The Moonlight Man by Paula Fox

First published: 1986

Subjects: Coming-of-age, drugs and addiction, emotions, and family

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Psychological realism

Time of work: The 1980’s

Recommended Ages: 13-18

Locale: A boarding school in Montreal, a small town on the coast of Nova Scotia, and New York City

Principal Characters:

• Catherine Ames, a fifteen-year-old girl who hopes to forgive and love her unreliable father
• Madame Soule, the director of the Dalraida Boarding and Day School in Montreal, where Catherine is a boarding student
• Madame Le Sueur, Catherine’s history teacher, who drinks too much
• Harry Ames, Catherine’s irresponsible, alcoholic father, who has invited her to spend her vacation with him and who calls himself a “Moonlight Man”
• Beatrice, Catherine’s mother, who has recently remarried and is on her honeymoon in Europe
• Mrs. Landy, a local woman hired by Harry Ames to cook and clean the old house that he has rented for Catherine’s vacation
• Officer Macbeth, an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who likes Catherine and agrees to take her father on a tour of hidden whiskey stills
• Mr. Ross, a local pastor who is a fine fisherman, a health food addict, and one of the few villagers whom Mr. Ames fails to charm

Form and Content

The Moonlight Man is a short novel about a fifteen-year-old girl who must somehow find a home for herself between two divorced parents who seem never to have loved each other at all. Catherine Ames lives in New York with her mother, Beatrice. At her father’s insistence, however, she has been sent to a boarding school in Montreal to “see more of the world”; as a writer, he sees worldly experience as essential. The events of Catherine’s summer are seen through her own eyes. She has been invited to spend the entire vacation with her father and his wife, but Harry Ames does not show up on the appointed day to take her home with him. The school director, Madame Soule, agrees to let Catherine remain at the school waiting and, with misgivings, also promises not to call her mother, who is on a honeymoon in England with her new husband.

Three weeks late, Harry calls his daughter and unpersuasively explains his reason for not coming—a disagreement with his wife. She is to meet him in Mackenzie, a small coastal town in Nova Scotia. The next thing that she knows, Catherine is driving three drunk men home over a bad country road and longs to be back in Montreal: “Her mother had not told her how terrible drinking could be.” Now she knows why her father had not kept his promise to come and get her: He is an alcoholic.

Catherine manages to live through the next three weeks, and some of that time is wonderful. Her father reads to her; takes her fishing with Mr. Ross, the local pastor who is the best fisherman in town but a hard man to like; teaches her how to shoot windows out of a deserted barn; makes delicious picnics for days in the sun; and applies his romantic charm to everything they do together. He promises not to drink and keeps his promise for a few days.

Soon, Officer Macbeth pays a visit, asking if they know anything about the broken windows, and Harry quiets suspicion with a lie easily told. Sensing that the young officer admires Catherine, he persuades Macbeth to take him on a visit to the local whiskey stills on the pretext that he is writing a book about the area. Harry drinks at each still, and, after seeing him down on the floor pretending to be a dog, Catherine and Macbeth finally take him home, where he collapses. Catherine is afraid that he will die and goes to find Mr. Ross, who turns out to be both useful and sympathetic. He has been there himself: “Forgive it,” he tells Catherine, “We’re all helpless in one way or the other.”

The vacation ends, and Harry knows that it has been a failure. Yet, his daughter knows something else: She can still love her father. When she is at home again with her mother, Catherine defends him, and Beatrice confesses that she once loved Harry. Catherine will be able to admit some of her father’s faults, to agree sometimes about his thoughtlessness and unreliability, but she will protect him from her mother’s most bitter feelings and will never tell her that Harry dreads seeing his daughter again.

Critical Context

The Moonlight Man is meant for young adult audiences, but it is emotionally sophisticated and could be read with interest by adults. Paula Fox believes that children are able to understand everything adults do and that they lack only judgment, which comes with experience. While she avoids descriptions of extreme violence and sex, she does not shy away from telling young people that life is often confusing and full of questions that have no answers. The author has said that it is her purpose in her books to present young readers with characters who will enlarge their knowledge of other people, and this is true of The Moonlight Man. By knowing Harry Ames better, Catherine learns to love what is valuable in him.

Fox has been honored for offering honest stories that often do not have happy endings. Although her books have been tagged “depressing” because of their honesty, they have become an important part of young people’s literature. She has received the Newbery Medal for The Slave Dancer (1973), the American Book Award for A Place Apart (1977), and the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her collected works for children. One-Eyed Cat (1984), a novel for older children, won the Child Study Children’s Book Award and a Christopher Award and was cited as a Newbery Honor Book. The Moonlight Man was selected by The New York Times as one of the notable books for 1986 and also as one of the Child Study Association of America’s Children’s Books of the Year for 1987.