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Book Summary and Reviews of Right Livelihoods by Rick Moody

Right Livelihoods by Rick Moody

Right Livelihoods

Three Novellas

by Rick Moody

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Jun 2007, 240 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Right Livelihoods begins with a cataclysmic vision of New York City after the leveling of 50 square blocks of Manhattan. Four million have died. Albertine, the "street name for the buzz of a lifetime," is a mind-altering drug that sets "The Albertine Notes" in motion.

The collection's second novella, "K & K", concerns a lonely young office manager at an insurance agency, where the office suggestion box is yielding unpleasant messages that escalate to a scary pitch. Ellie Knight-Cameron's responses to these random diatribes illuminate the toll that a lack of self-awareness can take.

At the center of "The Omega Force" is a buffoonish former government official in rocky recovery. Dr. "Jamie" Van Deusen is determined to protect his habitat--its golf courses (and Bloody Marys), pizza places (and beers) from "dark-complected" foreign nationals. His patriotism and wild imagination are mainly fueled by a fall off the wagon. Only Rick Moody could lead us to feel affection for this man and the other misguided, earnestly striving characters in these alternately unsettling, warm, trio of stories.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Two out of three [novellas] ain't bad." - PW.

"It's the perfect scenario for Moody's particular brand of swaggering wordplay, and he just runs with it." - Booklist.

This information about Right Livelihoods was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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