Garden State

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:	9780316557634
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	04/02/1997
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	556,224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.62(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

What People are Saying About This

John Hawkes

Extraordinary! Rick Moody writes with meticulous originality. I feel like going out in the street and whooping at such splendor!

Editorial Reviews

These New Jersey kids have it all: rage, poverty, depression, paranoia, violent sex, cheap booze, mental hospitals, nihilism, street drugs, suicide. It's an American nightmare set to a blaring punk-and-thrash soundtrack. What are their prospects: ``Nothing had come since high school and . . . nothing would come of the years ahead.'' What about their parents: ``Lower down, Ruthie loved disaster.'' Not deeper down, just lower. Work is a trap, family a sick joke, and not even fantasy brings relief: ``Fantasies are like ideals. . . . Close in on them and they move. Further out, mostly.'' Unlike Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho ( LJ 1/91) and similar rolls in the sleaze, this book is well and subtly written. You may not initially identify with these folks, but you learn just how they feel, why they try to escape, and why running solves nothing. In the end, can there be any hope that a cynical heavy metal bimbo and a fragile former mental patient will help each other turn their lives around? Well, maybe. This winner of Pushcart's Tenth Annual Editors' Book Award is very powerful. Highly recommended.-- Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. at Chico

Library Journal