'80s Scenes from Moon Deluxe

Sunset and palms [image source: Ally’s Art]

A couple of years ago, I featured a blog post on Frederick Barthelme’s Moon Deluxe, a collection of short stories written in 1983. Palm tree-filled apartment complexes, neon lighting and strip shopping centers are the backdrop to stories about simple interactions between people trying to find their way in life. The narrators of these tales are men, and they don’t always know what to do with the beautiful, forward women who cross their paths. Many of these stories were originally published in The New Yorker, and it’s amazing to see such vivid descriptions of suburban sprawl in all of its shiny ’80s glory.

Today we take a look at a few of my favorite passages, brought to life by a small collection of images I was lucky enough to find. Read on for quotes that represent modern literature at its finest…

“The wind is loud; when it hits, it feels thick on my skin. A couple of blocks away, on the water side of the highway, there’s a large, turreted building, a souvenir palace, bright against the dark sky, all lighted up with colored flood lamps–salmon pinks and hot violets–and, surrounding it, an elaborate miniature golf complex with castles and spaceships, with monsters guarding the holes.”

–From the Moon Deluxe short story “Box Step,” p. 22 [IMAGE SOURCE: CNP Signs & Graphics]

Neon lights

“At six the court is still empty. The lights in the pagoda have come on early, as have the yellow lights at the front doors of many apartments facing the pool. The sun is almost gone except for a reddish glow reflected from low clouds, which are gray in the eastern sky and shiny scarlet in the west.”

–From the Moon Deluxe short story “Pool Lights,” p. 131…

Scarlet sunset

“You’re lost when you emerge from a tunnel of crape myrtles into a courtyard glowing with green light from the pool.”

–From the Moon Deluxe short story “Moon Deluxe,” p. 67 [IMAGE SOURCE: Aqvatech Engineering]…

Pool lights

“After the movie we stop outside the theatre to look at the coming-attractions posters. It’s just beginning to get dark, and the street lights are lime against the pale sky. The store signs have come on, blinking in oranges and blues and bright whites…”

—From the Moon Deluxe short story “Box Step,” p. 17 [IMAGE SOURCE: The Moon Deluxe book cover via Amazon.com]…