Moody, Rick Purple America: A Novel ISBN 13: 9780316579254

Purple America: A Novel - Hardcover

9780316579254: Purple America: A Novel
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
Having fled his less than perfect home life years ago, Hal Raitcliffe returns to help his ailing mother after his stepfather walks out on her, but over the course of one weekend, Hal's good intentions wear thin as the family airs its grievances. 50,000 first printing. Tour.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
Purple America begins in a bathtub and ends in Long Island Sound. In between, Rick Moody's latest novel explores the landscape of a family in crisis. Dexter (Hex) Raitliffe, a freelance publicist, returns home to care for his mother, Billie, who is dying by inches of a neurological disease that will rob her of motion, of speech, and finally of thought. Billie's second husband has left her--a fact that Hex is unaware of until he comes home--and her only hope for assisted suicide lies in her son. Unfortunately, Hex is barely able to conduct his own life, much less take his mother's. Purple America takes place over the course of a single night; in that night, Hex gives his mother a bath, reconnects with an old love, gets drunk, and goes after his stepfather to confront him, with tragic results.

As Moody weaves his tale of this fateful Friday evening, he juxtaposes themes of aging, obsolescence, and physical decline with an accident at the nuclear power plant where his stepfather works. What lifts this novel above its rather depressing subject matter is Moody's unsentimental storytelling and the soaring language with which he gives his characters voice. Purple America is by turns lyrical, tragic, ferocious, and funny, and Rick Moody is a writer with a brilliant future ahead of him.

About the Author:
Rick Moody (born Hiram Frederick Moody, III on October 18, 1961, New York City), is an American novelist and short story writer best known for The Ice Storm (1994), a chronicle of the dissolution of two suburban Connecticut families over Thanksgiving weekend in 1973. His first novel Garden State (1992) won the Pushcart Editor's Choice Award. His memoir The Black Veil (2002) won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir. He has also received the Addison Metcalf Award, the Paris Review Aga Khan Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, the Paris Review, Harper's, Details, the New York Times, and Grand Street. He grew up in several of the Connecticut suburbs where he later set stories and novels, including Darien and New Canaan. He graduated from St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, Brown University, received a master's degree in fine art from Columbia University and has taught at the State University of New York at Purchase and Bennington College. According to The Writer's Almanac, Moody dropped out of graduate school at Columbia after a year because he spent most of his time drinking and had a hard time paying his rent or holding a job. Moody stated, "I was a clerk at [a bookstore] and I got fired after one month. They said, 'We really like you and we respect you as a writer, but this cash register thing is just not working out.'" Moody finally checked himself into a mental hospital, got sober, and then he wrote his first novel, Garden State, about young people growing up in the industrial wasteland of New Jersey. He lives in Brooklyn and Fishers Island.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherLittle Brown & Co
  • Publication date1997
  • ISBN 10 0316579254
  • ISBN 13 9780316579254
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages298
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780316559775: Purple America: A Novel

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780316559775
Publisher: Back Bay Books, 1998
Softcover

9780002256872: Purple America.

Flamingo, 1998
Hardcover

9780006551027: Purple America

Flamingo, 1999
Softcover

9780002257879: Purple America

Flamingo, 1998
Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Moody,Rick
Published by Little,Brown (1997)
ISBN 10: 0316579254 ISBN 13: 9780316579254
New Hardcover First Edition Quantity: 1
Seller:
Enterprise Books
(Chicago, IL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First Edition. Book and DJ New. NO names or ANY markings. NOT remaindered. DJ not price clipped ($23.96) ; 298 pages; A mint copy of 1st edition. Seller Inventory # 10991

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 6.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Moody, Rick
Published by Little Brown & Co (1997)
ISBN 10: 0316579254 ISBN 13: 9780316579254
New Hardcover First Edition Quantity: 1
Seller:
Garys Books
(Apache Junction, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Included. 1st Edition. 0316579254 First edition.First printing. NOT inscribed clipped or marked in anyway. Signed on the title page. Securely wrapped and shipped in a box. F/F BOOK IS HARDCOVER. Seller Inventory # SKU1005773

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 8.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 6.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Rick Moody
Published by Little, Brown (1997)
ISBN 10: 0316579254 ISBN 13: 9780316579254
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
BowNError
(Front Royal, VA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Softcover. Condition: New. ADVANCE READER. Seller Inventory # BK3343

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 5.25
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Moody, Rick
Published by Little Brown & Co (1997)
ISBN 10: 0316579254 ISBN 13: 9780316579254
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Shakespeare Book House
(Rockford, IL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. The item is Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 570TQW0005BT_ns

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.55
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Rick Moody
Published by Little, Brown (1997)
ISBN 10: 0316579254 ISBN 13: 9780316579254
New Hardcover Signed Quantity: 1
Seller:
BowNError
(Front Royal, VA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Advance Reader Signed. Seller Inventory # BK2059

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 18.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 5.25
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Moody, Rick
Published by Little Brown & Co (1997)
ISBN 10: 0316579254 ISBN 13: 9780316579254
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Books Unplugged
(Amherst, NY, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition. Seller Inventory # bk0316579254xvz189zvxnew

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 25.58
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Moody, Rick
Published by Little Brown & Co (1997)
ISBN 10: 0316579254 ISBN 13: 9780316579254
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldenWavesOfBooks
(Fayetteville, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0316579254

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 21.61
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Moody, Rick
ISBN 10: 0316579254 ISBN 13: 9780316579254
New Paperback First Edition Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rose's Books IOBA
(Harwich Port, MA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. First Edition, First Printing. Boston, MA, Little Brown, 1997. First edition, first printing. 8vo. Paperback with a pictorial cover, 298 pp. The rich weave of this book encompasses the suburbs and the city, growing up and growing old, vanity and humility, ambition and surrender. Illuminated by a fierce intelligence and animated by rhapsodic prose, this is an original and unforgettable work from a writer with dazzling strength. New. Seller Inventory # 019775

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 22.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 6.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Moody, Rick
Published by Little Brown & Co (1997)
ISBN 10: 0316579254 ISBN 13: 9780316579254
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Book Deals
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0316579254-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 29.56
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Moody, Rick
Published by Little Brown & Co (1997)
ISBN 10: 0316579254 ISBN 13: 9780316579254
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Wizard Books
(Long Beach, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard0316579254

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 26.09
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.50
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book