The Ring of Brightest Angels around Heaven: A Novella and Stories

by Rick Moody

Overview

On the occasion of the paperback release of Demonology, Back Bay Books takes pleasure in making all four of Rick Moody's acclaimed earlier works of fiction available in handsome new paperback editions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316706285
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	04/10/2002
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	834,752
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Rick Moody (1961) is an American author of novels and short stories best known for his 1994 novel The Ice Storm, a chronicle of the dissolution of two families over one long holiday weekend. An instant bestseller, it was later adapted into a film of the same name. His first book Garden State was published in 1992. His later works include The Diviners and The Four Fingers of Death. In 1999 he was designated by The New Yorker as one of 20 Writers for the 21st Century.

Hometown:

New York, NY

Date of Birth:

October 18, 1961

Education:

B.A., Brown University, 1983; M.F.A., Columbia University, 1986

Table of Contents

	The Preliminary Notes	3
	The Grid	29
	Phrase Book	39
	Treatment	59
	The James Dean Garage Band	71
	Pip Adrift	101
	A Good Story	113
	The Apocalypse Commentary of Bob Paisner	121
	Twister	151
	The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven	155
	Primary Sources	231

What People are Saying About This

Mark Leyner

Rick Moody is an extraordinary writer and The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven is a masterful, exhilerating performance.

Editorial Reviews

The author of two much-admired novels of suburban anomie here delivers 10 ingenious but uneven stories with a wide range of subjects, styles and voices. Shaped as treatments, sketches and journal entries as well as traditional short stories, these literate, sharply delineated, darkly funny but occasionally contrived pieces explore the vicissitudes of life in New York City and its suburbs. Moody's (The Ice Storm) most compelling characters are desolate or wrongheaded losers, like the narrator of ``Preliminary Notes,'' a manic insurance investigator whose attempts to record his wife's phone calls reveal that their marriage is about to collapse. ``The Apocalypse Commentary of Bob Paisner,'' a hilarious variation on Pale Fire, is a story in the form of a term paper by a collegiate misfit obsessed with connections between his life and the Book of Revelations. In ``Pip Adrift,'' the deranged African American cabin boy in Moby-Dick recounts falling overboard; ``Primary Sources'' is Moody's autobiography framed as a bibliography with footnotes. The title piece, a novella, is a gritty, lyrical but dispassionate portrait of young people whose lives intersect and bottom out in a dystopian New York of heroin dens and sex clubs. An affecting but noncohesive collection that, despite flashes of brilliance, sometimes strains for effect. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly