Watson, Larry. Sundown, Yellow Moon.(Brief article)(Book review)

Watson, Larry. Sundown, Yellow Moon. Random. Sept. 2007. c.320p. ISBN 978-0-375-50722-9. $25.95. F

This novel is a literary murder mystery/ coming of age tale/writer's memoir/love story that, perhaps understandably, struggles under the weight of its ambitions. The narrator of the novel is a successful fiction writer looking back on a traumatic event from his youth that has become seminal to his life and writing. This event is a murder and suicide: his best friend's father--a steady, solid, suburban dad--shot and killed an old acquaintance, a popular state senator, and then returned home and took his own life. Both …