13.5.09

The Ice Storm - Rick Moody

This book focuses heavily on masturbation, secrecy, and suburban depravity. The characters are almost all - no, entirely - depressed, depressing, hedonistic people of privilege who, so oppressed by their own sacred boundaries of upper-class-dom, are driven to strange means of pleasure and excitement. The story is centered around the obvious symbolism of a brutal ice storm that freezes the holiday nonsense of New Canaan and maroons the residents in their respective places of deviancy. The adults are drunk and loose and because of that so are the children. Written in quick, confident pop prose, it is almost possible to ignore the hollow plot and glaring metaphors and just enjoy the ride. Perhaps I just don't find the emptiness of American suburbia very interesting, funny, or disturbing, but once again this seems like a good example of over-hyped popular literature (see reviews: Oracle Bones, The Inheritance of Loss).

BOOOOOOOO!
1.5 out of 5
Buy this book: The Ice Storm

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