I Like __ A Lot
I like Rick Moody a lot, wanna fight?
Rick Moody, along with David Foster Wallace, was one of the big reasons I started writing fiction. The first book of his that I read was ‘Purple America.’ The opening pages of ‘Purple America’ are a man describing his mother’s failing body and the methods he employs to care for it in mostly one long run on sentence, post-Ginsberg ‘Kaddish’ style, and it is among the most beautiful openings of a book I can remember. This is an excerpt of the sentence:
“whosoever slips his mother’s panties up her legs and checks the dainty hairless passage into her vulva one more time, because he can’t resist the opportunity here for knowledge, whosoever gags briefly at his own forwardness, whosoever straps his mother’s bra onto her, though the value of a bra for her is negligible, whosoever slips a housedress over her head, getting first one arm and then the other tangled in the neck hole,”
etc etc. I realize more and more looking back how much I learned from Moody’s poetic listmaking devices and explorative thinking set in prose in the same way that I learned from DFW, but differently. Moody is a different beast, more florid in a certain way and more in a poetic mode, but the way he constructs these monsters of increasing awareness and tenor, I don’t know, they definitely have been important to me.
I don’t know either how Ricky Moody’s name ended up a shit-talk target in certain arenas and mouths. Maybe his winning a lot of money when he had already had a few successful books. Writers are jealous creatures. But Moody is anything but a sellout. I haven’t read Garden State or The Ice Storm, his earlier, more traditional books. Each of his books, beginning for me with ‘Purple America,’ and there forward, has leaned ever harder and further into a kind of demonstration of his mastery of wide vision and big sentences (the introduction to ‘The Diviners’ for instance: jesus). His books are the kind that can knock you on your ass line by line but also at the end when you are like ‘How the fuck did he create this.’ I say he deserves every cent and every ounce of the reputation he has earned. He is a true badass of words.
Rick Moody also has that rare ability that happens to me sometimes where it feels like the writer is talking to you straight on, as if he wrote the book for you alone. It’s weird when that happens, like you are taking a bath with a book or something. I still don’t know how he does that. He seems more aware of concept and ideas and how to lay them out in massive ambitious sentences that most anyone else I can think of.
I also really like his ‘The Black Veil,’ which loosely is a memoir, though more so an exploration of an idea: he finds out he is blood related to Nathaniel Hawthorne, and goes on this insane quest to discover more, eventually tying Hawthorne’s story where the character wears a black veil, which Moody replicates in real life. Though the book isn’t really about questing or such (there are some great scene though of him interacting with people wearing the veil): it is more an explosion of language and ideas, one that I almost can’t quite replicate summarily.
I would go so far as to say Rick Moody is underrated. Most people who would naysay him probably haven’t read anything he’s written, except maybe the Ice Storm, which is like sort of like shitting on David Lynch for Dune. That he has been able to bring such conceputal and language-based literature to such a wide group of people is a wonderful thing.
I challenge some people who haven’t tried Moody to look at ‘Purple America’ or ‘The Black Veil,’ particularly if you are a fan of Stephen Dixon or DFW or even Robert Coover or Jose Saramago. He is the real deal.
Tags: purple america, rick moody
This is the most sincere, inspiring review of anything I’ve read on this blog so far. I will check out Moody
This is the most sincere, inspiring review of anything I’ve read on this blog so far. I will check out Moody
thanks avi. buy ‘purple america’ you won’t regret it.
thanks avi. buy ‘purple america’ you won’t regret it.
thanks for the recomendation. i’ll put it on my christmas list.
thanks for the recomendation. i’ll put it on my christmas list.
actually, i just ordered it.
actually, i just ordered it.
awesome. let me know what you think.!
awesome. let me know what you think.!
this is how books/authors should be reviewed.
this is how books/authors should be reviewed.
thanks for the sentence. i just added moody to the christmas break reading list.
thanks for the sentence. i just added moody to the christmas break reading list.
awesome. the sentence the fragment is encased in is one of the greats.
awesome. the sentence the fragment is encased in is one of the greats.
I thought the black veil was quite good. Really nice send-up.
I thought the black veil was quite good. Really nice send-up.
demonology was a good collection, too. this was a gentlemanly and honest review, blake. it sucks when writers get targeted for something other than their writing. books are books. life is life. and shitty movies are shitty movies. i don’t know what that means, really. but it should be a bumper sticker.
demonology was a good collection, too. this was a gentlemanly and honest review, blake. it sucks when writers get targeted for something other than their writing. books are books. life is life. and shitty movies are shitty movies. i don’t know what that means, really. but it should be a bumper sticker.
demonology indeed is rad. the title story in particular: i remember it has that kind of shift of perspective like in dfw’s ‘good old neon’ where you all of a sudden feel like someone ripped the sheet out of from under you and you are floating. amazing.
demonology indeed is rad. the title story in particular: i remember it has that kind of shift of perspective like in dfw’s ‘good old neon’ where you all of a sudden feel like someone ripped the sheet out of from under you and you are floating. amazing.
rick moody is good but i wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s underrated. on the flip side i don’t think he’s overrated either. i think he’s just rated.
rick moody is good but i wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s underrated. on the flip side i don’t think he’s overrated either. i think he’s just rated.
I’ve had the Ice Storm on my shelf for quite awhile but have been relentlessly putting it off. What I’ve read skimming through it… well, I didn’t understand the hype. Now I feel that I have to pick up Purple America.
I’ve had the Ice Storm on my shelf for quite awhile but have been relentlessly putting it off. What I’ve read skimming through it… well, I didn’t understand the hype. Now I feel that I have to pick up Purple America.
i think he doesn’t get his full respect, mainly because the books he is ‘known’ for are his least ambitious.
yeah, skip the ice storm, read it later after the others if you still feel the need
i think he doesn’t get his full respect, mainly because the books he is ‘known’ for are his least ambitious.
yeah, skip the ice storm, read it later after the others if you still feel the need
I think people mistakenly think that the movie Garden State is based on his novel. It is not. That movie was written by Zach Braff–and you know what–I like it anyway. I also liked The Ice Storm movie. Good stuff.
I have read a couple of Moody books and he was really nice to let me publish an original story of his in The Insomniac Reader (his pay: $25 and a book). He’s a great writer and a good dude.
I think people mistakenly think that the movie Garden State is based on his novel. It is not. That movie was written by Zach Braff–and you know what–I like it anyway. I also liked The Ice Storm movie. Good stuff.
I have read a couple of Moody books and he was really nice to let me publish an original story of his in The Insomniac Reader (his pay: $25 and a book). He’s a great writer and a good dude.
yeah i thought the ice storm film was not bad at all. i still haven’t bothered to read the book though.
ugh, i wonder if he shudders about the potential mistaking of him writing that shitty ass movie
yeah i thought the ice storm film was not bad at all. i still haven’t bothered to read the book though.
ugh, i wonder if he shudders about the potential mistaking of him writing that shitty ass movie
What? Are you going to pretend you don’t like Natalie Portman now too? C’mon!
What? Are you going to pretend you don’t like Natalie Portman now too? C’mon!
not a portman fan. i’ve never understood the big deal about her. ‘girl next door’ and stuff i know. nahh
not a portman fan. i’ve never understood the big deal about her. ‘girl next door’ and stuff i know. nahh
I had the same thing Blake did with Purple America – read it about 10 or 12 years ago right around the time I was getting into reading more contemporary fiction, including DeLillo, Auster, DFW, Leyner, TC Boyle, etc, and Purple America definitely influenced how I think about fiction, especially the opening. Other things to like about Moody: he once met Gaddis and all they talked about was Bernhard – I heard that little story a few years ago and it served as my intro to Bernhard, so he’s initially responsible for my awareness of that lovely Austrian. I also saw Mr. Moody read at Housing Works in NYC when he was at the end of his tour for Demonology – he read the title story about his sister and entirely charged the room with sorrow and more or less ran out after it was over – unlike any reading I’d ever attended, totally earnest and powerful and real, artfully used words to transmit serious emotion. But yeah, when people talk about Moody, I generally say something like what Blake did, something along the lines of “I’m one of the six people in the world who actually admires his stuff” . . .
I had the same thing Blake did with Purple America – read it about 10 or 12 years ago right around the time I was getting into reading more contemporary fiction, including DeLillo, Auster, DFW, Leyner, TC Boyle, etc, and Purple America definitely influenced how I think about fiction, especially the opening. Other things to like about Moody: he once met Gaddis and all they talked about was Bernhard – I heard that little story a few years ago and it served as my intro to Bernhard, so he’s initially responsible for my awareness of that lovely Austrian. I also saw Mr. Moody read at Housing Works in NYC when he was at the end of his tour for Demonology – he read the title story about his sister and entirely charged the room with sorrow and more or less ran out after it was over – unlike any reading I’d ever attended, totally earnest and powerful and real, artfully used words to transmit serious emotion. But yeah, when people talk about Moody, I generally say something like what Blake did, something along the lines of “I’m one of the six people in the world who actually admires his stuff” . . .
blake:
girl next door was elisha cuthbert. natalie portman was in closer and that movie where she had the baby at wal-mart. to me natalie portman is gorgeous, but i had this girlfriend who looked very much like her so now i dont know if i am capable of seperating those two thought sin my mind when i consider her beauty. does that make sense to anyone?
blake:
girl next door was elisha cuthbert. natalie portman was in closer and that movie where she had the baby at wal-mart. to me natalie portman is gorgeous, but i had this girlfriend who looked very much like her so now i dont know if i am capable of seperating those two thought sin my mind when i consider her beauty. does that make sense to anyone?
me too.
me too.
Portman was in “The Professional” when she was just a kid, wasn’t she?
Portman was in “The Professional” when she was just a kid, wasn’t she?
just ordered purple america from powell’s. i can’t fucking wait
just ordered purple america from powell’s. i can’t fucking wait
barry, i meant people like her because she looks like a girl next door. i went to high school with like 4 of her.
i am glad you ordered purple america
barry, i meant people like her because she looks like a girl next door. i went to high school with like 4 of her.
i am glad you ordered purple america
agreed blake. you should read garden state. and then we will talk about it.
one of my favorite bad books.
agreed blake. you should read garden state. and then we will talk about it.
one of my favorite bad books.
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