Reviews
“A fascinating, sad, almost visionary book.” —Keith Taylor, Michigan Public Radio
“It would be a mistake, however, to view Michael's story as a paean to upward mobility. (In Maple Rock, the American Dream is on its last, wobbly legs.) It would also be a mistake to pin down the precise meaning of this memorable novel's paternal exodus. Sociological statement? Personal nightmare? Bakopoulos is juggling both at once, and that gives Please Don't Come Back From the Moon much of its gentle, persuasive power.” —James Marcus, LA Times
“The real draw into Please Don't Come Back From the Moon, though, is Michael Smolij himself. Bakopoulos never lets him become maudlin or clichéd, though the temptation to reduce him to a set of mannerisms is very great. In trying to heal himself, Michael tries to love one woman, then another, and something about his earnestness and the hopelessness of it nearly broke my heart.” —Marta Salij, The Detroit Free Press (4 stars out of 4)
“Dean Bakopoulos gorgeously captures the frailties of the average man and the small oppressions of everyday existence. Haunting.” —Greenville News (SC)
“Please Don't Come Back From the Moon is a delightful debut novel. In it a combination of different ingredients, including raw literary talent and a sprinkling of magical realism, form the kind of story that I suspect people will be talking about in book clubs and sharing with neighbors....A Bildungsroman that is also clever, unusual and exciting.” —Washington Post
“[An] endearing first novel… it’s a tale that, despite the boys’ empty longing, is full of hope.” —People (3.5 stars out of 4)
“One of the most hauntingly original debuts I’ve read in the last year…. Bakopoulos creates a living, breathing blue-collar Detroit suburb of the 1950s that's both elegiac and grittily real. Please Don’t Come Back From the Moon is about the impossible things we believe because the truth may simply be too hard.” —Caroline Leavitt, The Boston Globe
“Dean Bakopoulos’ debut shows him to be a steady hand at drawing subtle magic from simple means. …Please Don't Come Back From the Moon is sure-footed even as its characters stagger beneath the weight of their grief. … This is a novel sharp with the lime and oxide dust from which the invisible steps to the moon are poured. When you set it aside, it will continue to tug at you with its own quiet force.” —Joel Turnipseed, The Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Please Don't Come Back from the Moon is such a persuasive mixture of realism and the supernatural that you will want to believe in its fantastical premise just as much as the characters do.” —Ruminator magazine
“Bakopoulos adeptly pushes this surreal concept—the moon, like a mystical Pied Piper, has stolen away all the fathers—even as he grounds the reader in the reality of a Rust Belt town's slow slide into obsolescence, from 'union proud' to McJob servitude…. By deftly welding magic realism with social satire, Bakopoulos captures the dark side of the working-class dream.” —Elissa Schappell, The New York Times Book Review
“Mr Bakopoulos’…picture of confused, aimless young men in a forgotten corner of prosperous America is haunting.” —The Economist
“This is a graceful first book by a novelist who says in an author’s note that it is an elegy for his father’s generation. It will be especially interesting to see where this particular son goes for material in his next novel.” —The Hartford Courant
“Please Don't Come Back From the Moon is a terrific novel—deeply original, smart, funny and heartbreaking. The book’s strain of magical realism is no gimmick; it is simply Bakopoulos’ way of doing justice to the strangeness, the mystery, to all that is unfathomable at the heart of these so-called ordinary lives. It’s a story for all of us—sons and wives and daughters, too, of the missing, the disappeared, the men on the moon.” —Mick Cochrane, The Buffalo News
“In this captivating coming of age tale…Bakopoulos does an excellent job of sweeping the reader into the twists and turns Michael takes with his life.” —The Capital Times
“The great charm of Dean Bakopoulos’s engaging first novel…is the fine line the author works between social realism and magic realism…. Much of the emotional heft of this witty and well-wrought novel lies in its ability to see the heroism of these damaged families struggling with gritty circumstances. Satisfyingly, some of the characters do better than survive; they—like Bakopoulos—pull off a triumph.” —Oprah Magazine
“A marvelous first novel, intensely moving, magical, tragic, and ultimately hopeful…. I am really looking forward to reading more of Bakopoulos’s fiction.” —Nancy Pearl, KUOW, Seattle Public Radio
“This novel is melancholy, surreal and funny all at once…wistful yet surprisingly comic.” —The Arizona Republic
“Where have all the fathers gone? That's the question in this marvelous first novel…. Bakopoulos doesn't make a single wrong move, seamlessly integrating the magic-realism elements into the rest. A dazzling debut that's both earthy and anguished as hope battles despair, with heartbreak always just below the surface.” —Kirkus
“Magic serves more as an emotional undercurrent than a mystery in this odd novel, part fable and part gritty realist chronicle. A gentle and moving tale.” —Publisher's Weekly
“Both realistic and fantastic, heartfelt and objective.” —Library Journal
“Bakopoulos’ young narrator … delivers just the right mix of whip-smart humor, insightful observation, and charming humility to keep his well-earned nostalgia from turning to sentimental.” —Abby Frucht, Wisconsin Academy Review
