false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166672343m/15378.jpg 15378 4 RIGHT LIVELIHOODS begins with a cataclysmic vision of New York City after the leveling of 50 square blocks of Manhattan. Four million have died. Albertine, the "street name for the buzz of a lifetime," is a mind-altering drug that sets The Albertine Notes in motion. The collection's second novella, K & K, concerns a lonely young office manager at an insurance agency, where the office suggestion box is yielding unpleasant messages that escalate to a scary pitch. Ellie Knight-Cameron's responses to these random diatribes illuminate the toll that a lack of self-awareness can take. At the center of The Omega Force is a buffoonish former government official in rocky recovery. Dr. "Jamie" Van Deusen is determined to protect his habitat--its golf courses (and Bloody Marys), pizza places (and beers) from "dark-complected" foreign nationals. His patriotism and wild imagination are mainly fueled by a fall off the wagon. Only Rick Moody could lead us to feel affection for this man and the other misguided, earnestly striving characters in these alternately unsettling, warm, trio of stories. 1724200 6 6 2007 Right Livelihoods: Three Novellas total:96|5:13|4:23|3:32|2:22|1:6| 96 303 159 26 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 10:01:05 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 10:01:05 -0800 2009 The expression "right livelihood" refers to a Buddhist's duty to reject any occupation that causes harm to other living beings; Moody uses it as a satirical reference to the paranoia and confusion perpetuated by the main characters in Right Livelihoods. Critics found the novellas uneven, p...

more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jan 27 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 08:29:22 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 12:27:06 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false true Thu Jan 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Dec 16 08:02:19 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 16 07:23:59 -0800 2009
"The Omega Force." Wonderfully funny story with, wit...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Aug 21 11:15:23 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 08 09:11:25 -0700 2009
I moved on to the third and final "novella" which was worthy of a three star rating. Moody's only attempt at working within the (loosely defined version of the) sci-fi genre. In fact, the whole reason ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 28 18:54:57 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 20:03:26 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu Jul 31 18:20:12 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 06 17:47:14 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 31 18:20:12 -0700 2008
Moody describes a post-disaster New York in which typica...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Apr 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 29 13:24:05 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 18 20:08:32 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Jan 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 23 17:49:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jan 08 16:56:44 -0800 2009 Rick Moody to be one of my favorite contemporary authors. It was all because of his first collection of short stories, The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven, where his prose left me breathless and inspired. That collection, as well as his handful of early novels t...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Feb 22 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 03 17:49:50 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 22 09:11:40 -0800 2008 Rant. Where Master P stretches two or more presposterous ideas across each other until they become a taut web over which his Huck Finn characters are doomed to scramble, Moody starts with the character and allows the complexities of the worlds th...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 28 11:08:48 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 09 16:14:45 -0800 2007 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 28 12:50:54 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 28 12:51:33 -0700 2007
As long as there's been artists, there's been fans of artists; and as long as there's been fans of artists, there's been the question of artists' oeuvres, a fancy French term...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 24 10:31:35 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 24 08:18:44 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 10:44:38 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 06 12:37:50 -0700 2007
but lately...you're less the astonishingly compelling writer man i've loved and more laureate-y and obscure. i ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Feb 12 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Sep 07 16:47:01 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 07 16:47:01 -0700 2008
Until the last of the three Novellas: "The Albertine Notes". Again, things that resonate and resound and rebound and there you are and there it is. It is a crucial,...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Apr 29 12:28:24 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 29 12:29:15 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Mon Nov 24 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Oct 15 11:29:24 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 24 09:33:19 -0800 2008
The Albertine Notes is by far the best of the three--I doubt anyone could argue against this--and it only highlights how mediocre the other two are.

But all of Rick Moody's signature moves are he...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 15 07:53:10 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 19 08:00:09 -0700 2007 Right Livelihoods is not his most impressive work. It's not on par with Garden State, or The Ice Storm, or even The Diviners (which I really loved). ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 16 14:09:56 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 17 07:32:54 -0700 2007 so i actually only read the one novella I was interested in, "The Albertine Notes", but i give the book three stars on that basis. it's yr standard quote literary unquote writer slumming in the genre fiction aisles kinda routine. 'cept it's a pretty good tale, about memory and loss...more...]]> 1 0 false false Sun Oct 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 22 06:50:58 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 22 06:57:57 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Nov 12 10:49:12 -0800 2007 Mon Nov 12 10:55:45 -0800 2007 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=15378