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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reading is FUN for the first time in a long time, August 18, 2010
THE FOUR FINGERS OF DEATH will remind you that storytelling is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to stretch the imagination. It's supposed to make you laugh and cringe and cry and smirk and push yourself forward to find out what happens next.
Put simply, I have not had this much fun reading a book -- on nearly every page -- in a long, long time. The second half, especially, feels like a farcical look at contemporary America while the first half has the more gritty suggestion of life during wartime. Truly, this is a book about today and how we got here and what we think we're going as a nation that wants to be optimistic but does pessimistic things. but it's also just a crazy story about the desolation of space travel, paling booths, talking chimps, and a killer bacteria from Mars. And even with all the hilarious, quirky, imaginative chunks, there are some deeply emotional relationships -- some that are variations on the core love affair that helps initiate the whole novelization-within-a-novel plot.
It can be read deeply or not. It can be read slowly or not. But i cannot imagine someone failing to enjoy themselves! I cannot recommend this book enough and yet I hesitate, briefly, because I want everyone I talk to about this book to find it as bizarre and addictive as I do. it's not going to happen, of course, because we all have different needs and interests as readers.
Read it. Let it take its time. It will turn inside out, surprise you, impress you. And you won't have more fun reading anything else. ever.
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18 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rick Moody's Best Novel: A Grand, Glorious Celebration of Science Fiction and Horror, August 1, 2010
"The Four Fingers of Death", Rick Moody's latest novel, is not just the best novel from the greatest living writer of my generation. It is a superb work of science fiction in its own right; a most elegant blend of interplanetary space opera and horror, set amidst a near future dystopian southwestern United States that bears more than a passing glimpse to our own. Dedicated to the memory of Kurt Vonnegut, the novel really reads more like a literary tribute to the legendary Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" with more than a passing nod to Neal Stephenson's late work ("Cryptonomicon", "The Baroque Cycle"). With "The Four Fingers of Death", Rick Moody joins such eminent mainstream writers as Margaret Atwood and Doris Lessing in demonstrating that he, like them, has become well-versed in the literary traditions of science fiction.
"The Four Fingers of Death" is a literary triptych; three separate novels all merged into one. First is the near future tale that opens and closes this novel of hard on his luck writer Montese Crandall, who wins the right to write a novelization of the 2025 remake of the classic 1963 horror film "The Crawling Hand". The other two books comprise his "novelization". The first book, chronicling the interplanetary trek to Mars and the subsequent exploration of the Red Planet by a doomed team of American astronauts, is Moody at his Bradburyesque best. Moody's evocation of interplanetary space travel is one of the finest accounts I've seen written in science fiction, rendered in a cinema verite-like style. The second book is an exhilarating, often darkly humorous, descent into horror, as we, the readers, are immersed in the trail of death and destruction left by the "Four Fingers of Death", set largely within the Rio Blanco (actually Tucson), Arizona cityscape. It's also a smart, often witty, and dystopic, look at our own immediate future (maybe the present), with Moody's literary commentary ranging from alternative lifestyles to the philosophical observations of human-animal relations from the very mouth of a talking chimpanzee.
I found "The Four Fingers of Death" impossible to put down. This is a great work of literary fiction which deserves a wide readership from both mainstream and traditional science fiction literary audiences. If nothing else, "The Four Fingers of Death" should remind readers that there exists now - as well as in the past - a great treasure trove of literary riches awaiting anyone who is unfamiliar with the history and literary traditions of science fiction. Definitely one of the finest works of fiction published this year and a work which demonstrates finally, at last, that Rick Moody was not merely a student of John Hawkes, but also of Angela Carter, at Brown University.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fun book with a lot to say, November 8, 2010
I'm not too surprised that not everyone liked this book. It's not a straight-on, linear narrative, so that automatically dumbfounds a lot of people. But I am surprised at how dismissive some of the critical reviews are. This book really resonated with me as an exploration of human nature in situations that vary from the highly exaggerated stress of surviving a trip to Mars to the more mundane stress of surviving day-to-day in times of economic uncertainty. Yes, a talking chimp seems like a gimmick, but I loved Morton. He's a great character who deserves to be called by name. Like all good characters, Morton has his flaws, but each time he speaks, he exposes how much human potential is wasted in ego, selfishness and greed. He's definitely someone I would like to know. If you're looking for a book that says comforting things about homo sapiens and the USA, you'll want to move on, but in the end Moody gives us a great essay on what's really important and wonderful about being human. I found this to be a fun, adventurous book with a lot of serious and important content.
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