Girl in the Moonlight

March 16, 2015
Following his debut, Indiscretion, Dubow writes an evocative and maddening tale of obsession. When young Wylie Rose sees Cesca Bonet for the first time, his life is placed on a path of compulsion, desire, and what he believes to be love. Once drawn into Cesca’s orbit as adults, she becomes Wylie’s drug of choice. His infatuation gives Cesca the power to walk in and out of his life, screwing up his relationships and plans whenever she chooses to spend time with him. Told through the lavish eye of Wylie, a budding artist interloping in an old-money world pulsating with the tantalizing power of family status and beauty, the novel spans decades and continents—including East Hamptons glamour in the 1960s and New York City at the rise of the AIDS epidemic. Though beautifully descriptive, the narration feels inconsistent: some choices in description and action seem out of character for the narrator. Wylie’s obsession is impassioned but at times frustrating, and questions about whether a person can change, or if we are all doomed to repeat the same mistakes time and time again, will be swirling through readers’ minds.

March 15, 2015

Wylie Rose is a young man who falls hard for a sophisticated and charming beauty, Cesca Bonet, whose narcissism and solipsistic nature make her impervious to the feelings of others. Time and again he runs to Cesca whenever she calls, despite knowing that she is seeing someone else, or is engaged, or about to disappear for years. Wylie is so captivated by Cesca that he ruins chances for loving relationships with women more willing and worthy. Can this cycle be broken? Will lessons be learned? What does loving someone really require? Answers to these questions come near the end of the story and are worth the wait. As in Dubow's first novel, Indiscretion, his characters hail from the moneyed classes. Raised as trust-fund babies, Wylie and Cesca attend the top schools, summer in the Hamptons, and enjoy European tours. Consequently the novel offers a first-rate education in the best of Western art, travel, clothes, and cuisine. VERDICT This is a page-turner for avid readers of romantic novels who enjoy learning how the rich live and whether they can rise above their first-world struggles. [See Prepub Alert, 11/3/14.]--Sheila M. Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2015
In Dubow's second novel (Indiscretion, 2013)-pleasingly reminiscent of Maugham and Fitzgerald-our hero narrates a lifetime spent adoring one impossibly beautiful, out-of-reach woman. Wylie Rose's obsession with Cesca Bonet begins at 9, the day he breaks his arm trying to impress her on her family's East Hampton estate. The novel, set in the last half of the 20th century, spans decades of their lives as they pursue their dreams (in the glamorous way only the very rich can) and slip in and out of love affairs, always returning to each other. Cesca is one of four children born to a New York heiress and a Spanish artist; Wylie's father warns him of the family: "They're beautiful, talented, rich. It's all very seductive. But they're like spoiled children. They'll take everything and give nothing in return." But it's too late-young Wylie is in their thrall. He befriends Cesca's brother Aurelio, who even as a teenager is a talented painter and who nurtures Wylie's dreams of painting and introduces him to the last of the area's fabled abstract expressionists. Out of boredom, Cesca takes Wylie as a lover and casts a spell over him; no other woman can ever compare to her wild, slightly tragic allure. She moves to London, has affairs with rich young men who want to marry her, leaves them, has brief trysts with Wylie, and then moves on, breaking his heart, over and over again. Meanwhile, Wylie becomes an architect, moves to Paris, dates the daughter of a count (weekends at the chateau are lovely) until Cesca calls for him. The novel is a whirlwhind of impossibly chic settings and experiences; the characters know all the right people and do all the right things-Cesca is at Max's Kansas City with Iggy Pop, Aurelio's mentor was friends with Pollock-though to some extent the novel's heavy reliance on character development through association is a weakness. Nevertheless, Dubow offers a heady, intoxicating tale, and young Wylie's journey to manhood is a memorable one. A story of the most interesting people you will ever know, told with style and verve.

May 1, 2015
Wylie Rose meets the Bonet family when he is just 10 and is completely smitten with the artistic, exotic siblings. Over time, he becomes good friends with Aurelio, a gifted painter who willingly shares his expertise. But Wylie is especially taken with beautiful Cesca, who is high-spirited and easily bored. When they finally embark on a tempestuous romance while in their teens, Wylie sets in motion the dynamic that will characterize their relationship for decades. He will show her unending devotion; she will thrill him and then disappear from his life. No matter how closely he is involved with another woman, he will drop all relationships when Cesca beckons. Dubow continues to write, as he did in his first novel, Indiscretion (2013), about the glamorous lifestyles of the uber-wealthy, describing in lush prose the manses of the East Hamptons, art studios in Barcelona, and high-end restaurants in Manhattan. His sensuous prose combines with his relentless name-dropping of upscale brands and glittering locales for a voyeuristic look at the decadent ways of one-percentersa subject of infinite appeal to beach readers, among others.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2014

As with his rigorously affecting debut, Indiscretion, which should have received some award attention, Dubow's new work concerns innocence burnt in the glow of those golden folks most of us can't quite touch. Here, Wylie Rose's friendship with talented young painter Aurelio leads him to Aurelio's heedlessly wild and beautiful sister, Cesca; in the end, their impossible affair wrecks other women for Wylie.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.