false 15376 8 <I>Purple America</I> begins in a bathtub and ends in Long Island Sound. In between, Rick Moody's latest novel explores the landscape of a family in crisis. Dexter (Hex) Raitliffe, a freelance publicist, returns home to care for his mother, Billie, who is dying by inches of a neurological disease that will rob her of motion, of speech, and finally of thought. Billie's second husband has left her--a fact that Hex is unaware of until he comes home--and her only hope for assisted suicide lies in her son. Unfortunately, Hex is barely able to conduct his own life, much less take his mother's. <I>Purple America</I> takes place over the course of a single night; in that night, Hex gives his mother a bath, reconnects with an old love, gets drunk, and goes after his stepfather to confront him, with tragic results.<P> As Moody weaves his tale of this fateful Friday evening, he juxtaposes themes of aging, obsolescence, and physical decline with an accident at the nuclear power plant where his stepfather works. What lifts this novel above its rather depressing subject matter is Moody's unsentimental storytelling and the soaring language with which he gives his characters voice. <I>Purple America</I> is by turns lyrical, tragic, ferocious, and funny, and Rick Moody is a writer with a brilliant future ahead of him. 17253 1997 Purple America total:325|5:58|4:103|3:106|2:41|1:17| 325 1119 424 38 1 1 false false Tue Jan 16 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Mon Feb 11 06:12:15 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 11 06:12:15 -0800 2008
When Rick Moody released The Ice Storm a few years back, he was heralded as the next big thing in the publishing business. Then Ang Lee got ahold of it and made it into a box-office flop that garnered critical acclaim from here to tomorrow, ...more...]]> 1 1 false false Thu Aug 23 01:58:14 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 23 02:01:14 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Apr 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 14:51:17 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 14:48:53 -0700 2009
Overall, this book was about as depressing as you could get, but I appreciated the Rick Moody's unwillingness to flinch from what is a depressing situation. However, Moody tended to focus on the most d...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Mar 04 11:00:33 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 12 20:20:10 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 11:00:33 -0800 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Nov 10 10:45:01 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 10 10:45:01 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jan 02 08:09:46 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 08:12:22 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jan 16 07:24:41 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 07:25:41 -0800 2009
Highly Reccomended.]]> 0 0 false false Wed Oct 14 12:39:28 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 12:40:15 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Dec 23 09:26:57 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 09:28:17 -0800 2008 1 0 false false Sun Feb 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 08:50:28 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 05:40:21 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu Jul 10 16:13:47 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 30 18:49:57 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 10 16:13:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Feb 26 22:15:39 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 09 09:51:09 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 14 07:26:32 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 20 12:50:32 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 20 12:51:43 -0700 2008 At any rate, it's a deeply mental sort of book with a small amount of depravity in gener...more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Oct 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 08:26:52 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 19:25:34 -0700 2009
-Joe-]]> 0 0 true false Wed Jul 11 00:21:19 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 11 00:27:58 -0700 2007

(Catalog under nuclear power and its problems, dead father, stutter, dying mother, divorce, humiliation, small town, tourism, church, d...more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Feb 25 18:46:28 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 10 13:02:15 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 03 16:49:20 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 03 17:14:19 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Mon Jun 11 16:25:28 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 07 21:23:48 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 22 14:23:24 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 22 14:23:24 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Mon Apr 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 30 11:15:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 14:59:19 -0700 2009