Reviews

Black Veil: A Memoir with Digressions, by Rick Moody

library_brandy's review

4.0

Moody did manage to tie together his memoir with "The Minister's Black Veil," but ultimately it was because of a genealogy project--the Moody in the story being, according to family legend, one of Rick Moody's ancestors.

The memoir parts of the book were interesting, and I really enjoyed those sections. The criticism of the short story I have no intention to read, not so much. And really--is a stranger's genealogy interesting to anyone besides the person doing the researching?

suzmac's review

3.0

When one needs a break from the contrived nature of novels, there's Rick Moody. Especially this one. Its semiautobiographical, and semi-narrative. You get the impression you're eavesdropping on thoughts meant to be private. It's deep, feels real, but is not so much uplifting for the experience. Partly I think it's fascinating to witness someone who can't hold his life together and partly its the satisfaction of his unique voice.
The veil theme played out just fascinated me.

Publisher's weekly review:
Melancholy is a way of thinking. After having a panic attack Christmas, 1986, there are therapist visits and drugs prescribed. Then in March Moody experiences irrational thoughts, blackness. He ends up in a psychiatric hospital in Queens in 1987.

The writer began the book seeking to conceal nothing. It is an interesting amalgam of family history, personal history, and descriptions of the writer's craft. The Hawthorne story is presented at the end of the book