizations mix and meld in strange ways. There are, for example, two people in the book who work in the arts, the brave, neighborly sculptor Ulysses Bork and the uncaring (and ironically named) novelist Eliot Tender. Likewise there are two women who feel a connection to God, the saintly, generous Anna Bistroke, foster mother to a horde of developmentally challenged children, and the sour postmistress Julia Nick.
Some of these folks pass through the challenge of the fire seemingly unchanged. Others, and the community itself, are transmuted by it.
There are oddities of spelling and punctuation that constantly gave me pause. Some of these are just that this book by an American writer and set in California was printed in England, so English spellings are used for occasional words, such as "tyre" or "endeavour"; these are perfectly correct, just uncommon in the United States.
Other spellings are just odd. See, for example, this one sentence:
Leg struck out through the truckdoor, the darkgrey pants rucked up over a hairy, purpleveined calf, sock sneaking shamefacedly into decrepit paletoed shoe, he was sleeping soddenly on the seat.
Moore also has his own idiosyncratic ideas about the use of apostrophes. "Ive," "doesnt," "neednt," "mustve," "whatll" and the like are used throughout the book. But so are "who'd," "don't," "I'll," and similar words. I can find no logic for this.
I don't think that Cloud By Day is even close to Moore's best work but it is by no means negligible. It is a pity that it seems to be so thoroughly forgotten.
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