false 15378 0316166340 9780316166348 94 26 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166672343m/15378.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15378.Right_Livelihoods_Three_Novellas 2278 Rick Moody 4184 447 1 0 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 typical Gothamite characters find a new way to deal with their grief: a drug called Albertine. One dose sends you on a vacation into your memories, and as a side effect, makes it harder for you to recall events without the drug. This is a play on the actual effects of heroin, and would have been an immensely clever trick on the part of the author had he not mentioned it outright. While our protagonist suffers to differentiate the real from the drug-induced memories, so too does the reader. I must give Moody credit for recreating the drug experience, but it makes for an unpleasant read. Without giving away anything, expect characters to appear from nowhere, change their name mid-paragraph, and then disappear just as rapidly. Seriously, one of the major characters goes by up to four different names on the same page.

The prose is reminiscent of Edith Wharton, which is to say, wholly inappropriate for this setting. Perhaps only the most pretentious of the posthumans would indulge in french idioms in casual conversation, and even then, not REPEATEDLY. The Albertine Notes delivers a somewhat satisfying ending, and as mentioned previously, is told with some measure of skill. Because of this, I cannot dismiss it out-of-hand, however, it is a labor to finish, and I'm not sure it was worth it.

All that said, I started reading the first novella, something cloyingly titled "Omega Force." I couldn't get past twenty pages. The self-indulgent prose is offensive, and the banter of the protagonist (Jay Gatsby minus the charm or the money) is hard to swallow. I might try the last remaining novella in the book, K&K, but the dolorous chore that was reading Albertine, compounded by the slap in the face at the onset of Omega, the chances that I'll get through the rest of the book are slim. ]]>