Moon and Stone

Long offers a genre-blurring collection of short stories, poems, chants, and songs touching on myth, satire, elegy, and absurdity.

Drawing upon a well-traveled life and a deep well of literary knowledge, the author delivers a collection that veers wildly in tone—from poetic incantations to tragic tales to playful satire—yet manages to maintain a coherent philosophical throughline: the search for connection, meaning, and catharsis in a chaotic world. The collection opens with poems like “Live Where There’s Water,” a cryptic and wry meditation on artistic purpose and poetic lineage. The standout story “Death Mask” revives the spirit of 19th-century opera with gothic grandeur and heartfelt melodrama. Told through the voice of fictional tenor Otto de Carr, the story explores grief, guilt, and memory in lavish, impassioned prose: “If I fail in this attempt, if you, dear audience, will not accept me after hearing this tale, then I shall be forced to obey the outraged cry of my own vengeful heart.” Long’s recreation of an overwrought yet sincere operatic voice is both impressive and emotionally resonant. “Strange Fox Hunts” offers comic relief, taking a turn toward the absurd as it recounts an over-the-top family legend involving a foxhunt that barrels through a church during Sunday service (the farcical ending is rendered with gleeful exaggeration and satirical bite). In “Getting to Know the Neighbors,” the author turns his gaze to modern suburbia and small-town paranoia as the protagonist observes his eclectic and increasingly bizarre community. His tongue-in-cheek inventory includes “Manic, dangerous book editors,” “Religious fanatics,” and “Nitwits in gigantic pickup trucks jacked up gigantically off the ground.” Throughout, the poems act as thematic anchors or meditative interludes. Some, like “Invocation,” channel ritualistic lyricism (“Invisible spirits, / We fly through the trees”), while others, like “The Poetry War,” lean into autobiographical tenderness. The book’s eclecticism is both its strength and its risk; some readers may find the tonal shifts jarring or uneven. But Long’s prose is consistently well crafted, and his command of voice, particularly in stories with distinct narrators, is remarkable.

A heady, intelligent, and heartfelt collection that rewards readers willing to venture off the beaten path.