The Diviners

Not interesting

This was so strange and disjointed, I put it down after about 50 pages and traded it in at the used book store. Maybe someone will like it, but it wasn't me.

The Diviners

Rick Moody is undoubtedly a talented writer. The Ice Storm is an almost perfectly wrought novel. Purple America is splendid in its pathos and grandeur. Unfortunately, the Diviners is disappointing. The novel is a baggy, corpulent monster of a book - with a huge cast of characters, multiple focal points, and the street directory of New York thrown in for good measure. Moody has some good moments - the description of express messenger bike-riders as centaurs is inspired. However, he wastes his energies with his Nabokovian aspirations for artful prose. The portentous imagery - ranging from the 2000 US elections to the desert quests of diviners - rings somewhat hollow. Moody really needed some ruthless editing to strip away the excesses of the book.

Kirkus Review is Inaccurate

This is a spectacular book. It is experimental, edgy, irreverant, sometimes vulgar, totally unsubtle, and totally brilliant. Rick Moody has transcended his typical genre, and practically created one of his own.

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