A TALE OF A DYSTOPIC SUBURBAN AMERICANA, 28 Jan 2008
"Be careful what you wish for. You might get it".
Wise words that came to acquire a new meaning as the baby-boomers' children were entering the 70's. Bell-bottoms and mutton-chops were the cutting edge of fashion; Nixon's lies (and not his Kissingerian real-politics and crimes against humanity) were what finally cost him his office; polyester was more expensive and desirable than natural fibers; America was fighting another youth-grinding senseless war - and (for the first time) loosing badly. The swinging sixties came and gone and left behind only discontent and drug habits; New Heaven, Connecticut was Suburbia having everything it had wished for; every morning waking to the American Dream - only to find it hollow and wanting. And there was an ice storm brewing in the horizon. Would its whiteness make everything pure again? Would its crystals make things clearer?

I picked the book after of greatly enjoying Ang Lee's MASTERPIECE movie. I agree with most other reviewers: the movie was much more tight and effective - and, in the end, a crisper experience. I can understand how RICK MOODY's writing, with its long-winded phrases, rich likenings and not so subtle metaphors, may seem a bit dated to the 1.3sec zapping generation. However, I think that a slow, joyful reading is needed to do justice to this book.

RECOMMENDED!

Great Book, 27 Mar 2007
Don't believe this cover - this book certainly isn't a comedy although it has a few humorous moments. In reality it is a gripping read of relationships falling apart and the impact on the families - all coming to a head with the dramatic events on the evening of the ice storm. I saw the film first and loved it. I'd also recommend the book for a slower more in depth exploration of a moving story where you can connect with each of the 8 central characters. I'm looking forward to watching the film again.

Why not 5 stars ? A little slow at times during the first half before really gripping in the second half.

american suburbia in the 1970's, 09 Apr 2001
in this novel moody depicts a nuclear family being torn apart in 1970's Connecticut. This book is a great read, and moody's eye for detail makes it very enjoyable. the characters are very well defined and the insight into the family is incredible. from mother to son, to father to mistress, moody really connects with each character and the ice storm finale is tremendous. a really great read.

Seen the film - now read this, 20 Nov 2000
It's amazing what the film left out of this tale about the swinging 70's -in depth character descriptions bring the people we love to hate (in the film) to life. This book is fairly fast moving and just as enjoyable (if not moreso) than the film. Sexy, surprising you name it this book has it all!

Good but only for one reason!, 19 Aug 1999
This is an excellent screenplay, however, in my mind, only for one reason. One of the actresses is the greatest- Katie Holmes, she is in this and that's why it's great!!!

A TALE OF A DYSTOPIC SUBURBAN AMERICANA, 28 Jan 2008
"Be careful what you wish for. You might get it".
Wise words that came to acquire a new meaning as the baby-boomers' children were entering the 70's. Bell-bottoms and mutton-chops were the cutting edge of fashion; Nixon's lies (and not his Kissingerian real-politics and crimes against humanity) were what finally cost him his office; polyester was more expensive and desirable than natural fibers; America was fighting another youth-grinding senseless war - and (for the first time) loosing badly. The swinging sixties came and gone and left behind only discontent and drug habits; New Heaven, Connecticut was Suburbia having everything it had wished for; every morning waking to the American Dream - only to find it hollow and wanting. And there was an ice storm brewing in the horizon. Would its whiteness make everything pure again? Would its crystals make things clearer?

I picked the book after of greatly enjoying Ang Lee's MASTERPIECE movie. I agree with most other reviewers: the movie was much more tight and effective - and, in the end, a crisper experience. I can understand how RICK MOODY's writing, with its long-winded phrases, rich likenings and not so subtle metaphors, may seem a bit dated to the 1.3sec zapping generation. However, I think that a slow, joyful reading is needed to do justice to this book.

RECOMMENDED!

Great Book, 27 Mar 2007
Don't believe this cover - this book certainly isn't a comedy although it has a few humorous moments. In reality it is a gripping read of relationships falling apart and the impact on the families - all coming to a head with the dramatic events on the evening of the ice storm. I saw the film first and loved it. I'd also recommend the book for a slower more in depth exploration of a moving story where you can connect with each of the 8 central characters. I'm looking forward to watching the film again.

Why not 5 stars ? A little slow at times during the first half before really gripping in the second half.

american suburbia in the 1970's, 09 Apr 2001
in this novel moody depicts a nuclear family being torn apart in 1970's Connecticut. This book is a great read, and moody's eye for detail makes it very enjoyable. the characters are very well defined and the insight into the family is incredible. from mother to son, to father to mistress, moody really connects with each character and the ice storm finale is tremendous. a really great read.

Seen the film - now read this, 20 Nov 2000
It's amazing what the film left out of this tale about the swinging 70's -in depth character descriptions bring the people we love to hate (in the film) to life. This book is fairly fast moving and just as enjoyable (if not moreso) than the film. Sexy, surprising you name it this book has it all!

Good but only for one reason!, 19 Aug 1999
This is an excellent screenplay, however, in my mind, only for one reason. One of the actresses is the greatest- Katie Holmes, she is in this and that's why it's great!!!

this is one for the collection., 19 Nov 2001
Superb interviews with all the great beats. The Kerouac interview was particulary interesting as he was hitting the booze at his mothers (with Stella bringing the drinks), very funny. 'interviewer - note drinks arrive'. Great stuff!!!!!!
If you want to know what it was all about then read this!!!

Totally Worth It!!, 26 Jun 1999
The Paris Reviw interviews of the beats are famouse for their openness about the writers craft, and the insight into their work and lives. If you want to truly understand the beats, this is the place to go! Totally worth it!

Brilliant interview with Ferlinghetti, 17 Feb 1999
There was only one essay I truly enjoyed: Andrew Madden's "An interview with Ferlinghetti." That's writing! Worth the entire value of the book. Such grace. Such lyricism. I laughed, I cried, etc.

A TALE OF A DYSTOPIC SUBURBAN AMERICANA, 28 Jan 2008
"Be careful what you wish for. You might get it".
Wise words that came to acquire a new meaning as the baby-boomers' children were entering the 70's. Bell-bottoms and mutton-chops were the cutting edge of fashion; Nixon's lies (and not his Kissingerian real-politics and crimes against humanity) were what finally cost him his office; polyester was more expensive and desirable than natural fibers; America was fighting another youth-grinding senseless war - and (for the first time) loosing badly. The swinging sixties came and gone and left behind only discontent and drug habits; New Heaven, Connecticut was Suburbia having everything it had wished for; every morning waking to the American Dream - only to find it hollow and wanting. And there was an ice storm brewing in the horizon. Would its whiteness make everything pure again? Would its crystals make things clearer?

I picked the book after of greatly enjoying Ang Lee's MASTERPIECE movie. I agree with most other reviewers: the movie was much more tight and effective - and, in the end, a crisper experience. I can understand how RICK MOODY's writing, with its long-winded phrases, rich likenings and not so subtle metaphors, may seem a bit dated to the 1.3sec zapping generation. However, I think that a slow, joyful reading is needed to do justice to this book.

RECOMMENDED!

Great Book, 27 Mar 2007
Don't believe this cover - this book certainly isn't a comedy although it has a few humorous moments. In reality it is a gripping read of relationships falling apart and the impact on the families - all coming to a head with the dramatic events on the evening of the ice storm. I saw the film first and loved it. I'd also recommend the book for a slower more in depth exploration of a moving story where you can connect with each of the 8 central characters. I'm looking forward to watching the film again.

Why not 5 stars ? A little slow at times during the first half before really gripping in the second half.

american suburbia in the 1970's, 09 Apr 2001
in this novel moody depicts a nuclear family being torn apart in 1970's Connecticut. This book is a great read, and moody's eye for detail makes it very enjoyable. the characters are very well defined and the insight into the family is incredible. from mother to son, to father to mistress, moody really connects with each character and the ice storm finale is tremendous. a really great read.

Seen the film - now read this, 20 Nov 2000
It's amazing what the film left out of this tale about the swinging 70's -in depth character descriptions bring the people we love to hate (in the film) to life. This book is fairly fast moving and just as enjoyable (if not moreso) than the film. Sexy, surprising you name it this book has it all!

Good but only for one reason!, 19 Aug 1999
This is an excellent screenplay, however, in my mind, only for one reason. One of the actresses is the greatest- Katie Holmes, she is in this and that's why it's great!!!

this is one for the collection., 19 Nov 2001
Superb interviews with all the great beats. The Kerouac interview was particulary interesting as he was hitting the booze at his mothers (with Stella bringing the drinks), very funny. 'interviewer - note drinks arrive'. Great stuff!!!!!!
If you want to know what it was all about then read this!!!

Totally Worth It!!, 26 Jun 1999
The Paris Reviw interviews of the beats are famouse for their openness about the writers craft, and the insight into their work and lives. If you want to truly understand the beats, this is the place to go! Totally worth it!

Brilliant interview with Ferlinghetti, 17 Feb 1999
There was only one essay I truly enjoyed: Andrew Madden's "An interview with Ferlinghetti." That's writing! Worth the entire value of the book. Such grace. Such lyricism. I laughed, I cried, etc.

Last Exit for the Lost..., 21 Apr 2006
The plot of this book is as thin as a butterfly wing, but that doesn't detract from how good it is. I think this book will only be dearly loved by those that feel anything in their own lives has mirrored those of the characters.

Twenty-something failures that didn't 'make it big' on all their old teenage dreams. Apparently Moody has basically disowned this book, which I feel sad about because I picked this book off the shelf by chance, and was mesmerised by the beautiful use of language in a story that has no real heroes. Just people trying to get on with their lives.

I've read this book 5 times now, because Moody's writing is almost poetic in his use of alliteration, simile and metaphor. If T S Eliot had written a book about burned out young adults in Hoboken New Jersey, I think it would have turned out a lot like this book.


The first collection of Rick Moody's short stories., 04 Apr 2003
"The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven" is a precursor of Moody's later short story collection "Demonology" (2001)- personally I think the later collection is superior, but there is much here that is great. The 11 short pieces here were issued in this collection in 1995- following the success of Moody's second novel "The Ice Storm"; several of them had previously appeared in such publications as Esquire, Harper's & The Paris Review.

The title story is more of a novella than a short story & is a work that should be enjoyed by anyone who has read Moody's debut work "Garden State". "The James Dean Garage Band" is another highlight- while the opening story "The Preliminary Notes" plays with form. Another highlight is the post-modern annotation "Primary Sources"- which stylistically was continued in both "Demonology" & "The Black Veil"- Hawthorne listed here shows the origin of the latter title. Here we see how Moody relates his personal life to literature& we get intrigueing comments on Angela Carter, The Feelies, 'A Lover's Discourse', Borges, Lester Bangs, StarTrekTNG, Denis Johnson's Angels, Arvo Part, Sebadoh & William Carlos Williams: I'd love a whole book like this (though I'm not sure anyone else would). This collection should appeal to anyone who has enjoyed Moody's novels Garden State, The Ice Storm & Purple America- the short story a great form where a lot of the longer works originate from. Worth a read- up there with short works from Denis Johnson, David Gates & Russell Banks.

Whinge along with the characters. It's fun!, 10 Feb 2003
This unprepossessing novel plunged me into a mid-20s crisis. How tragic and how common it is to lose your way, like these characters, and fail to live up to the potential your schoolteachers crowed about! How nice it is to wallow in self-pity and angst, fuelled by a narrative as elegant as Garden State!

With a dense, poetic voice, and a plot that sort of boils up from within its New Jersey setting and then recedes again, this novel takes its time to settle into a rhythm, but is insidiously fascinating once it does. We don't expect much from any of these characters, and they don't seem to expect much from themselves either.

The confessional tone established by Moody's foreword adds a nice sense of immediacy.

Although it seems self-indulgent at first, with its emphasis on a set of characters who are miserable, bored, self-obsessed and self-destructive, it's an absorbing read, if you can relate their disenchantment to your own.

Great debut novel., 12 Sep 2002
I am very happy that 'Garden State' has been reissued in the wake of 'The Black Veil' and 'Demonology' that have added to Moody's profile since the adaptation of 'The Ice Storm'.

The foreword regarding the books inception makes me want to go and buy 'The Good Earth' by The Feelies and makes me conclude that these kind of forewords are the best (see also the Bloomsbury edition of 'Last Exit to Brooklyn').

The world is not far (though without the unnecessary homicide) from films like 'Out of the Blue', 'River's Edge' & 'Suburbia'. I think it is a much better debut than 'Bright Lights, Big City' or 'Less Than Zero' - fans of those books would find a lot more here. I think anyone in the Western world can relate to those who suddenly lose it in their 20's- whether living with parents, continuing hedonism or experiencing mental health problems (oh, and drugs...)

'Garden State' is the best place to start with Moody, before proceeding with the short-story collections and 'The Ice Storm' (I found 'Purple America' quite hard work). It's great that it has been reissuedand with an ironic new cover to boot!

urban decay... and james dean., 08 Apr 2001
in this collection of short stories (and 1 novella) moody covers many topics, most often the claustrophobia of modern society, from the james dean garage band to the ring of brightest angels around heaven he knocks the reader out with each story, so finely constructed. moody has such an eye for detail he really connects with each character, especially in the novella. a very great read.

A TALE OF A DYSTOPIC SUBURBAN AMERICANA, 28 Jan 2008
"Be careful what you wish for. You might get it".
Wise words that came to acquire a new meaning as the baby-boomers' children were entering the 70's. Bell-bottoms and mutton-chops were the cutting edge of fashion; Nixon's lies (and not his Kissingerian real-politics and crimes against humanity) were what finally cost him his office; polyester was more expensive and desirable than natural fibers; America was fighting another youth-grinding senseless war - and (for the first time) loosing badly. The swinging sixties came and gone and left behind only discontent and drug habits; New Heaven, Connecticut was Suburbia having everything it had wished for; every morning waking to the American Dream - only to find it hollow and wanting. And there was an ice storm brewing in the horizon. Would its whiteness make everything pure again? Would its crystals make things clearer?

I picked the book after of greatly enjoying Ang Lee's MASTERPIECE movie. I agree with most other reviewers: the movie was much more tight and effective - and, in the end, a crisper experience. I can understand how RICK MOODY's writing, with its long-winded phrases, rich likenings and not so subtle metaphors, may seem a bit dated to the 1.3sec zapping generation. However, I think that a slow, joyful reading is needed to do justice to this book.

RECOMMENDED!

Great Book, 27 Mar 2007
Don't believe this cover - this book certainly isn't a comedy although it has a few humorous moments. In reality it is a gripping read of relationships falling apart and the impact on the families - all coming to a head with the dramatic events on the evening of the ice storm. I saw the film first and loved it. I'd also recommend the book for a slower more in depth exploration of a moving story where you can connect with each of the 8 central characters. I'm looking forward to watching the film again.

Why not 5 stars ? A little slow at times during the first half before really gripping in the second half.

american suburbia in the 1970's, 09 Apr 2001
in this novel moody depicts a nuclear family being torn apart in 1970's Connecticut. This book is a great read, and moody's eye for detail makes it very enjoyable. the characters are very well defined and the insight into the family is incredible. from mother to son, to father to mistress, moody really connects with each character and the ice storm finale is tremendous. a really great read.

Seen the film - now read this, 20 Nov 2000
It's amazing what the film left out of this tale about the swinging 70's -in depth character descriptions bring the people we love to hate (in the film) to life. This book is fairly fast moving and just as enjoyable (if not moreso) than the film. Sexy, surprising you name it this book has it all!

Good but only for one reason!, 19 Aug 1999
This is an excellent screenplay, however, in my mind, only for one reason. One of the actresses is the greatest- Katie Holmes, she is in this and that's why it's great!!!

this is one for the collection., 19 Nov 2001
Superb interviews with all the great beats. The Kerouac interview was particulary interesting as he was hitting the booze at his mothers (with Stella bringing the drinks), very funny. 'interviewer - note drinks arrive'. Great stuff!!!!!!
If you want to know what it was all about then read this!!!

Totally Worth It!!, 26 Jun 1999
The Paris Reviw interviews of the beats are famouse for their openness about the writers craft, and the insight into their work and lives. If you want to truly understand the beats, this is the place to go! Totally worth it!

Brilliant interview with Ferlinghetti, 17 Feb 1999
There was only one essay I truly enjoyed: Andrew Madden's "An interview with Ferlinghetti." That's writing! Worth the entire value of the book. Such grace. Such lyricism. I laughed, I cried, etc.

Last Exit for the Lost..., 21 Apr 2006
The plot of this book is as thin as a butterfly wing, but that doesn't detract from how good it is. I think this book will only be dearly loved by those that feel anything in their own lives has mirrored those of the characters.

Twenty-something failures that didn't 'make it big' on all their old teenage dreams. Apparently Moody has basically disowned this book, which I feel sad about because I picked this book off the shelf by chance, and was mesmerised by the beautiful use of language in a story that has no real heroes. Just people trying to get on with their lives.

I've read this book 5 times now, because Moody's writing is almost poetic in his use of alliteration, simile and metaphor. If T S Eliot had written a book about burned out young adults in Hoboken New Jersey, I think it would have turned out a lot like this book.


The first collection of Rick Moody's short stories., 04 Apr 2003
"The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven" is a precursor of Moody's later short story collection "Demonology" (2001)- personally I think the later collection is superior, but there is much here that is great. The 11 short pieces here were issued in this collection in 1995- following the success of Moody's second novel "The Ice Storm"; several of them had previously appeared in such publications as Esquire, Harper's & The Paris Review.

The title story is more of a novella than a short story & is a work that should be enjoyed by anyone who has read Moody's debut work "Garden State". "The James Dean Garage Band" is another highlight- while the opening story "The Preliminary Notes" plays with form. Another highlight is the post-modern annotation "Primary Sources"- which stylistically was continued in both "Demonology" & "The Black Veil"- Hawthorne listed here shows the origin of the latter title. Here we see how Moody relates his personal life to literature& we get intrigueing comments on Angela Carter, The Feelies, 'A Lover's Discourse', Borges, Lester Bangs, StarTrekTNG, Denis Johnson's Angels, Arvo Part, Sebadoh & William Carlos Williams: I'd love a whole book like this (though I'm not sure anyone else would). This collection should appeal to anyone who has enjoyed Moody's novels Garden State, The Ice Storm & Purple America- the short story a great form where a lot of the longer works originate from. Worth a read- up there with short works from Denis Johnson, David Gates & Russell Banks.

Whinge along with the characters. It's fun!, 10 Feb 2003
This unprepossessing novel plunged me into a mid-20s crisis. How tragic and how common it is to lose your way, like these characters, and fail to live up to the potential your schoolteachers crowed about! How nice it is to wallow in self-pity and angst, fuelled by a narrative as elegant as Garden State!

With a dense, poetic voice, and a plot that sort of boils up from within its New Jersey setting and then recedes again, this novel takes its time to settle into a rhythm, but is insidiously fascinating once it does. We don't expect much from any of these characters, and they don't seem to expect much from themselves either.

The confessional tone established by Moody's foreword adds a nice sense of immediacy.

Although it seems self-indulgent at first, with its emphasis on a set of characters who are miserable, bored, self-obsessed and self-destructive, it's an absorbing read, if you can relate their disenchantment to your own.

Great debut novel., 12 Sep 2002
I am very happy that 'Garden State' has been reissued in the wake of 'The Black Veil' and 'Demonology' that have added to Moody's profile since the adaptation of 'The Ice Storm'.

The foreword regarding the books inception makes me want to go and buy 'The Good Earth' by The Feelies and makes me conclude that these kind of forewords are the best (see also the Bloomsbury edition of 'Last Exit to Brooklyn').

The world is not far (though without the unnecessary homicide) from films like 'Out of the Blue', 'River's Edge' & 'Suburbia'. I think it is a much better debut than 'Bright Lights, Big City' or 'Less Than Zero' - fans of those books would find a lot more here. I think anyone in the Western world can relate to those who suddenly lose it in their 20's- whether living with parents, continuing hedonism or experiencing mental health problems (oh, and drugs...)

'Garden State' is the best place to start with Moody, before proceeding with the short-story collections and 'The Ice Storm' (I found 'Purple America' quite hard work). It's great that it has been reissuedand with an ironic new cover to boot!

urban decay... and james dean., 08 Apr 2001
in this collection of short stories (and 1 novella) moody covers many topics, most often the claustrophobia of modern society, from the james dean garage band to the ring of brightest angels around heaven he knocks the reader out with each story, so finely constructed. moody has such an eye for detail he really connects with each character, especially in the novella. a very great read.

A Trio Of Elegant Technologically-Obsessed Novellas Courtesy of Rick Moody, 09 Aug 2008
"The Omega Force" demonstrates that Rick Moody remains at the peak of his literary craft, drawing successfully on post-9/11 paranoia in these three elegant examinations of technologically-obsessed paranoia. Included in this terse volume is the amazing "The Albertine Notes", the last of the three novellas in "The Omega Force", which deserves ample recognition and praise of its own (To which I shall return later.). The dysfunctional surburban families so eloquently depicted by Moody in his classic 1990s novel "The Ice Storm" and the recent short story collection "Demonology" are brilliantly transmutated into three engrossing portraits of three vivid characters each lost in their own peculiar set of technologically-oriented phobias. In short, at least two of these tales should be regarded as among Moody's best efforts in short fiction.

"The Omega Force" is a spellbinding examination of how one person's twisted notions of reality and fiction lead inexorably to an irrational speculation that unexpectedly disrupts the placid existence of his friends and neighbors in a bucolic North Shore Long Island community. Dr. Van Deusen, retired from some secret government agency, conflates fact with the "mind-twisting" fiction gleamed from the pages of the thriller "Omega Force", and his deep-seated fears about the arrival of "dark-complected" emigrants to his community. Convinced that he has uncovered the "truth", Dr. Van Deusen believes he's become a contemporary Paul Revere, fearful of some vague terrorist plot against the Plum Island animal research center, which, if successful, will unleash untold numbers of virulent diseases and plagues upon his community. In his typically riveting, expansive prose, Moody leads us on a personal trek through Dr. Van Deusen's swift descent into madness, in a compelling tale that many will regard as among his best, which concludes on a surprising, most unexpected, note. "The Omega Force" is written in a literary style which I find surprisingly similar to some of cyberpunk science fiction writer Bruce Sterling's work, most recently his post-9/11 novel, "The Zenith Angle".

"K&K", the second and shortest, of the three novellas, follows one Ellie Knight-Cameron, an administrative manager at Kolodny and Kolodny ("K&K"), a small insurance brokerage firm, as she deals with the unexpected arrivals of bizarre messages meant for her in the suggestion box she manages. She undergoes her own descent into madness, trying to cope not only with the arrival of these messages and their meanings, but also becoming obsessed into attempting to discover the identities of their senders. This is a fine tale in its own right, but one which may leave readers a bit unsatisfied, since it does end on a rather abrupt note.

With the last, and longest, of the three novellas, "The Albertine Notes", Rick Moody has boldly gone - with no pun intended, invoking a famous split infinitive whose artistic source some readers of this review may recognize - where few major mainstream fiction writers have gone before, writing what must be regarded as his most remarkable, most impressive work of short fiction to date. Relying once more on his characteristic expansive prose, Rick Moody's "The Albertine Notes" is not just a fine short story, but a fine work of science fiction too, whose vivid imagery easily conjurs up references to Philip K. Dick and J. G. Ballard, and, I would argue too, paying homage to such classic American science fiction writers as Samuel Delany and Octavia Butler in his intelligent depiction of race relations set in a dystopian near-future New York City; or rather, its surviving remnant, following a "suitcase nuke" nuclear detonation which has obliterated most of Manhattan south of 53rd Street, and exterminated four million of its residents. In "The Albertine Notes", Kevin Lee, a young Chinese-American journalist, searches for Albertine drug cartel chieftain Eduardo Cortez and traces the history of the drug "Albertine", an addictive mind-altering drug which appeared suddenly soon after "the blast", which allows its users to remember their past vividly, with ample clarity. Lee wrestles with his addiction and his vivid rememberance of things past, leading to a poignant, closing scene, which seems lifted straight from Greek mythology, as though Lee is Orpheus accompanying Charon, the ferryman, on a one-way trip to the Hades that is the nuclear wasteland of Manhattan. Lee takes us on a nocturnal, nightmarish trek across Brooklyn and Queens which is quite reminiscent of Delany's classic 1960s extraterrestrial urban dystopias like "Dhalgren" and "Nova", meeting prostitutes and bikers resembling those in Butler's novels and, in some respects, William Gibson's early classic cyberpunk novels too. "The Albertine Notes" is a most notable, memorable departure for Moody - and one that was recognized by its publication in a 2004 anthology of that year's best science fiction - which demonstrates his longstanding familiarity with and appreciation of science fiction - but one that is also a logical extension of his interest in dysfunctional suburban families as I have noted previously.

Rick Moody is a traditionalist. Despite his page-long paragraphs, brand-name dropping, obsessive cataloguing of workplace ritual, seemingly random italicising and inevitable digs at "multinational entertainment providers", Moody makes classically beautiful short stories. His tools are those of any master storyteller: detail, catharsis, the right word at the right moment. Granted, the details can be unexpected: e.g., comparative values of different Pez dispensers. And his brand of catharsis can be mighty abrupt: "Now the intolerable part of this story begins", he warns us in the title story of Demonology, while "Hawaiian Night" includes the ominous spoiler, "Here comes tragedy". Yet his word choice is always immaculate.

Moody's collection is framed by two stories in which the narrator ruminates over his dead sister. In the first, "The Mansion on the Hill", he speaks directly to the departed:

"You were a fine sister, but you changed your mind all the time, and I had no idea if these things I'd attributed to you in the last year were features of the you I once knew, or whether, in death, you had become the property of your mourners, so that we made of you a puppet."

The story promptly turns into a revenge fantasy, with an absurd climax wherein the narrator attacks his sister's former fiancée. "Demonology" deals with the actual circumstances of her death. First we see her tucking the kids into bed prior to her fatal seizure: "And my sister kissed her daughter multiply, because my niece is a little impish redhead, and it's hard not to kiss her". Moody then switches tone smoothly and beautifully as the medics work on the dead woman: "Her body jumped while they shocked her--she was a revenant in some corridor of simultaneities--but her heart wouldn't start". A writer who pins down such fluidities can get up to all the experimentation he likes and the reader will go along willingly. --Claire Dederer

A TALE OF A DYSTOPIC SUBURBAN AMERICANA, 28 Jan 2008
"Be careful what you wish for. You might get it".
Wise words that came to acquire a new meaning as the baby-boomers' children were entering the 70's. Bell-bottoms and mutton-chops were the cutting edge of fashion; Nixon's lies (and not his Kissingerian real-politics and crimes against humanity) were what finally cost him his office; polyester was more expensive and desirable than natural fibers; America was fighting another youth-grinding senseless war - and (for the first time) loosing badly. The swinging sixties came and gone and left behind only discontent and drug habits; New Heaven, Connecticut was Suburbia having everything it had wished for; every morning waking to the American Dream - only to find it hollow and wanting. And there was an ice storm brewing in the horizon. Would its whiteness make everything pure again? Would its crystals make things clearer?

I picked the book after of greatly enjoying Ang Lee's MASTERPIECE movie. I agree with most other reviewers: the movie was much more tight and effective - and, in the end, a crisper experience. I can understand how RICK MOODY's writing, with its long-winded phrases, rich likenings and not so subtle metaphors, may seem a bit dated to the 1.3sec zapping generation. However, I think that a slow, joyful reading is needed to do justice to this book.

RECOMMENDED!

Great Book, 27 Mar 2007
Don't believe this cover - this book certainly isn't a comedy although it has a few humorous moments. In reality it is a gripping read of relationships falling apart and the impact on the families - all coming to a head with the dramatic events on the evening of the ice storm. I saw the film first and loved it. I'd also recommend the book for a slower more in depth exploration of a moving story where you can connect with each of the 8 central characters. I'm looking forward to watching the film again.

Why not 5 stars ? A little slow at times during the first half before really gripping in the second half.

american suburbia in the 1970's, 09 Apr 2001
in this novel moody depicts a nuclear family being torn apart in 1970's Connecticut. This book is a great read, and moody's eye for detail makes it very enjoyable. the characters are very well defined and the insight into the family is incredible. from mother to son, to father to mistress, moody really connects with each character and the ice storm finale is tremendous. a really great read.

Seen the film - now read this, 20 Nov 2000
It's amazing what the film left out of this tale about the swinging 70's -in depth character descriptions bring the people we love to hate (in the film) to life. This book is fairly fast moving and just as enjoyable (if not moreso) than the film. Sexy, surprising you name it this book has it all!

Good but only for one reason!, 19 Aug 1999
This is an excellent screenplay, however, in my mind, only for one reason. One of the actresses is the greatest- Katie Holmes, she is in this and that's why it's great!!!

this is one for the collection., 19 Nov 2001
Superb interviews with all the great beats. The Kerouac interview was particulary interesting as he was hitting the booze at his mothers (with Stella bringing the drinks), very funny. 'interviewer - note drinks arrive'. Great stuff!!!!!!
If you want to know what it was all about then read this!!!

Totally Worth It!!, 26 Jun 1999
The Paris Reviw interviews of the beats are famouse for their openness about the writers craft, and the insight into their work and lives. If you want to truly understand the beats, this is the place to go! Totally worth it!

Brilliant interview with Ferlinghetti, 17 Feb 1999
There was only one essay I truly enjoyed: Andrew Madden's "An interview with Ferlinghetti." That's writing! Worth the entire value of the book. Such grace. Such lyricism. I laughed, I cried, etc.

Last Exit for the Lost..., 21 Apr 2006
The plot of this book is as thin as a butterfly wing, but that doesn't detract from how good it is. I think this book will only be dearly loved by those that feel anything in their own lives has mirrored those of the characters.

Twenty-something failures that didn't 'make it big' on all their old teenage dreams. Apparently Moody has basically disowned this book, which I feel sad about because I picked this book off the shelf by chance, and was mesmerised by the beautiful use of language in a story that has no real heroes. Just people trying to get on with their lives.

I've read this book 5 times now, because Moody's writing is almost poetic in his use of alliteration, simile and metaphor. If T S Eliot had written a book about burned out young adults in Hoboken New Jersey, I think it would have turned out a lot like this book.


The first collection of Rick Moody's short stories., 04 Apr 2003
"The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven" is a precursor of Moody's later short story collection "Demonology" (2001)- personally I think the later collection is superior, but there is much here that is great. The 11 short pieces here were issued in this collection in 1995- following the success of Moody's second novel "The Ice Storm"; several of them had previously appeared in such publications as Esquire, Harper's & The Paris Review.

The title story is more of a novella than a short story & is a work that should be enjoyed by anyone who has read Moody's debut work "Garden State". "The James Dean Garage Band" is another highlight- while the opening story "The Preliminary Notes" plays with form. Another highlight is the post-modern annotation "Primary Sources"- which stylistically was continued in both "Demonology" & "The Black Veil"- Hawthorne listed here shows the origin of the latter title. Here we see how Moody relates his personal life to literature& we get intrigueing comments on Angela Carter, The Feelies, 'A Lover's Discourse', Borges, Lester Bangs, StarTrekTNG, Denis Johnson's Angels, Arvo Part, Sebadoh & William Carlos Williams: I'd love a whole book like this (though I'm not sure anyone else would). This collection should appeal to anyone who has enjoyed Moody's novels Garden State, The Ice Storm & Purple America- the short story a great form where a lot of the longer works originate from. Worth a read- up there with short works from Denis Johnson, David Gates & Russell Banks.

Whinge along with the characters. It's fun!, 10 Feb 2003
This unprepossessing novel plunged me into a mid-20s crisis. How tragic and how common it is to lose your way, like these characters, and fail to live up to the potential your schoolteachers crowed about! How nice it is to wallow in self-pity and angst, fuelled by a narrative as elegant as Garden State!

With a dense, poetic voice, and a plot that sort of boils up from within its New Jersey setting and then recedes again, this novel takes its time to settle into a rhythm, but is insidiously fascinating once it does. We don't expect much from any of these characters, and they don't seem to expect much from themselves either.

The confessional tone established by Moody's foreword adds a nice sense of immediacy.

Although it seems self-indulgent at first, with its emphasis on a set of characters who are miserable, bored, self-obsessed and self-destructive, it's an absorbing read, if you can relate their disenchantment to your own.

Great debut novel., 12 Sep 2002
I am very happy that 'Garden State' has been reissued in the wake of 'The Black Veil' and 'Demonology' that have added to Moody's profile since the adaptation of 'The Ice Storm'.

The foreword regarding the books inception makes me want to go and buy 'The Good Earth' by The Feelies and makes me conclude that these kind of forewords are the best (see also the Bloomsbury edition of 'Last Exit to Brooklyn').

The world is not far (though without the unnecessary homicide) from films like 'Out of the Blue', 'River's Edge' & 'Suburbia'. I think it is a much better debut than 'Bright Lights, Big City' or 'Less Than Zero' - fans of those books would find a lot more here. I think anyone in the Western world can relate to those who suddenly lose it in their 20's- whether living with parents, continuing hedonism or experiencing mental health problems (oh, and drugs...)

'Garden State' is the best place to start with Moody, before proceeding with the short-story collections and 'The Ice Storm' (I found 'Purple America' quite hard work). It's great that it has been reissuedand with an ironic new cover to boot!

urban decay... and james dean., 08 Apr 2001
in this collection of short stories (and 1 novella) moody covers many topics, most often the claustrophobia of modern society, from the james dean garage band to the ring of brightest angels around heaven he knocks the reader out with each story, so finely constructed. moody has such an eye for detail he really connects with each character, especially in the novella. a very great read.

A Trio Of Elegant Technologically-Obsessed Novellas Courtesy of Rick Moody, 09 Aug 2008
"The Omega Force" demonstrates that Rick Moody remains at the peak of his literary craft, drawing successfully on post-9/11 paranoia in these three elegant examinations of technologically-obsessed paranoia. Included in this terse volume is the amazing "The Albertine Notes", the last of the three novellas in "The Omega Force", which deserves ample recognition and praise of its own (To which I shall return later.). The dysfunctional surburban families so eloquently depicted by Moody in his classic 1990s novel "The Ice Storm" and the recent short story collection "Demonology" are brilliantly transmutated into three engrossing portraits of three vivid characters each lost in their own peculiar set of technologically-oriented phobias. In short, at least two of these tales should be regarded as among Moody's best efforts in short fiction.

"The Omega Force" is a spellbinding examination of how one person's twisted notions of reality and fiction lead inexorably to an irrational speculation that unexpectedly disrupts the placid existence of his friends and neighbors in a bucolic North Shore Long Island community. Dr. Van Deusen, retired from some secret government agency, conflates fact with the "mind-twisting" fiction gleamed from the pages of the thriller "Omega Force", and his deep-seated fears about the arrival of "dark-complected" emigrants to his community. Convinced that he has uncovered the "truth", Dr. Van Deusen believes he's become a contemporary Paul Revere, fearful of some vague terrorist plot against the Plum Island animal research center, which, if successful, will unleash untold numbers of virulent diseases and plagues upon his community. In his typically riveting, expansive prose, Moody leads us on a personal trek through Dr. Van Deusen's swift descent into madness, in a compelling tale that many will regard as among his best, which concludes on a surprising, most unexpected, note. "The Omega Force" is written in a literary style which I find surprisingly similar to some of cyberpunk science fiction writer Bruce Sterling's work, most recently his post-9/11 novel, "The Zenith Angle".

"K&K", the second and shortest, of the three novellas, follows one Ellie Knight-Cameron, an administrative manager at Kolodny and Kolodny ("K&K"), a small insurance brokerage firm, as she deals with the unexpected arrivals of bizarre messages meant for her in the suggestion box she manages. She undergoes her own descent into madness, trying to cope not only with the arrival of these messages and their meanings, but also becoming obsessed into attempting to discover the identities of their senders. This is a fine tale in its own right, but one which may leave readers a bit unsatisfied, since it does end on a rather abrupt note.

With the last, and longest, of the three novellas, "The Albertine Notes", Rick Moody has boldly gone - with no pun intended, invoking a famous split infinitive whose artistic source some readers of this review may recognize - where few major mainstream fiction writers have gone before, writing what must be regarded as his most remarkable, most impressive work of short fiction to date. Relying once more on his characteristic expansive prose, Rick Moody's "The Albertine Notes" is not just a fine short story, but a fine work of science fiction too, whose vivid imagery easily conjurs up references to Philip K. Dick and J. G. Ballard, and, I would argue too, paying homage to such classic American science fiction writers as Samuel Delany and Octavia Butler in his intelligent depiction of race relations set in a dystopian near-future New York City; or rather, its surviving remnant, following a "suitcase nuke" nuclear detonation which has obliterated most of Manhattan south of 53rd Street, and exterminated four million of its residents. In "The Albertine Notes", Kevin Lee, a young Chinese-American journalist, searches for Albertine drug cartel chieftain Eduardo Cortez and traces the history of the drug "Albertine", an addictive mind-altering drug which appeared suddenly soon after "the blast", which allows its users to remember their past vividly, with ample clarity. Lee wrestles with his addiction and his vivid rememberance of things past, leading to a poignant, closing scene, which seems lifted straight from Greek mythology, as though Lee is Orpheus accompanying Charon, the ferryman, on a one-way trip to the Hades that is the nuclear wasteland of Manhattan. Lee takes us on a nocturnal, nightmarish trek across Brooklyn and Queens which is quite reminiscent of Delany's classic 1960s extraterrestrial urban dystopias like "Dhalgren" and "Nova", meeting prostitutes and bikers resembling those in Butler's novels and, in some respects, William Gibson's early classic cyberpunk novels too. "The Albertine Notes" is a most notable, memorable departure for Moody - and one that was recognized by its publication in a 2004 anthology of that year's best science fiction - which demonstrates his longstanding familiarity with and appreciation of science fiction - but one that is also a logical extension of his interest in dysfunctional suburban families as I have noted previously.

Simply beautiful arias of loss., 12 Dec 2000
Rick Moody soars. His stories, much more than his loinger works, function perfectly: humour and loss struggle against each other like brothers. The last story, 'Demonology', is the most beautiful evocation of grief I have ever read. Rick: you're a true master.

an astounding collection, 30 Nov 2000
an astounding collection. Moody is the voice of a lost generation and, undisputably, the greatest American fiction writer of our time. the stories in Demonology offer a haunting yet oddly beautiful picture of American despair.

A TALE OF A DYSTOPIC SUBURBAN AMERICANA, 28 Jan 2008
"Be careful what you wish for. You might get it".
Wise words that came to acquire a new meaning as the baby-boomers' children were entering the 70's. Bell-bottoms and mutton-chops were the cutting edge of fashion; Nixon's lies (and not his Kissingerian real-politics and crimes against humanity) were what finally cost him his office; polyester was more expensive and desirable than natural fibers; America was fighting another youth-grinding senseless war - and (for the first time) loosing badly. The swinging sixties came and gone and left behind only discontent and drug habits; New Heaven, Connecticut was Suburbia having everything it had wished for; every morning waking to the American Dream - only to find it hollow and wanting. And there was an ice storm brewing in the horizon. Would its whiteness make everything pure again? Would its crystals make things clearer?

I picked the book after of greatly enjoying Ang Lee's MASTERPIECE movie. I agree with most other reviewers: the movie was much more tight and effective - and, in the end, a crisper experience. I can understand how RICK MOODY's writing, with its long-winded phrases, rich likenings and not so subtle metaphors, may seem a bit dated to the 1.3sec zapping generation. However, I think that a slow, joyful reading is needed to do justice to this book.

RECOMMENDED!

Great Book, 27 Mar 2007
Don't believe this cover - this book certainly isn't a comedy although it has a few humorous moments. In reality it is a gripping read of relationships falling apart and the impact on the families - all coming to a head with the dramatic events on the evening of the ice storm. I saw the film first and loved it. I'd also recommend the book for a slower more in depth exploration of a moving story where you can connect with each of the 8 central characters. I'm looking forward to watching the film again.

Why not 5 stars ? A little slow at times during the first half before really gripping in the second half.

american suburbia in the 1970's, 09 Apr 2001
in this novel moody depicts a nuclear family being torn apart in 1970's Connecticut. This book is a great read, and moody's eye for detail makes it very enjoyable. the characters are very well defined and the insight into the family is incredible. from mother to son, to father to mistress, moody really connects with each character and the ice storm finale is tremendous. a really great read.

Seen the film - now read this, 20 Nov 2000
It's amazing what the film left out of this tale about the swinging 70's -in depth character descriptions bring the people we love to hate (in the film) to life. This book is fairly fast moving and just as enjoyable (if not moreso) than the film. Sexy, surprising you name it this book has it all!

Good but only for one reason!, 19 Aug 1999
This is an excellent screenplay, however, in my mind, only for one reason. One of the actresses is the greatest- Katie Holmes, she is in this and that's why it's great!!!

this is one for the collection., 19 Nov 2001
Superb interviews with all the great beats. The Kerouac interview was particulary interesting as he was hitting the booze at his mothers (with Stella bringing the drinks), very funny. 'interviewer - note drinks arrive'. Great stuff!!!!!!
If you want to know what it was all about then read this!!!

Totally Worth It!!, 26 Jun 1999
The Paris Reviw interviews of the beats are famouse for their openness about the writers craft, and the insight into their work and lives. If you want to truly understand the beats, this is the place to go! Totally worth it!

Brilliant interview with Ferlinghetti, 17 Feb 1999
There was only one essay I truly enjoyed: Andrew Madden's "An interview with Ferlinghetti." That's writing! Worth the entire value of the book. Such grace. Such lyricism. I laughed, I cried, etc.

Last Exit for the Lost..., 21 Apr 2006
The plot of this book is as thin as a butterfly wing, but that doesn't detract from how good it is. I think this book will only be dearly loved by those that feel anything in their own lives has mirrored those of the characters.

Twenty-something failures that didn't 'make it big' on all their old teenage dreams. Apparently Moody has basically disowned this book, which I feel sad about because I picked this book off the shelf by chance, and was mesmerised by the beautiful use of language in a story that has no real heroes. Just people trying to get on with their lives.

I've read this book 5 times now, because Moody's writing is almost poetic in his use of alliteration, simile and metaphor. If T S Eliot had written a book about burned out young adults in Hoboken New Jersey, I think it would have turned out a lot like this book.


The first collection of Rick Moody's short stories., 04 Apr 2003
"The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven" is a precursor of Moody's later short story collection "Demonology" (2001)- personally I think the later collection is superior, but there is much here that is great. The 11 short pieces here were issued in this collection in 1995- following the success of Moody's second novel "The Ice Storm"; several of them had previously appeared in such publications as Esquire, Harper's & The Paris Review.

The title story is more of a novella than a short story & is a work that should be enjoyed by anyone who has read Moody's debut work "Garden State". "The James Dean Garage Band" is another highlight- while the opening story "The Preliminary Notes" plays with form. Another highlight is the post-modern annotation "Primary Sources"- which stylistically was continued in both "Demonology" & "The Black Veil"- Hawthorne listed here shows the origin of the latter title. Here we see how Moody relates his personal life to literature& we get intrigueing comments on Angela Carter, The Feelies, 'A Lover's Discourse', Borges, Lester Bangs, StarTrekTNG, Denis Johnson's Angels, Arvo Part, Sebadoh & William Carlos Williams: I'd love a whole book like this (though I'm not sure anyone else would). This collection should appeal to anyone who has enjoyed Moody's novels Garden State, The Ice Storm & Purple America- the short story a great form where a lot of the longer works originate from. Worth a read- up there with short works from Denis Johnson, David Gates & Russell Banks.

Whinge along with the characters. It's fun!, 10 Feb 2003
This unprepossessing novel plunged me into a mid-20s crisis. How tragic and how common it is to lose your way, like these characters, and fail to live up to the potential your schoolteachers crowed about! How nice it is to wallow in self-pity and angst, fuelled by a narrative as elegant as Garden State!

With a dense, poetic voice, and a plot that sort of boils up from within its New Jersey setting and then recedes again, this novel takes its time to settle into a rhythm, but is insidiously fascinating once it does. We don't expect much from any of these characters, and they don't seem to expect much from themselves either.

The confessional tone established by Moody's foreword adds a nice sense of immediacy.

Although it seems self-indulgent at first, with its emphasis on a set of characters who are miserable, bored, self-obsessed and self-destructive, it's an absorbing read, if you can relate their disenchantment to your own.

Great debut novel., 12 Sep 2002
I am very happy that 'Garden State' has been reissued in the wake of 'The Black Veil' and 'Demonology' that have added to Moody's profile since the adaptation of 'The Ice Storm'.

The foreword regarding the books inception makes me want to go and buy 'The Good Earth' by The Feelies and makes me conclude that these kind of forewords are the best (see also the Bloomsbury edition of 'Last Exit to Brooklyn').

The world is not far (though without the unnecessary homicide) from films like 'Out of the Blue', 'River's Edge' & 'Suburbia'. I think it is a much better debut than 'Bright Lights, Big City' or 'Less Than Zero' - fans of those books would find a lot more here. I think anyone in the Western world can relate to those who suddenly lose it in their 20's- whether living with parents, continuing hedonism or experiencing mental health problems (oh, and drugs...)

'Garden State' is the best place to start with Moody, before proceeding with the short-story collections and 'The Ice Storm' (I found 'Purple America' quite hard work). It's great that it has been reissuedand with an ironic new cover to boot!

urban decay... and james dean., 08 Apr 2001
in this collection of short stories (and 1 novella) moody covers many topics, most often the claustrophobia of modern society, from the james dean garage band to the ring of brightest angels around heaven he knocks the reader out with each story, so finely constructed. moody has such an eye for detail he really connects with each character, especially in the novella. a very great read.

A Trio Of Elegant Technologically-Obsessed Novellas Courtesy of Rick Moody, 09 Aug 2008
"The Omega Force" demonstrates that Rick Moody remains at the peak of his literary craft, drawing successfully on post-9/11 paranoia in these three elegant examinations of technologically-obsessed paranoia. Included in this terse volume is the amazing "The Albertine Notes", the last of the three novellas in "The Omega Force", which deserves ample recognition and praise of its own (To which I shall return later.). The dysfunctional surburban families so eloquently depicted by Moody in his classic 1990s novel "The Ice Storm" and the recent short story collection "Demonology" are brilliantly transmutated into three engrossing portraits of three vivid characters each lost in their own peculiar set of technologically-oriented phobias. In short, at least two of these tales should be regarded as among Moody's best efforts in short fiction.

"The Omega Force" is a spellbinding examination of how one person's twisted notions of reality and fiction lead inexorably to an irrational speculation that unexpectedly disrupts the placid existence of his friends and neighbors in a bucolic North Shore Long Island community. Dr. Van Deusen, retired from some secret government agency, conflates fact with the "mind-twisting" fiction gleamed from the pages of the thriller "Omega Force", and his deep-seated fears about the arrival of "dark-complected" emigrants to his community. Convinced that he has uncovered the "truth", Dr. Van Deusen believes he's become a contemporary Paul Revere, fearful of some vague terrorist plot against the Plum Island animal research center, which, if successful, will unleash untold numbers of virulent diseases and plagues upon his community. In his typically riveting, expansive prose, Moody leads us on a personal trek through Dr. Van Deusen's swift descent into madness, in a compelling tale that many will regard as among his best, which concludes on a surprising, most unexpected, note. "The Omega Force" is written in a literary style which I find surprisingly similar to some of cyberpunk science fiction writer Bruce Sterling's work, most recently his post-9/11 novel, "The Zenith Angle".

"K&K", the second and shortest, of the three novellas, follows one Ellie Knight-Cameron, an administrative manager at Kolodny and Kolodny ("K&K"), a small insurance brokerage firm, as she deals with the unexpected arrivals of bizarre messages meant for her in the suggestion box she manages. She undergoes her own descent into madness, trying to cope not only with the arrival of these messages and their meanings, but also becoming obsessed into attempting to discover the identities of their senders. This is a fine tale in its own right, but one which may leave readers a bit unsatisfied, since it does end on a rather abrupt note.

With the last, and longest, of the three novellas, "The Albertine Notes", Rick Moody has boldly gone - with no pun intended, invoking a famous split infinitive whose artistic source some readers of this review may recognize - where few major mainstream fiction writers have gone before, writing what must be regarded as his most remarkable, most impressive work of short fiction to date. Relying once more on his characteristic expansive prose, Rick Moody's "The Albertine Notes" is not just a fine short story, but a fine work of science fiction too, whose vivid imagery easily conjurs up references to Philip K. Dick and J. G. Ballard, and, I would argue too, paying homage to such classic American science fiction writers as Samuel Delany and Octavia Butler in his intelligent depiction of race relations set in a dystopian near-future New York City; or rather, its surviving remnant, following a "suitcase nuke" nuclear detonation which has obliterated most of Manhattan south of 53rd Street, and exterminated four million of its residents. In "The Albertine Notes", Kevin Lee, a young Chinese-American journalist, searches for Albertine drug cartel chieftain Eduardo Cortez and traces the history of the drug "Albertine", an addictive mind-altering drug which appeared suddenly soon after "the blast", which allows its users to remember their past vividly, with ample clarity. Lee wrestles with his addiction and his vivid rememberance of things past, leading to a poignant, closing scene, which seems lifted straight from Greek mythology, as though Lee is Orpheus accompanying Charon, the ferryman, on a one-way trip to the Hades that is the nuclear wasteland of Manhattan. Lee takes us on a nocturnal, nightmarish trek across Brooklyn and Queens which is quite reminiscent of Delany's classic 1960s extraterrestrial urban dystopias like "Dhalgren" and "Nova", meeting prostitutes and bikers resembling those in Butler's novels and, in some respects, William Gibson's early classic cyberpunk novels too. "The Albertine Notes" is a most notable, memorable departure for Moody - and one that was recognized by its publication in a 2004 anthology of that year's best science fiction - which demonstrates his longstanding familiarity with and appreciation of science fiction - but one that is also a logical extension of his interest in dysfunctional suburban families as I have noted previously.

Simply beautiful arias of loss., 12 Dec 2000
Rick Moody soars. His stories, much more than his loinger works, function perfectly: humour and loss struggle against each other like brothers. The last story, 'Demonology', is the most beautiful evocation of grief I have ever read. Rick: you're a true master.

an astounding collection, 30 Nov 2000
an astounding collection. Moody is the voice of a lost generation and, undisputably, the greatest American fiction writer of our time. the stories in Demonology offer a haunting yet oddly beautiful picture of American despair.

Great cover, 11 Sep 2007
Aside from the quality of the writing, the book is worth buying just for the evocative cover illustration by Steve Sherrill.

A TALE OF A DYSTOPIC SUBURBAN AMERICANA, 28 Jan 2008
"Be careful what you wish for. You might get it".
Wise words that came to acquire a new meaning as the baby-boomers' children were entering the 70's. Bell-bottoms and mutton-chops were the cutting edge of fashion; Nixon's lies (and not his Kissingerian real-politics and crimes against humanity) were what finally cost him his office; polyester was more expensive and desirable than natural fibers; America was fighting another youth-grinding senseless war - and (for the first time) loosing badly. The swinging sixties came and gone and left behind only discontent and drug habits; New Heaven, Connecticut was Suburbia having everything it had wished for; every morning waking to the American Dream - only to find it hollow and wanting. And there was an ice storm brewing in the horizon. Would its whiteness make everything pure again? Would its crystals make things clearer?

I picked the book after of greatly enjoying Ang Lee's MASTERPIECE movie. I agree with most other reviewers: the movie was much more tight and effective - and, in the end, a crisper experience. I can understand how RICK MOODY's writing, with its long-winded phrases, rich likenings and not so subtle metaphors, may seem a bit dated to the 1.3sec zapping generation. However, I think that a slow, joyful reading is needed to do justice to this book.

RECOMMENDED!

Great Book, 27 Mar 2007
Don't believe this cover - this book certainly isn't a comedy although it has a few humorous moments. In reality it is a gripping read of relationships falling apart and the impact on the families - all coming to a head with the dramatic events on the evening of the ice storm. I saw the film first and loved it. I'd also recommend the book for a slower more in depth exploration of a moving story where you can connect with each of the 8 central characters. I'm looking forward to watching the film again.

Why not 5 stars ? A little slow at times during the first half before really gripping in the second half.

american suburbia in the 1970's, 09 Apr 2001
in this novel moody depicts a nuclear family being torn apart in 1970's Connecticut. This book is a great read, and moody's eye for detail makes it very enjoyable. the characters are very well defined and the insight into the family is incredible. from mother to son, to father to mistress, moody really connects with each character and the ice storm finale is tremendous. a really great read.

Seen the film - now read this, 20 Nov 2000
It's amazing what the film left out of this tale about the swinging 70's -in depth character descriptions bring the people we love to hate (in the film) to life. This book is fairly fast moving and just as enjoyable (if not moreso) than the film. Sexy, surprising you name it this book has it all!

Good but only for one reason!, 19 Aug 1999
This is an excellent screenplay, however, in my mind, only for one reason. One of the actresses is the greatest- Katie Holmes, she is in this and that's why it's great!!!

this is one for the collection., 19 Nov 2001
Superb interviews with all the great beats. The Kerouac interview was particulary interesting as he was hitting the booze at his mothers (with Stella bringing the drinks), very funny. 'interviewer - note drinks arrive'. Great stuff!!!!!!
If you want to know what it was all about then read this!!!

Totally Worth It!!, 26 Jun 1999
The Paris Reviw interviews of the beats are famouse for their openness about the writers craft, and the insight into their work and lives. If you want to truly understand the beats, this is the place to go! Totally worth it!

Brilliant interview with Ferlinghetti, 17 Feb 1999
There was only one essay I truly enjoyed: Andrew Madden's "An interview with Ferlinghetti." That's writing! Worth the entire value of the book. Such grace. Such lyricism. I laughed, I cried, etc.

Last Exit for the Lost..., 21 Apr 2006
The plot of this book is as thin as a butterfly wing, but that doesn't detract from how good it is. I think this book will only be dearly loved by those that feel anything in their own lives has mirrored those of the characters.

Twenty-something failures that didn't 'make it big' on all their old teenage dreams. Apparently Moody has basically disowned this book, which I feel sad about because I picked this book off the shelf by chance, and was mesmerised by the beautiful use of language in a story that has no real heroes. Just people trying to get on with their lives.

I've read this book 5 times now, because Moody's writing is almost poetic in his use of alliteration, simile and metaphor. If T S Eliot had written a book about burned out young adults in Hoboken New Jersey, I think it would have turned out a lot like this book.


The first collection of Rick Moody's short stories., 04 Apr 2003
"The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven" is a precursor of Moody's later short story collection "Demonology" (2001)- personally I think the later collection is superior, but there is much here that is great. The 11 short pieces here were issued in this collection in 1995- following the success of Moody's second novel "The Ice Storm"; several of them had previously appeared in such publications as Esquire, Harper's & The Paris Review.

The title story is more of a novella than a short story & is a work that should be enjoyed by anyone who has read Moody's debut work "Garden State". "The James Dean Garage Band" is another highlight- while the opening story "The Preliminary Notes" plays with form. Another highlight is the post-modern annotation "Primary Sources"- which stylistically was continued in both "Demonology" & "The Black Veil"- Hawthorne listed here shows the origin of the latter title. Here we see how Moody relates his personal life to literature& we get intrigueing comments on Angela Carter, The Feelies, 'A Lover's Discourse', Borges, Lester Bangs, StarTrekTNG, Denis Johnson's Angels, Arvo Part, Sebadoh & William Carlos Williams: I'd love a whole book like this (though I'm not sure anyone else would). This collection should appeal to anyone who has enjoyed Moody's novels Garden State, The Ice Storm & Purple America- the short story a great form where a lot of the longer works originate from. Worth a read- up there with short works from Denis Johnson, David Gates & Russell Banks.

Whinge along with the characters. It's fun!, 10 Feb 2003
This unprepossessing novel plunged me into a mid-20s crisis. How tragic and how common it is to lose your way, like these characters, and fail to live up to the potential your schoolteachers crowed about! How nice it is to wallow in self-pity and angst, fuelled by a narrative as elegant as Garden State!

With a dense, poetic voice, and a plot that sort of boils up from within its New Jersey setting and then recedes again, this novel takes its time to settle into a rhythm, but is insidiously fascinating once it does. We don't expect much from any of these characters, and they don't seem to expect much from themselves either.

The confessional tone established by Moody's foreword adds a nice sense of immediacy.

Although it seems self-indulgent at first, with its emphasis on a set of characters who are miserable, bored, self-obsessed and self-destructive, it's an absorbing read, if you can relate their disenchantment to your own.

Great debut novel., 12 Sep 2002
I am very happy that 'Garden State' has been reissued in the wake of 'The Black Veil' and 'Demonology' that have added to Moody's profile since the adaptation of 'The Ice Storm'.

The foreword regarding the books inception makes me want to go and buy 'The Good Earth' by The Feelies and makes me conclude that these kind of forewords are the best (see also the Bloomsbury edition of 'Last Exit to Brooklyn').

The world is not far (though without the unnecessary homicide) from films like 'Out of the Blue', 'River's Edge' & 'Suburbia'. I think it is a much better debut than 'Bright Lights, Big City' or 'Less Than Zero' - fans of those books would find a lot more here. I think anyone in the Western world can relate to those who suddenly lose it in their 20's- whether living with parents, continuing hedonism or experiencing mental health problems (oh, and drugs...)

'Garden State' is the best place to start with Moody, before proceeding with the short-story collections and 'The Ice Storm' (I found 'Purple America' quite hard work). It's great that it has been reissuedand with an ironic new cover to boot!

urban decay... and james dean., 08 Apr 2001
in this collection of short stories (and 1 novella) moody covers many topics, most often the claustrophobia of modern society, from the james dean garage band to the ring of brightest angels around heaven he knocks the reader out with each story, so finely constructed. moody has such an eye for detail he really connects with each character, especially in the novella. a very great read.

A Trio Of Elegant Technologically-Obsessed Novellas Courtesy of Rick Moody, 09 Aug 2008
"The Omega Force" demonstrates that Rick Moody remains at the peak of his literary craft, drawing successfully on post-9/11 paranoia in these three elegant examinations of technologically-obsessed paranoia. Included in this terse volume is the amazing "The Albertine Notes", the last of the three novellas in "The Omega Force", which deserves ample recognition and praise of its own (To which I shall return later.). The dysfunctional surburban families so eloquently depicted by Moody in his classic 1990s novel "The Ice Storm" and the recent short story collection "Demonology" are brilliantly transmutated into three engrossing portraits of three vivid characters each lost in their own peculiar set of technologically-oriented phobias. In short, at least two of these tales should be regarded as among Moody's best efforts in short fiction.

"The Omega Force" is a spellbinding examination of how one person's twisted notions of reality and fiction lead inexorably to an irrational speculation that unexpectedly disrupts the placid existence of his friends and neighbors in a bucolic North Shore Long Island community. Dr. Van Deusen, retired from some secret government agency, conflates fact with the "mind-twisting" fiction gleamed from the pages of the thriller "Omega Force", and his deep-seated fears about the arrival of "dark-complected" emigrants to his community. Convinced that he has uncovered the "truth", Dr. Van Deusen believes he's become a contemporary Paul Revere, fearful of some vague terrorist plot against the Plum Island animal research center, which, if successful, will unleash untold numbers of virulent diseases and plagues upon his community. In his typically riveting, expansive prose, Moody leads us on a personal trek through Dr. Van Deusen's swift descent into madness, in a compelling tale that many will regard as among his best, which concludes on a surprising, most unexpected, note. "The Omega Force" is written in a literary style which I find surprisingly similar to some of cyberpunk science fiction writer Bruce Sterling's work, most recently his post-9/11 novel, "The Zenith Angle".

"K&K", the second and shortest, of the three novellas, follows one Ellie Knight-Cameron, an administrative manager at Kolodny and Kolodny ("K&K"), a small insurance brokerage firm, as she deals with the unexpected arrivals of bizarre messages meant for her in the suggestion box she manages. She undergoes her own descent into madness, trying to cope not only with the arrival of these messages and their meanings, but also becoming obsessed into attempting to discover the identities of their senders. This is a fine tale in its own right, but one which may leave readers a bit unsatisfied, since it does end on a rather abrupt note.

With the last, and longest, of the three novellas, "The Albertine Notes", Rick Moody has boldly gone - with no pun intended, invoking a famous split infinitive whose artistic source some readers of this review may recognize - where few major mainstream fiction writers have gone before, writing what must be regarded as his most remarkable, most impressive work of short fiction to date. Relying once more on his characteristic expansive prose, Rick Moody's "The Albertine Notes" is not just a fine short story, but a fine work of science fiction too, whose vivid imagery easily conjurs up references to Philip K. Dick and J. G. Ballard, and, I would argue too, paying homage to such classic American science fiction writers as Samuel Delany and Octavia Butler in his intelligent depiction of race relations set in a dystopian near-future New York City; or rather, its surviving remnant, following a "suitcase nuke" nuclear detonation which has obliterated most of Manhattan south of 53rd Street, and exterminated four million of its residents. In "The Albertine Notes", Kevin Lee, a young Chinese-American journalist, searches for Albertine drug cartel chieftain Eduardo Cortez and traces the history of the drug "Albertine", an addictive mind-altering drug which appeared suddenly soon after "the blast", which allows its users to remember their past vividly, with ample clarity. Lee wrestles with his addiction and his vivid rememberance of things past, leading to a poignant, closing scene, which seems lifted straight from Greek mythology, as though Lee is Orpheus accompanying Charon, the ferryman, on a one-way trip to the Hades that is the nuclear wasteland of Manhattan. Lee takes us on a nocturnal, nightmarish trek across Brooklyn and Queens which is quite reminiscent of Delany's classic 1960s extraterrestrial urban dystopias like "Dhalgren" and "Nova", meeting prostitutes and bikers resembling those in Butler's novels and, in some respects, William Gibson's early classic cyberpunk novels too. "The Albertine Notes" is a most notable, memorable departure for Moody - and one that was recognized by its publication in a 2004 anthology of that year's best science fiction - which demonstrates his longstanding familiarity with and appreciation of science fiction - but one that is also a logical extension of his interest in dysfunctional suburban families as I have noted previously.

Simply beautiful arias of loss., 12 Dec 2000
Rick Moody soars. His stories, much more than his loinger works, function perfectly: humour and loss struggle against each other like brothers. The last story, 'Demonology', is the most beautiful evocation of grief I have ever read. Rick: you're a true master.

an astounding collection, 30 Nov 2000
an astounding collection. Moody is the voice of a lost generation and, undisputably, the greatest American fiction writer of our time. the stories in Demonology offer a haunting yet oddly beautiful picture of American despair.

Great cover, 11 Sep 2007
Aside from the quality of the writing, the book is worth buying just for the evocative cover illustration by Steve Sherrill.

Brilliant, Comical Satire on Hollywood, 09 Aug 2008
Nearly seventy years ago, another Brunonian, Nathanael West, wrote "Day of the Locust", a classic satire about Hollywood culture. Now Rick Moody has wrought a bold, ambitious novel about Hollywood which deserves favorable comparison to West's novel. But "The Diviners" is a bold, ambitious novel which may not find favor with those who prefer linear fictional narratives, but rather, with those, like myself, who prize elegant, stylistic prose, even if it tends to be frequently overwrought; more in the style of a Neal Stephenson than a William Gibson (Though here Rick shares Gibson's recent interest in telling tales that are rather short on plot and are much more fascinating as stylish, well-written character vignettes.), for example. It's because I truly treasure Rick's lyrical prose that I regard him highly on my list of favorite authors (He ranks third after William Gibson and Jonathan Lethem; I will also confess that he was a classmate of mine in a writing seminar taught by a visiting professor, novelist Angela Carter.), and here in "The Diviners", he doesn't disappoint at all.

Set around the time of the 2000 American presidential election, "The Diviners" is ostensibly the tale of Vanessa Meandro, the ruthless, dictatorial head of the independent film production company "Means of Production", who believes that she has found the next hot property; a sprawling television miniseries about dowsers, "The Diviners", which is a veritable history of Mankind and his insatiable search for water. But the delightful Ms. Meandro, addicted to Krispy Kreme donuts, doesn't know that neither a treatment nor a script exists for this NEXT BIG THING emanating from Hollywood. She must rely upon the able assistance of her assistant - and aspiring filmmaker - Annabel Duffy and a Grade B film actor, Thaddeus Griffin, best known for his roles in Doug Limonesque action thrillers, in conjuring up the script. Along the way she has to contend with her hospitalized mother from Park Slope, Brooklyn, who has "visions" in her hospital ward, hires a Sikh cab driver as her television guru, deals with some rather vain and pretentious New York City publicists, and a larcenious accountant who steals tens of thousands of dollars from the production company, illegally writing it off as business expenses. Meanwhile, Annabel's brother (They are the adopted Afro-American offspring of a WASPy Boston minister and his sociologist wife.) is the prime suspect in the attempted murder of an Asian-American art dealer in Manhattan. And Thaddeus Griffin heads out to Sonoma County, California to meet with the world's greatest writer of wine, Randall Tork (He's a hilarious doppleganger for the "greatest" literary critic of our time, one Dale Peck, who thinks of himself as the next Walter Kirn or Michiko Kakutani (As for Ms. Kakutani, I respect her judgement in her "tepid" appraisal of Frank McCourt's "Teacher Man" which appears in the 11/15/05 issue of The New York Times, and would not advocate what a customer reviewer has demanded in a Amazon.com customer review of "Teacher Man". I find it ironic that Ms. Kakutani has rendered such a verdict, since she was the one who "discovered" Frank McCourt in her glowing review of "Angela's Ashes". Personally, I think she's mistaken, but regardless, she has a right to express her opinion in print, without potential harrasment from irate Amazon.com customers.)), seeking his assistance in writing the script for "The Diviners".

"The Diviners" may be a bloated gem of a novel, but it is also irresistably hilarious. It's the funniest book published in 2005 that I have read so far. To his credit, Rick offers an amusing sendup of Joss Whedon's "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer" in his fictional popular television drama "The Werewolves of Fairfield County" (And perhaps you, the reader, might have thought that he has forsaken completely his fictional roots in suburbia as evidenced in his novels "Garden State", "The Ice Storm" and "Purple America"? I think that you're in for a splendid, downright silly surprise!). Although "The Diviners" may not be the genuine literary classic which "The Ice Storm" has become, without question, Rick Moody has written his best work of fiction since that slender, elegantly-crafted novel.

This may be a badly written review but..., 10 Oct 2007
...it is still not as badly written as this awful book.

I would love to be able to write about the book in as turgid a style as the author employs to describe the most mundane (and even the faintly interesting, though they are in the minority) events within the book, but frankly I think Amazon would impose a character limit well before I managed it. It is a book where you can skip paragraphs and even pages without noticing.

In fact, you are best advised to skip reading the book entirely. Like its editor seems to have done.

Brave failure, 09 Jun 2007
This book has got its merits, which surely raise it above the one starred reviews its garnering here on Amazon. Its occasionally funny, often raw scenes(the elderly woman drinking and being sick, locked in her toilet and her past is particularly real I thought), and it certainly captures a New York that is immune to weird. Nothing is shocking to its cast of characters, everything is already written or, better still, turned into an epic miniseries.
I think the authors attempts to be so uncaringly postmodern, so devoid of any empathy for any of the characters or the situations they find themselves in, make this a difficult read. Characters you don't love to hate. You just hate. So whilst brave its just not easy to like this book, but it is easy, for me at least, to admire it.

Far from divine, 30 Aug 2006
This book achieved the rare feat of forcing me to abandon it long before the end. In its defence I might accept that it could be a book that may polarise opinion, but if it's a case of love it or hate it I'm firmly in the hate camp.
I persevered for some 2 or 300 hundred pages in the hope that the jarring dichotomy between the subject -the well trodden path of the superficiality of the modern world as reflected through the media- and the quasi-mythical writing style may come together through some genius of synergy, but it simply didn't. It just got increasingly pretentious, and increasingly annoying. The final straw was probably the 3 page analysis of parabolic arcs to describe someone falling off a bicycle.
Worst of all was that to me Moody's points of reference and intention seemed every bit as blatant as his inability to match them.
As an exploration of the Manhattan media elite his characters seemed wholly unconvincing compared to those of Jay Macinerney, his important exploration of modern America feeble compared to Jonathan Franzen, and his surrealist deviations in to modern mythology simply dull and unimaginative compared to Jonathan Safren Foer.

A TALE OF A DYSTOPIC SUBURBAN AMERICANA, 28 Jan 2008
"Be careful what you wish for. You might get it".
Wise words that came to acquire a new meaning as the baby-boomers' children were entering the 70's. Bell-bottoms and mutton-chops were the cutting edge of fashion; Nixon's lies (and not his Kissingerian real-politics and crimes against humanity) were what finally cost him his office; polyester was more expensive and desirable than natural fibers; America was fighting another youth-grinding senseless war - and (for the first time) loosing badly. The swinging sixties came and gone and left behind only discontent and drug habits; New Heaven, Connecticut was Suburbia having everything it had wished for; every morning waking to the American Dream - only to find it hollow and wanting. And there was an ice storm brewing in the horizon. Would its whiteness make everything pure again? Would its crystals make things clearer?

I picked the book after of greatly enjoying Ang Lee's MASTERPIECE movie. I agree with most other reviewers: the movie was much more tight and effective - and, in the end, a crisper experience. I can understand how RICK MOODY's writing, with its long-winded phrases, rich likenings and not so subtle metaphors, may seem a bit dated to the 1.3sec zapping generation. However, I think that a slow, joyful reading is needed to do justice to this book.

RECOMMENDED!

Great Book, 27 Mar 2007
Don't believe this cover - this book certainly isn't a comedy although it has a few humorous moments. In reality it is a gripping read of relationships falling apart and the impact on the families - all coming to a head with the dramatic events on the evening of the ice storm. I saw the film first and loved it. I'd also recommend the book for a slower more in depth exploration of a moving story where you can connect with each of the 8 central characters. I'm looking forward to watching the film again.

Why not 5 stars ? A little slow at times during the first half before really gripping in the second half.

american suburbia in the 1970's, 09 Apr 2001
in this novel moody depicts a nuclear family being torn apart in 1970's Connecticut. This book is a great read, and moody's eye for detail makes it very enjoyable. the characters are very well defined and the insight into the family is incredible. from mother to son, to father to mistress, moody really connects with each character and the ice storm finale is tremendous. a really great read.

Seen the film - now read this, 20 Nov 2000
It's amazing what the film left out of this tale about the swinging 70's -in depth character descriptions bring the people we love to hate (in the film) to life. This book is fairly fast moving and just as enjoyable (if not moreso) than the film. Sexy, surprising you name it this book has it all!

Good but only for one reason!, 19 Aug 1999
This is an excellent screenplay, however, in my mind, only for one reason. One of the actresses is the greatest- Katie Holmes, she is in this and that's why it's great!!!

this is one for the collection., 19 Nov 2001
Superb interviews with all the great beats. The Kerouac interview was particulary interesting as he was hitting the booze at his mothers (with Stella bringing the drinks), very funny. 'interviewer - note drinks arrive'