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Right Livelihoods: Three Novellas
by Rick Moody

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15378.Right_Livelihoods_Three_Novellas?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Right Livelihoods: Three Novellas" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1166672343m/15378.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15378.Right_Livelihoods_Three_Novellas?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Right Livelihoods: Three Novellas</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2278.Rick_Moody">Rick Moody</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9661332?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a difficult book to write about because its three novellas are so very different. Their distinctness allows them to stand alone as separate works but jumping from one to another proves difficult because there is no cohesion. Even in a good collection of short stories, the characters and elements change, but there is some strand--a voice or tone--that stays constant, or the experience can be jarring. Reading Right Livelihoods felt like Moody was, genius-ly in some cases, experimenting via following avenues of no return. The one idea that ties them all together is a sense of the mood change in post-911 America, and because of that, a near-apocalyptic undercurrent.
 
 The first novella was for me the least compelling. It's written in the droll voice of wealthy, upper class retiree who's steadily losing his mind. Being inside the mind of someone losing their sanity can be confusing and the by the end the narrative becomes a bit incomprehensible. 
 
 As per usual, there is a great sense of humor throughout though and Moody manages to make the most obnoxious characters worthy of your unlikely sympathy. The second novella, "K&K," while also a character study involving a severely deluded person, is much more readable. Detailing the pathetic and lonely life of office manager Ellie, the novella flashes to scenes reminiscent of "The Office," but in a more modest, solemn way.
 
 The third part crowns the collection. Called "The Albertine Notes," it features a blown-up, desolated New York City. The entire population is hooked on a memory-inducing drug, which main character, Kevin Lee, researches the roots of for an article that he has been commissioned to write by a magazine. The labyrinthine plot emerges as Kevin chases down the convoluted network of people that are pulling the strings behind the past and present of this scary future world. This is Moody's imagination and wit on overdrive, and ends up being a very clever and timely read. 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/24448?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

snackywombat's review
rating:
recommended for: city dwellers

This is a difficult book to write about because its three novellas are so very different. Their distinctness allows them to stand alone as separate works but jumping from one to another proves difficult because there is no cohesion. Even in a good collection of short stories, the characters and elements change, but there is some strand--a voice or tone--that stays constant, or the experience can be jarring. Reading Right Livelihoods felt like Moody was, genius-ly in some cases, experimenting via following avenues of no return. The one idea that ties them all together is a sense of the mood change in post-911 America, and because of that, a near-apocalyptic undercurrent.

The first novella was for me the least compelling. It's written in the droll voice of wealthy, upper class retiree who's steadily losing his mind. Being inside the mind of someone losing their sanity can be confusing and the by the end the narrative becomes a bit incomprehensible.

As per usual, there is a great s...more

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message 1: by Scott

11/30/2007 03:57AM

Finally we agree on a writer ... I read this, and I thought these were very good, though not as fully realized as his best two novels: The Diviners and The Ice Storm. This was his shot at genre fiction, so he says about the last piece anyway. Overall, good stories, great writer. He has been rumored to be a pompous ass, but I saw him give a reading of The Diviners and he seemed okay, but in the prose you can tell he loves himself and thinks he’s above the muck, Mucky Wombat.

SCOTT