Good Morning Moon - by Brad Gooch (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The bestselling poet, novelist, and biographer focuses his keen eye inward in this luminous memoir about the decision to start a family later in life only to be surprised by revelations from his own childhood.

In a unique latticework of a memoir, Brad Gooch paints an indelible portrait of becoming a father in middle age. Having experienced once unfathomable changes in what it means to be gay in American society, having lived through the AIDS crisis in New York and surviving the death of his first great love, Brad wasn't longing for a conventional family life.

But in late middle age, he meets Paul, marries, and together they take the leap, soon having two boys through surrogacy. As with many new parents, the arrival of children spurs a reflection on his own upbringing as an only child in a comfortable town in Pennsylvania, and a mystery hidden in plain sight that only a DNA test can solve.

Pondering fundamental questions about the nature of family, while capturing the joys, humor, and hardship of raising kids, Good Morning Moon is an unforgettable addition to the literature of parenthood.

Review Quotes

"The fact that a writer of Brad Gooch's significance has been witness to remarkable events and people, and has written about them, is a genuine gift to the world. Smash Cut is a beautiful and important book." - Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize winning author, on Smash Cut
"Critics and curators still struggle with Haring's legacy. Radiant makes room for a multiplicity of motivations: Haring was an earnest humanist, alive to the liberating capacity of art; or a keen observer of American television and cartoons whose saturated gloss he mirrored in his art; or an early master of self-promotion." - New York Times on Radiant
"Radiant . . . does exactly what biographies of the exceptionally famous should do: Gently, graciously, it reels in the myth, restoring the flesh-and-bone reality....Gooch...acknowledges complicating facts . . . and gives voice to forgotten but important ancillary figures. . . . What was special about Haring, surely, was his vitality. He drew on the energy of his environment, and Gooch's descriptions of the booming East Village art scene . . . are indelible. Vitality can be amplified by proximity to mortality, and what makes this book heartbreaking--I cried upon finishing it--is having to watch on as Haring is slowly overtaken by death." - Washington Post on Radiant
"Haring's admirers continue to complain that he isn't taken seriously enough; in a way, they are correct, though this book may change things. . . . Highly entertaining." - The New Yorker
"Brad Gooch is the perfect guide to 1980s downtown Manhattan's holy, scuzzy streets. This rigorous, loving exploration of Keith Haring's life and work will be cherished by fans of Haring, art history, and New York City." - Ada Calhoun, New York Times-bestselling author of Also a Poet
"A social history of New York gay culture in the '70s and '80s and a deeply personal tale of two young artists in love. . . . Gooch excels when reporting on the cruelty wrought by H.I.V. that would eventually take Brookner's life-and on the complexity of a relationship that defied category." - New York Times Book Review on Smash Cut
"We are attracted to the biographies of artists for a variety of reasons . . . to better comprehend the mystery of the painful obstacles that defined their shortened lives, and how these experiences intersected with their creations. Brad Gooch's new biography . . . does precisely that . . . . Rich, emotional, and compelling." - The Nation