<b>Warning.    This book is not easy to read but it is even harder to put down.   To use the cliche, it's like trying to look away from a car crash.    In this case I simply could not stop reading.</b>

There is nothing light about David Vann's latest novel Halibut on the Moon.   It is dark and disturbing.  The author masterfully took us inside the mind of a desperately troubled man in the depths of a deep depression during the last days of his life.      

The first person protagonist, Jim, was not only having suicidal thoughts he was entirely resigned to the idea of suicide.   Homicide was not out of the question and was really just a decision to be made.    The whole book was was difficult to read because it felt like anything could happen at any time.   Jims moods and emotions were unstable soaring the heights of euphoria then moments later plummeting to the depths of despair.      The author wrote in such an authentic manner it felt scarily real.   With good reason apparently.    It came as quite a shock for me to realise Jim was in fact the authors own father, Jim Vann, and this was David's re-imagining of his fathers suicide.  

This book, maybe more than any other I've read, had me feeling that if there was euthanasia for mental illness I wouldn't want to deprive this guy of it.  His mind and his thoughts made life unbearable for him.  It's not the sort of book I can describe as enjoyable yet I was most definitely impressed by it and doubt I'll forget it anytime soon.   Several times I found myself choked up.    With great skill the author forced me to think on suicide and mental health issues from various angles - what must it be like for the family, his friends, even the psychiatrist who tried to help him but mostly for the suicide himself.  

Having been completely impressed by David Vann's novel Aquarium I knew immediately I'd read this.    With its unusual title I honestly had no idea what it would be about.    If there's any truth to this reimagining there was great significance to the title.    In this version the fantastical story of Halibut on the Moon was recounted as told to the author as a 13 year old boy on tge last day he spent with his father.     Maybe it happened.   Maybe not.   This was after all a work of fiction however I chose to believe it.   My thanks and congratulations to the author David Vann for his work.   Thanks also to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my pleasure to provide.

4.5 stars

This book has a really funny title and that's the last time you will feel jo before opening it because this is not a light story. The main character, Jim, is dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts and from the beginning of the book, there is this sense of doom, sadness and hopelessness throughout the book.
The author has an interesting writing rhythm that makes the main character clash with the rest of the people he is surrounded by and that he has to interact with, which is perfect when it comes to Jim and his decease because that is how depression makes him feel.
Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for this ARC.

On the verge of losing his battle with depression, Jim leaves his home in Alaska and returns to California where his parents, brother, kids, and ex-wife all live. He also seeks out clinical help there while tripping through all his familial reunions. Jim’s bipolar disorder is front and center in this story, almost a character in itself. The .44 that Jim always keeps within reach looms over every part of his life and is always right there, making its presence known, just like his illness. If you would like to sit in a front row seat to witness someone in the throes of a mental health crisis, you cannot do much better than this book in all its pain and relentless torment. It is a powerful portrayal of mental illness.

Halibut on the Moon is a well written book. It grabbed my heart from page one and kept me involved in the story. I felt the stress and the deep emotions of the characters as the story unfolded. It’s a trip into the mind of a disturbed man who is unable to function anymore. It’s an incredible book. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author. My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book. I must say that I expected a totally different story than I expected. I thought this was going to be lighter, but from the beginning I realized this was going to be different. This is a factionalized version of the author’s father last days. Yes, the story is deep, but I was also lost for a bit and I lost interest in it. Please note, that I do not believe the galley was edited that well and hopefully there will be chapter numbers, because it really needs more breaks.

So hard to read that I don't know who to recommend this to-except that it's also wonderfully written and important. Vann has imagined and fictionalized what might have been going through his own father's mind as his life fell apart and his mental illness escalated. Jim, a dentist in Alaska, has so many things going wrong- a tax debt, a very real sinus problem, and horrible internal thought. He opts to go to California to reconnect with his family. His conversations with his therapist are painful (and I'm not certain this therapist had Jim's interests in mind). Self destructive tendencies are always difficult to cope with and if you or someone you know has these problems, you might want to look away. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

Halibut on the Moon, David Vann's latest novel, sees the author coming back to known territory and recurring themes after the shift toward classical mythology in his previous book, Bright Air Black . In fact, its theme can be traced back to his very first piece of published fiction: Legends of a Suicide. Whereas in that collection of stories, especially in the novella titled "Sukkwan Island", he gave a fictionalized account of what may have happened had he accepted the invitation of his mentally unstable father to live with him for a year in Alaska, cut off from the rest of the world, Halibut on the Moon is rather a reconstruction -part fact, part fiction, much like Capote's In Cold Blood- of Jim Vann's last days before he committed suicide.
Now, for anybody acquainted with David Vann's corpus, that sentence will come as no surprise, and no suspense is aimed at throughout the book, which gives a powerful Greek tragedy feel to it: no matter if you know what the outcome will be, you cannot escape its pathos and, perhaps, its catharsis. The style, as always, resembles that of Cormac McCarthy's best passages, and is the perfect sheath for such a sharp story.
I am much in debt to Grove Atlanta and NetGalley for letting me read an advance copy of this novel, and no less so to David Vann for sharing his art with us.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40642327-halibut-on-the-moon

Not sure how I’m going to be able to sleep now??? I literally just finish this seconds ago. Once I started - I couldn’t pull away.

I knew a lot of the true background history before I started this book - so I was never able to separate the ‘novel’ storytelling .... the ‘novel imagination’ of this suicidal man....
named Jim... ( David Vann’s father)....
from my deepest love - and admiration for David himself. I just couldn’t do it. I was THINKING AND IMAGINING TOO!
And truth - this wasn’t the first time that
I’ve thought about David’s father.
I’ve had thoughts in my head about this story before David wrote it - starting after I read Aquarium- ( one of the most personal & favorite books for me, ever!!)....
I’ve read it 3 times. I treasure my hard copy.
And am still a little sad I didn’t get a chance to meet David Vann when he was in San Francisco years back.


I couldn’t begin to say if this book is for others or not...ITS DEFINITELY RIVETING!!!!....
But being such a sad topic ( suicide)..,I guess this is a very self select novel.

I simply think David Vann is BRILLIANT.. unbelievably talented!!!!

I won’t ever forget this book. Of course it’s painful to read .... and...
I’m sooooooo sooooo soooooo grateful to have read it.
David is a courageous-and an incredibly kind human being and author!!! I was mesmerized reading this!!

Other reviews share more of the details
Read Esil’s review ... it’s beautiful.

My heart is a little broken at the moment ....
With sooo many feelings spinning inside me... mostly I’m speechless. This book needed to be written. I’m happy to have had the ‘privilege’ to read it.
My love for this book is as pure as can be!!!

Tears are putting me to sleep tonight!!

THANK YOU DAVID!!!
THANK YOU GROVE ATLANTA
THANK YOU NETGALLEY

This book, about a man battling bi-polar disorder, is so unrelentingly bleak that I'm going to set this aside for now. I'm having a very difficult time following his rambling thoughts. I've had to read some passages over and over and still can't really make sense of what he is saying, which I suppose may be the point, when someone is in the midst of a breakdown. My mind is exhausted after having read only 27%.

I would like to mention that David Vann is a phenomenal writer and I wish that I was able to get along with this one better. Even more so, as the main character of this novel, is actually based on his own fathers issues with mental illness. Very, very sad.

I do highly recommend his book Aquarium - just know that it is highly disturbing and tore my heart to pieces. Keep tissues at the ready.

Thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, and Grove Atlantic for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a sad book to read, especially if you have friends or family that suffer from depression. The havoc they can leave on others is hard to watch and hard to experience.

David Vann did an excellent job of writing of such events.

I definitely had to take this book in pieces, as reading straight through was hard for me personally.

3.5 stars.
I’m not really sure how I feel about this book so I wasn’t really sure what to say about it or how to rate it. It’s not one I can say I enjoyed reading. It’s a heavy read. It’s haunting and uncomfortable and painful to be inside the head of a manic depressive man who wants to end his life. I certainly don’t know how realistic the inner thoughts are, but I can say that I felt gutted when I finished reading it. Jim Vann is in debt, divorced, in the depths of depression. He’s been living in Alaska and returns home to California. At times it’s hard to understand why he’s there. Is he trying to save himself or say goodbye when he goes home to see a therapist and to see his family. So many dark moments here, and it’s hard to see how nasty he is to them. There are some bits of light when we see how much Jim loves his children and how much they love him. I was also moved by the candid conversation that Jim has with his father. I don’t think his brother Gary really understands the severity of Jim’s depression and I thought the therapist was guilty of malpractice. I’m not sure what else I can say except that I finished this feeling sad and contemplative about the fragility of life. The book description says that is Vann’s reimagining his father so I kept wondering how much was true. I was disappointed that there wasn’t an author’s note. The writing is good, the subject substantive, so I have to give it 3.5 stars but won’t round up. I wonder though if I’m selling it short because it was such a tough read, but I honestly couldn’t wait to finish it.


This was a monthly read with Diane and Esil and if it weren’t for reading it with them, I may have put this aside.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Grove Press through NetGalley and Edelweiss.

3.5 stars

Don’t be fooled by the lighthearted sounding title of Halibut on the Moon. There is nothing light about this book. Author David Vann writes a fictionalized account of the last few days of his father’s life. Jim Vann is a bipolar dentist whose life has gone off the rails. Twice divorced, owing huge sums to the IRS, miserable with a chronic sinus condition and mostly miserable with the perpetual self loathing and angry thoughts in his head, Jim travels from his home in Alaska to visit his family in California. For Jim, this is meant to be goodbye. For his family, it’s meant to be an effort to help him get better. But it’s hard for his family and for readers to have bear with Jim, because he is difficult, crude, self-destructive and self-centred. I don’t know if Vann got his father’s inner voice right, but he has done a great job at portraying a tortured soul. Having said that, at times, Halibut on the Moon is almost unbearable to read. Jim is hard to take. Knowing what’s coming is heartbreaking. And knowing that Jim is based on Vann’s father makes it even more heartbreaking. My 3.5 star rating reflects my mixed emotions, but this is certainly a potent read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy. And especially thanks to my reading buddies Angela and Diane, because I wouldn’t have wanted to read this one on my own.

The work of David Vann is firmly rooted in his difficult youth overshadowed by his father’s suicide when the author was a boy. Renowned for his debut ‘Legend of a Suicide’, Vann famously spent 10 years on this book of short stories and another ten looking for publication before it was published to multiple award winning critical acclaim.

In his subsequent works, Vann explored the murder suicide of his step mother’s parents in Caribou Island (2011). This is the lady who was speaking to Vann’s father when he took his life and is also acknowledged in the current work for helping him understand his father’s motives.

Goat Island (2013) and Aquarium (2015) both explore lost teenagers in difficult relationships with parents. In Halibut on the Moon, Vann returns firmly to the more autobiographical aspect of his debut work.

The novel is a portrait of the last days of Jim, a man wandering through the fractured relationships of his life oscillating from deep despair to glimpses of hope with the help of his brother and counsellor. He seeks and finds help and advice along the way, but there is a sense that it is all too little too late. ‘It never feels good when people feel sorry for you’, ‘Your family will always have problems, but you don’t have to fix them’ are some of the platitudes he is presented with. The conversations with the counsellor Dr Brown ring true as anger can be sensed on both sides as they explore the depths of Jim’s despair.

HIs search for meaning is epitomised in a particularly well told passage about taking a halibut from the depths of the ocean to the moon. Here Vann’s prose is at its best, as the hope instilled in the words creates - for this reviewer at least - a glimmer of hope that the inevitable may not be so. The compares weightlessness to the exquisite freedom he so greatly craves.
It is in the same vein as One flew over the cuckoo’s nest and Nurse Ratched from the iconic 1975 film is eulogised when Jim wishes she was in his world - if only to give him someone to hate.

After many years of exploring his relationship with his father’s suicide, there is a maturity in this work compared to the debut which suggests more sympathy for his fathers predicament. Although a difficult read due to its subject matter and especially for those touched by suicide, there is a clarity and honesty about this read which holds interest until the end. Despite the outcome being inevitable, Vann manages to maintain a sense of optimism if not hope throughout, making this ultimately a very satisfying read.

Ever been depressed or know someone that has been? What an eye opener. The story follows the life of a dentist, living in Anchorage who becomes so depressed, he cannot sleep and ends up loosing the ability to carry out his work. He goes to visit his family in California. His brother Gary picks him (Jim) up from the airport and takes him to a Counsellor. He is given pills and his brother is told not to leave him alone. Jim appears to be obsessed with guns after spending much of his youth hunting ......killing everything in sight. He is constantly looking inward, analyzing everything. He is determined to visit one of his ex wives Rhoda, although he is told it is not wise. When visiting with his kids and his parents he is extremely inappropriate and Gzry is forever trying to persuade him to just be himself. An impossible task it seems. The author has done a remarkable job getting inside Jim’s head, you don’t want to put the book down,, you have to find out what happens to Jim. Not necessarily an easy read, and quite disturbing at times, but I still recommend reading it.

<i>Halibut on the Moon</i> is focused on mental illness and possible suicide. Not recommended for those suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts. It is hard to say I “liked” it due to its grim subject matter, but I appreciated it as an intense portrayal of the extreme highs and lows of bipolar disorder.

The main character, based on David Vann’s father, Jim, arrives back in his hometown from his current residence in Alaska. Jim visits his therapist, family, and an old friend over the course of a couple days. His brother is asked to stay with him and safeguard his guns. Jim is obsessed with his ex-wife and sex. He suffers from guilt, despair, self-pity, insomnia, and loneliness. He feels worthless, disconnected from his sense of self. He cannot shut down his thoughts. This book constructs a psychological portrait that delves into the heart of a very personal tragedy.

Halibut on the Moon is not a book about the first journey of gilled-sea life into interstellar space although the idea is mentioned almost in passing, a tall tale to tell the kids. Rather, it's a journey through the mind of a troubled man, depressed, suicidal, unable to function anymore, trapped beneath wave after wave of churning thoughts. It's a reimagining of the last days of the author's father as his life spun out of control and he swung wildly between bouts of euphoria and manic depression, sleepless nights, obsession with an ex-wife, out of control with his thoughts just taking over and nothing left that has much meaning, much purpose. Its absolutely remarkable how the writing captures the loose streams of consciousness and the ramblings of a man on the edge, sinking further and further into an abyss out of his control. Certainly not a book for everyone. But a glimpse into the thought-pain that so many try to escape but are sometimes unable to.

Many thanks to Grove Atlantic for providing a copy for review.