The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven

Moody, Rick

ISBN 10: 0316579297 / ISBN 13: 9780316579292

Published by New York: Little Brown, 1995, New York, 1995

Hard Cover. Very Good. First Edition. Signed by Author. Moody's third book, following the celebrated Ice Storm. Fine in mildly rubbed jacket, signed by the author on the title page. Seller Inventory # 000006

Synopsis:

A collection includes an investigator who spies on his own wife and the title novella portraying three separate descents into the drug netherworld of 1980s New York. From the acclaimed author of The Ice Storm. 12,500 first printing. Tour.

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.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven
Publisher: New York: Little Brown, 1995, New York
Publication Date: 1995
Binding: Hard Cover
Condition: Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Signed: Signed by Author
Edition: First Edition