Maybe the Moon

<em>Maybe the Moon </em> Armistead Maupin's first novel since ending his bestselling <em>Tales of the City</em> series is the audaciously original chronicle of Cadence Roth -- Hollywood actress singer iconoclast and former <em>Guiness Book</em> record holder as the world's shortest woman. <p> All of 31 inches tall Cady is a true survivor in a town where -- as she says -- you can die of encouragement. Her early starring role as a lovable elf in an immensely popular American film proved a major disappointment since moviegoers never saw the face behind the stifling rubber suit she was required to wear. Now after a decade of hollow promises from the Industry she is reduced to performing at birthday parties and bat mitzvahs as she waits for the miracle that will finally make her a star. <p> In a series of mordantly funny journal entries Maupin tracks his spunky heroine across the saffron-hazed wasteland of Los Angeles -- from her all-too-infrequent meetings with agents and studio moguls to her regular harrowing encounters with small children large dogs and human ignorance. Then one day a lanky piano player saunters into Cady's life unleashing heady new emotions and she finds herself going for broke shooting the moon with a scheme so harebrained and daring that it just might succeed. Her accomplice in the venture is her best friend Jeff a gay waiter who sees Cady's struggle for visibility as a natural extension of his own war against the Hollywood Closet. <p> As clear-eyed as it is charming <em>Maybe the Moon</em> is a modern parable about the mythology of the movies and the toll it exacts from it participants on both sides of the screen. It is a work that speaks to the resilience of the human spirit from a perspective rarely found in literature.