Customer Reviews

The Four Fingers of Death: A Novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

"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.

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.

This is one quirky little book.

We start out, in something called the Introduction, following the exploits of Montese Crandall who is what I would call a minimalist author. Montese believes that a 25 to 35 page story can be boiled down to it's purist essence and you end up with a 5 to 7 word sentence after getting rid of all the fluff. This does however take time so Montese has written a total of 7 stories in 6 years and he is not exactly getting rich from it.

At one of his book readings, they don't last long, he befriends one of the attendees and starts playing chess with him. The new friend is TERRIBLE.

His friend comes into a bit of luck in that he has been commissioned to write a book for $750 and Montese bets him that he can beat him at chess than he will take the assignment and earn the money at which point Montese's new friend says that if he wins he'd like a Dave McClintock rookie card, class B issue. WTH ! How did this person know he had one ? How good is this person at chess ? Has this been a setup all along ?

The story ends and we move into Book One

In Book One we follow the flight to Mars of three Earth starships to start to establish a colony there. Actually it's just suppose to be a mission to find water on Mars but it appears that on their way to the planet there may be other agenda's for the trip.

Each starship has 3 people aboard and the entire trip is through the eyes and thoughts of Colonel Jed Richards. On the way to Mars some of the astronauts start to experience Space Panic or interplanetary disinhibitory disorder which seems to get worse the further they get from Earth. There is a murder and other mayhem that prevails until they get to Mars.

By that time it is crystal clear to Jed that there are at least two different missions for their trip and while the astronauts are setting up their camp one astronaut just drives away to pursue whatever secret mission he has been given.

Did I mention the Martian Baby !!!

Book one ends with a single astronaut heading to Earth. The status of the rest of the 8 astronauts will require you to read the book

There is then an extensive apology from the author of book one that none of the contents of Book One appear in the movie the Four Fingers of Death but he feels it fills in the background and answers questions that may arise when you start to read Book Two which is the next section of this story, and is of course the screenplay for the movie

Book Two has multiple story arcs including of course the return of Colonel Jed Richards to Earth. We also meet renowned international stem cell theoretician Woo Lee Koo from Korea who has moved to the USA to try and develop a way to reanimate his dead wife who he just happens to have parts of in a cryogenic freezer in his garage. As well there is a story arc for Dr Koo's son Jean-Paul who has a real attitude towards life and a selective vocabulary of profanity, which he uses often

Jed does return to Earth, sort of. There is that little blowing up incident during re-entry but that has never stopped a sci-fi story in the past and it certainly doesn't here. Everyone's attention is of course on the possibility that a bacteria called M. thanatobacillus has been brought to Earth. This bacteria is said to disassemble any body that it infects. Pretty cool weapon heh ! Or is that cruel weapon ! anyway the DOD is after it.

Dr Koo has been experimenting on chimpanzees and orang-utans to develop his reanimation process but so far without success. However it a stroke of luck he injects some of his wifes' DNA into a chimpanzees brain and the chimpanzee becomes self aware, AND CAN TALK ! In fact he is a motor mouth once he gets started he just doesn't shut up. After all he has his entire life before becoming self aware to tell everyone. Plus he has opinions about everything.

We then have Jean-Paul and his girl friend become infected by the bacteria, we have a part of Colonel Jed Richards infecting everyone, and the DOD and CDC plus Dr Koo on the lookout for it. It all culminates at a giant festival with the DOD finally enacting the SOLUTION.

As Book Two ends we then go to Afterward: On the Crawling Hand by Montese Crandall in which Montese talks about this 1963 movie The Crawling Hand and it's fine attributes

ORIGINALITY (standard, high, stellarl) - HIGH - the two book scenario results in two actual books being included

ACTION (none, some, lots) - SOME - the characters are always getting into action situations, mostly in Book One

SEX (none, some, lots) SOME - Colonel Richards and Jean Paul Koo in different parts of the book but it's only a couple of pages each

PROFANITY (none, some, lots) SOME - it basically is Jean-Paul Koo who has the potty mouth, otherwise none.

The author fills pages with information and ruminations about what the characters have done or said and in some cases he seems to ramble on. However he certainly fills any gaps in understanding the reader may have.

And lastly where does the four fingers of death enter into the book. Oh it's there. But you have to read the book to discover it as well as answer the question Why Only Four Fingers ??

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I'm a fan of big, idea-packed books and I have no problem with non-linear plots, lengthy digressions, meandering exposition, anti-climax, leisurely pacing, etc. I also don't think that science fiction (if that's what this is?) has to fit a particular mold. That said, while I appreciate the ambition of this book and find a lot to admire in it, I have to admit that I'm not finding it to be nearly as much fun as I had anticipated it would be, given the subject matter of the main plot line. I'm about 450 pages into it and will definitely finish it--perhaps what's yet to come will vindicate the time and energy I've devoted to it. Even if not, it's been an interesting experience.

Rick Moody has, once again, forged new terrain. Out of really excellent old terrain! His latest novel is readable and funny and sad and, as always, very smart. I'm not even a fan of campy horror movies, or Mars, or space travel, or talking chimpanzees. . . but I loved this book. Do yourself a favor: read it.

An excellent novel from Rick Moody, an overstuffed deep-dish pizza of a book, well-worth the effort to steam through its 700+ pages. Brimming with dark humor, slightly flawed in places, but still one of the finest new novels you are likely to encounter this year by any American author.

Overall, there is so much crammed into this novel that it is difficult to classify: clearly, literary, but also a robust satire of contemporary American culture, dealing very seriously with the potential impact of a steep economic decline of the West, the failed military adventurism of the Bush-Cheney presidency, and the ethos of a youth culture wallowing in narcissism. Pretty funny stuff, hey! And I did not breeze effortlessly through this long novel, as one reviewer here has indicated. I consumed the book in smaller pieces over about three weeks' time.

The actual structure of the book is noteworthy because it is consciously a triptych: two stylistically different sections of a basically cheesy science fiction/horror story that Moody sandwiches between two ends of a slim, confessional memoir written by the purported author of the two middle sections. Sound confusing? It isn't really, as each section is distinct and can standalone. And while the structure is distinctive, and the three separate chunks of the book do work together in a variety of subtle ways, the form of the novel doesn't ever become dominant over the narrative experience, in the way that it does in, for example, David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" or something by Calvino.

Other reviewers have already summarized the plot, so I won't revisit that here. Just talking about the cheesy plot elements as if this were a conventional science fiction novel doesn't do the book justice anyway, because it's really in the execution that "The Four Fingers of Death" excels. The account of the Mars mission, which is Book One, is told in an unadorned narrative style, a first person account dictated by one of the military-trained (20 years in the future, it seems we are still bogged down in combat in Central Asia) astronauts on the doomed mission, with a few humorous interludes interspersed that are laugh-out-loud funny. The astronaut's tale gathers power as the disaster unfolds. This portion of the story I found to be quite sobering. There is also a backstory here of the US never recovering from its current economic decline, its industrial base & infrastructure crumbling, and its moral fabric unraveling that underlies the disastrously & cynically underfunded Mars mission's failure that plays a more central role in Book Two. This is very skillfully executed, down to echoes of the George W. Bush NASA policy that made a manned mission to Mars a central fantasy, while cynicially cutting back on emminently more practicial unmanned space flights with a considerably better scientific pedigree. As a matter of fact, Moody's book is quite good on this subject.

Book Two follows the arc of a science fiction "B" movie from 1963 called "The Crawling Hand," to which Moody gives the full literary treatment. This section of the book contains numerous satiric riffs and black humor twists and turns, as inventive as Pynchon, but remains well-grounded, with enough character development to keep you interested in the proceedings. This section contains the most entertaining parts of the book, but it is also messy and overlong in parts. It doesn't help when some of Moody's digressions don't resonate all that well.

The third element of the triptych, which introduces the authorial voice & serves as a tasty wrapper for the two meaty interior sections, works well. Here there is a very brisk 1st person narrative style, beginning with a wry send-up of the minimalist school of fiction - obviously not one that the bombastic Moody would have much regard for - while blending some dystopian science fiction with plot elements from DeLillo's "Underworld."

Somehow, all these messy narrative pieces come together pretty well, a little like "Pulp Fiction," another successful attempt to mine the literary gold within a genre not usually distinguished by it. Not quite five stars, and clearly not everyone's cup of tea, but this outstanding novel deserves a wider audience.

It's the first Moody book I've read. I confess, I bought it because of the cover.. The story is very interesting, extremely disturbing, annoying, etc.. I did enjoy it but it does not seem to have a purpose, there's no closure (in my opinion) even if it's 745 pages long, you kind of want to know what happens next to the characters of the "book in the book" as well as to the writer/narrator Montese. A lot of the topics are not for everyone, particularly the sex scenes.. to be honest, it's quite a confused and confusing book... if anything, it's worth reading for the sheer craziness of the author's imagination and his ease with words...

I made it to the top. Too long, yadda, yadda, but so stuffed full of commentary, futurism, homage that I almost didn't mind. I felt the novelization of the movie inside the novel ended abruptly. I couldn't believe Morton and Noelle never got it on, after what happened in space and in the desert!
If you are not drawn to dense books, stay away.

The Four Fingers of Death is a lengthy book. It actually is three stories in one. The first which begins and ends the book is about Montese Crandall who in the near future has one the right to write the novelization of the sci-fi classic "The Crawling Hand". (Okay, they think it is a classic in the year 2025). And we find out the importance of why he needs to write this book. The rest of the book is the story he supposedly wrote. It is split into two sections - Book one explains the Mars voyage and which I enjoyed as it was detailed and stimulating. Classic science fiction. Book Two is the story of the return to earth where only a human arm has crashed landed and may be infected and cause the destruction of human kind. This part was humorous horror to say the least, but didn't grab me as much as the first book. With over 700 pages it took me awhile to get through this one.