In this searing, brilliantly acclaimed memoir, one of the most admired writers of his generation reveals how a decade of alcohol, drugs, and other indulgences led. The four fingers of death, purple america, the ice storm, and garden state, as well as an awardwinning memoir and multiple collections of short fiction. The black veil is rick moody s account of that debilitating passage in his life. The new testament revisited, and with rob spillman, he edited fantastic women, a collection of innovative writing by women writers. A memoir with digressions 2002 in this searing, brilliantly acclaimed memoir, rick moody reveals how a decade of alcohol, drugs, and other indulgences led him not to the palace of wisdom but to a psychiatric hospital in one of new yorks less exalted boroughs. Rick moody is a writer who, after a halfhearted suicide. The black veil a memoir with digressions by rick moody. Black veil refers to a hawthorne story, the ministers black veil. Moody is the recipient of a guggenheim fellowship, and his work has been anthologized in best american stories, best american essays, and the. Possible ex library copy, thatll have the markings and stickers associated from the library. First the writer suffers, then the reader, and finally the publisher, all together in a tiny whirlpool of pain. With the black veil, rick moody has written a brilliantly realized memoir which i suspect will one day be remembered as well as frank mccourts angelas ashes.
In the summer of 1987, before he had published any of his fictions about substance abuse. This was the case when my sister handed the black veil by rick moody to me during my december holiday vacation to tennessee. In the preface to the black veil, moody writes that the book and my life are written in fits, more like epilepsy than like a narrative, clarifying his description of the book as a memoir with digressions. Rick moody is the author, most recently, of hotels of north america. The black veil author rick moodys first work of nonfiction lifts the veil on some of his own worst experiences from struggling with substance abuse and depression to surviving a destructive relationship with an exgirlfriend. He was in residence before that, sure, throughout the early years, but in a way more capricious than fatherly. Novelist rick moody is the author of the ice storm which was made into a film, and the short story collection demonology. I am sometimes reluctant to read a book when someone says i should read it because it was a good book, but the reluctance becomes even more cringe worthy when i am told i should read it because it was weird. It is the powerfully written story of a mind unraveling, and of how it. Digressions with a memoir, as he tends to jump between genealogy, family stories, the history of rock quarries in. Moody, the middle child, had divorced parents, the divorce event having transpired in 1970 when the family was living in darien, ct.
The title refers to nathaniel hawthornes the ministers black veil, which. Also an art critic, he has contributed to several contemporary art and photography books. Thats how critic newton arvin once described nathaniel hawthorne, but it applies just as well to rick moody and his latest book, the black veil. Author rick moody s first work of nonfiction lifts the veil on some of his own worst experiences from struggling with substance abuse and depression to surviving a destructive relationship with an exgirlfriend. In fact, moody might have been better served in titling the book. Rick moody is the author of the awardwinning memoir the black veil and of the novels hotels of north america, the four fingers of death, the diviners, purple america, the ice storm and garden state, as well as three collections of short fiction, including demonology. This ebook features an illustrated biography of rick moody including rare images from the authors personal collection. At once a harrowing personal story and a dazzling exploration of ancestral inheritance, cultural mythology, and the very idea of self, the black veil indelibly captures and conveys what it means to be young and confused, older and confused, guilty, lost, and finally healed. A memoir with digressions ebook written by rick moody. Rightfully selfconscious about writing a memoir at the ripe age of 39, the threetime novelist sets his life story against a backdrop of colonial america and. Rick moody is the author of the awardwinning memoir the black veil, the novels hotels of north america, the four fingers of death, the diviners, purple america, the ice storm, garden state, and multiple collections of short fiction. Spine creases, wear to binding and pages from reading.
Moody is the recipient of a guggenheim fellowship, and his work has been anthologized in best american stories. Both his fiction and now his memoir find a quirky, at times, dark comedy in a culture whose inhabitants are falling apart. A memoir with digressionsby rick moody little, brown, 288 pp. Moody s first foray into nonfiction is a curious amalgam of family history, literary criticism and recovery memoir. Beginning with his childhood and widening his gaze to his ancestral past, moody. It is the powerfully written story of a mind unraveling, and of how it feels when the underpinnings of life fall away. Rick moody s the black veil is the latest voyage to the bottom of the sink, a journey of selfdiscovery jinxed by dense fog and treacherous syntax. While readers who share both rick moody s last name and his fetish for genealogy might get a kick out of the black veil, the selfstyled memoir with digressions fails to transcend moody s pet obsessionsthough not for lack of trying. The black veil, and a collection of essays, on celestial music. A memoir by rick moody 2002, hardcover at the best online prices at ebay.
May contain limited notes, underlining or highlighting that does affect the text. I apologize for the abruptness of this declaration, its lack. Much of the black veil concerns the opaque life of sorrowful handkerchief no relation, it turns out and the rich symbolism of the veil. Moodys memoir the black veil 2002 won the namiken book award and the penmartha albrand award for the art of the memoir. From the acclaimed rick moody, a darkly comic portrait of a man who comes to life in the most unexpected of ways. Rick moody is the author of the novels demonology, purple america, the ring of brightest angels around heaven, the ice storm, the black veil, and garden state, which won the pushcart prize editors book award.
Accessories such as cd, codes, toys, may not be included. Its a conversation that contrasts the desire to hide familial guilt from the world with the selfrevelation that is. He calls his new book, the black veil, a sort of nonfiction novel. Rick moody is the worst writer of his generation the new. Remarkably broad in scope and full of moody s witticisms and brilliantly crafted prose, the black veil is an extraordinary exploration of both personal and cultural shame that transcends the expectations of a memoir. A memoir with digressions little, brown, rick moody explores his dark ancestry, which includes the puritan minister who inspired a famous hawthorne story. Moody himself hit bottom in 1987 at a psychiatric hospital in queens, new york city, an experience that he recounts briefly in the black veil. A consciousness in which the sense of guilt luxuriates like noisome growths in a swamp. Yet, the black veil is less spastic than the reader might at first surmise.