The Insatiable Moon

By Mike Riddell

Arthur, second son of God, lives at Bob''s bo arding house with the other psychs. Now the time has come to let people know that God''s about to wind things up. This in novative and controversial first novel looks at the impact o f the second coming. '

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1869502388
• ISBN13: 9781869502386
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Flamingo / Harper Collins
• Length: 223 Pages
• Weight: 0.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

A delightful read

The Insatiable Moon, by New Zealand author, Michael Ridell, is the story of Arthur, a huge Maori man, ex-psychiatric patient, and second son of God.Arthur lives in Bob's boarding house in Ponsonby, a crumbling, overcrowded halfway house, peopled by a rag-tag group of alcoholics, loonies and other injured and vulnerable people, including a paedophile who has paid his dues, and is desperately fighting his nature to avoid repeating his offence, and run by an aggressive, crude, but ultimately kind and caring guy, who does what he does because his father did it, and if he doesn't look after this bunch, who will?Because all of these men are part of the Care in the Community initiative that has spread across the western world - the government policy of removing the mentally ill from institutions and basically leaving them to fend for themselves as best they can. Of course, the phrase Care in the Community is an oxymoron - the community doesn't care, and in fact, being a newly wealthy suburb, the Ponsonby community in particular only care to shove the problem somewhere else.Arthur pursues a quest to find the Queen of Heaven, impregnate her, and spread his father's word, and in doing so, he comes to the attention of Kevin, a doubt-riddled clergyman who runs a drop in centre, and through him, Karen a bitchy, self-serving TV journalist.These two are particularly (and permanently) affected by their contact with Arthur, though, truthfully, almost nobody who meets him in the course of the narrative is left unchanged by their interaction.Despite tragic and genuinely moving elements, this is by no means a depressing book. Its characters are warmly drawn, especially the whanau of psychs at Bob's place, and the writing is full of passion and really funny humour. There isn't a person featured here you can't believe in, even the lascivious angels watching over the drama, and Arthur is... right, somehow.What makes this whole book more amazing (apart from a really, really good sex scene, covering six full pages) is that, skating right on the very edge of outright blasphemy, it was written by a Baptist Minister - and it hasn't been decried by the Christian community. It's accessible to believers and non- believers alike, and explores issues of faith, rather than poking fun at the concept.It's also a great read for pure entertainment.Rights to produce the book as a film have recently been purchased by Fin du Jour. Buy it, read it, and be sure to catch the movie when it comes out.