Earth To Moon

MOON UNIT ZAPPA: EARTH TO MOON - A MEMOIR (White Rabbit Books, 2024)

One of many questions this book raises is why did it take so long for Moon to decide she needed to leave her chaotic family home?
    As you would expect, this is a very well written and engaging book - and well worth the wait. And like Nigey Lennon, Moon has opted to change some names to protect the privacy of those involved - for example, here 'Nellie Bly' becomes 'Kiwi Vicki'!
    The book's title comes from something Gail would say whenever Moon was in a brown study - which is better than it's working title of I Hope You (Die) Love Me.
    We learn that as a very young girl, Moon had a crush on Terry Bozzio (and, weirdly, Derek from the Bay City Rollers - even in later life, her fascination with drummers seems to continue); that she had harp lessons from Lou-Ann Neill (who plays on Zoot Allures, Orchestral Favorites, 200 Motels - The Suites and more); was told she had secret powers by Gail's psychic (and later put a spell on a mean girl at school who then fell off the monkey bars); that RDNZL was an FZ nickname for GZ; and My Mother Is A Space Cadet was written about Gail when she was engrossed in one of her magazines.
    Moon writes that Frank asked for a divorce from Gail on a number of occasions, but of course it never happened. A German lady named Gerda is cited as one of the main reasons for his desire to leave Gail.
    Of all the kids, Moon is clearly the most damaged by their 'unique upbringing' and bore the brunt of Gail's many outbursts, such that you do feel a little sorry for her.
    She yo-yos between blaming her cheating, absent father and her angry, unloving mother for all her ills. Once she finally does flee the nest, she undergoes therapy and gets an acting coach and a guru but remains lost and unhappy. Then Frank phones to tell her he has terminal cancer and Gail insists she sells her house to help pay for her uninsured father's hospital bills, so Moon can return home and devote her time to caring for him.
    After he passes, Moon's relationship with her mother gets no more harmonious, but her marriage to Paul Doucette and the birth of their daughter bring fleeting happiness - until three year old Mathilda becomes seriously ill and her marriage unravels.
    The book leaves few stones unturned and ends with her finally learning to love herself and forgive her siblings for the pain they caused following Gail's demise.
    As I say, it's very well written but there are some tiny errors (which could conceivably be fixed, as I have an uncorrected proof copy of the book): for example, she confuses the Pink Panther with Snagglepuss, plus the timeline seems a little awry in places as she talks about the Rainbow incident before introducing the GTOs, and also that she lost her virginity in London on 4 July 1982 after Valley Girl was a hit that enabled Gail and the kids to travel with FZ to Europe for his tour that started at the beginning of May (while an acetate of the record was played on an LA radio station prior to it's official release in June 1982, it wasn't a hit until September). Minor stuff, but this is a major contribution to the ever-expanding Zappa bibliography.
    For the record, there's no mention of: the German Playboy photo shoot; the 'delusional fanatic' who claimed she and her father had stolen his lyrics; recordings made with FZ prior to Valley Girl; recordings later made with DZ (or performing Valley Girl with him at London's Roundhouse); Uncle Dunt's threat to sue her; possible other siblings; or the Wild Man Fischer bottle incident.

POSTSCRIPT: The above was written a couple of months before Moon's book was officially published. The media blitz that ensued after its release saw most commentators (both press and folk on social media) understandably feeling sorry for Moon, with her diagnosis by therapists of PTSD. She continued to portray her parents in such a way that readers’ comments now speak of them as monsters and, in one interview, she even said she hoped Frank's fans wouldn't stop liking his music when they read that he wasn't a great dad.
    Although most of us already had our suspicions about GZ, Moon had never really said anything untoward about her until after her will was read - if anything, the portrayal of America's mother Camilla in her novel America The Beautiful was the closest we really got: annoying but still someone she loved. And even after Gail passed, Moon wrote, "I always gave my mom love because hurt people hurt people."
    As for FZ, nothing but love for him was ever spoken by Moon who, in the 2013 Summer 82: When Zappa Went To Sicily documentary, talked of her excitement at doing publicity for Valley Girl because it meant she got to spend even more time with him. (Later on she gets tearful talking about how emotional, sensitive and gentle he was, and "how thoughtful he was in his words and his actions as a parent.")
    While most of us already knew he'd rather have a leer than win Father of the Year, in an interview on Jonesy's Jukebox in 2017, Moon talked of her surprise at learning (via the 2016 Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words documentary) that her father was a prolific cheater. Prior to that, she thought he'd been unfaithful half a dozen times tops. This late discovery would have had a profound impact on her view of her parents.
    Moon dedicated her first book to her mother; Earth To Moon depicts Gail as a bully and is dedicated to her daughter, Jett Doucette-Zappa (formerly Mathilda Plum Doucette).
    Clearly a lot changed in the 20 odd years between books, but this does not diminish my admiration for Moon who, just like her dad, seems full of contradictions.
    Oh, and finally - yes: they did fix the Pink Panther/Snagglepuss error in time!

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