Herman Melville in Heaven

Herman Melville in Heaven is, at first glance, the story of a boy, a lost book, and his search to recover it. In fact, Salvatore Tarnmoor’s novel-called a romance by its editor, Bernard Rosenthal-is significantly more. Young Billy may be searching for a magical book, but the purpose of his lifelong quest is to discover himself, his raison d’ tre. Whether the people he meets along the way tell plausible stories is not the issue; what matters is that these encounters, rational or divine, push him closer to understanding who he is. The transformations experienced by Billy during his journey mirror the changes of man as we search, question, filter the knowledge thrown our way, and then formulate our beliefs based on the people and ideas that influence us. In Billy’s case, he struggles with the question asking what is real and what is not; that fine line between the divine and the demonic, between a finite life and immortality.