Demonology: Stories
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1 journaler for this copy...
From Publishers Weekly
Sending wry, heartbroken characters across the slightly tilted landscapes of his fiction, Moody fosters a low-grade bemusement in the 13 stories collected here. "The Mansion on the Hill," the first and perhaps the best, follows the adventures of narrator Andrew Wakefield as he tries to come to terms with his sister's deathAshe was killed in a car accident just before her wedding. Coincidentally finding himself employed at a ritzy wedding-planning business, Andrew alternates memories of the past with clunky product-speak descriptions of his job. The death of a sister is the theme of the title story, too, a tale Moody confesses at the end is hardly fictional at all, echoing in his fervent first-person declarations the nonfiction stylings of Dave Eggers. First published in McSweeney's, "The Double Zero," another of Moody's stories, describes the humorous failure of a family ostrich ranch. In "Carousel," an aging, low-level Hollywood actress muses on the metaphysics of the movie business and ends up stuck in the middle of a drive-by shooting while waiting at McDonald's to buy orange juice for her daughter ("So why are they here? According to what rationale? Do they even have juice at McDonald's?"). Moody's self-conscious prose strains for hyper-modern colloquial detachment, but too often misses its mark, clanging just off-key. (Jan. 25) Forecast: Fans of Moody's novels and previous short story collection (The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven, 1995) will rush to flip through this uneven volume. Whether they will stick around to buy or to read all the way through remains to be seen, but the planned 9-city author tour will help.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
I have read that Rick Moody is a great writer. I've read about how he has a gift for prose, and his words are like pearls thrown before my seemingly piggish ears. I just don't get his writing. The stories are interesting, but I don't find some great metaphysicial meaning. I couldn't get into "Purple America," and I certainly didn't read "Demonology" cover to cover. Sure, some of the stories were interesting, but towards the end I found myself counting pages til the next story and that's not a good sign. I generally like short stories, so I thought I would enjoy this book, but I didn't. It's just average.
Sending wry, heartbroken characters across the slightly tilted landscapes of his fiction, Moody fosters a low-grade bemusement in the 13 stories collected here. "The Mansion on the Hill," the first and perhaps the best, follows the adventures of narrator Andrew Wakefield as he tries to come to terms with his sister's deathAshe was killed in a car accident just before her wedding. Coincidentally finding himself employed at a ritzy wedding-planning business, Andrew alternates memories of the past with clunky product-speak descriptions of his job. The death of a sister is the theme of the title story, too, a tale Moody confesses at the end is hardly fictional at all, echoing in his fervent first-person declarations the nonfiction stylings of Dave Eggers. First published in McSweeney's, "The Double Zero," another of Moody's stories, describes the humorous failure of a family ostrich ranch. In "Carousel," an aging, low-level Hollywood actress muses on the metaphysics of the movie business and ends up stuck in the middle of a drive-by shooting while waiting at McDonald's to buy orange juice for her daughter ("So why are they here? According to what rationale? Do they even have juice at McDonald's?"). Moody's self-conscious prose strains for hyper-modern colloquial detachment, but too often misses its mark, clanging just off-key. (Jan. 25) Forecast: Fans of Moody's novels and previous short story collection (The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven, 1995) will rush to flip through this uneven volume. Whether they will stick around to buy or to read all the way through remains to be seen, but the planned 9-city author tour will help.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
I have read that Rick Moody is a great writer. I've read about how he has a gift for prose, and his words are like pearls thrown before my seemingly piggish ears. I just don't get his writing. The stories are interesting, but I don't find some great metaphysicial meaning. I couldn't get into "Purple America," and I certainly didn't read "Demonology" cover to cover. Sure, some of the stories were interesting, but towards the end I found myself counting pages til the next story and that's not a good sign. I generally like short stories, so I thought I would enjoy this book, but I didn't. It's just average.
Journal Entry 2 by Rebemdee at By Mail in RABCK, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases on Monday, February 26, 2007
Released 17 yrs ago (2/26/2007 UTC) at By Mail in RABCK, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases
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I sent this out, I think through bookmooch, but totally forgot to mark that I did. Sorry!
I sent this out, I think through bookmooch, but totally forgot to mark that I did. Sorry!
