Rick’s Moody Blues
Got my copy of Rick Moody’s The Diviners. Read prologue and first chapter in order of appearance. The prologue is fourteen pages long and this is what happens: the sun comes up. It comes up beautifully from the LA basin to the Japanese archipelago, across the Himalayas, through Pakistan eventually reaching New York City. A barrage of imagery, historical footnotes, geographical highlights, reflections, observations, spanning the globe with time lapse precision. I was a little strung out as Chapter One arrived. My inner critic was restless, asking where are the Doritos?
Chapter One is promising. There’s a person in the chapter. She’s a compendium of ailments, attitudes, age related afflictions. She torments yuppies who park in her parking space even though she doesn’t own a car. She’s guarded her stretch of curb for thirty five years and you gotta love that.
I’m hooked. If the last chapter isn’t a fourteen page sunset, this could be all right. Rick Moody comes to satire like a fire chief with his battalion. He runs the hoses in, sets up his perimeter. Good pressure from the hydrant. Okay, set the building on fire.