The Black Veil: A Memoir with Digressions by Rick Moody

Started:9/1/05

Finished:10/8/05

Before: A few years ago, around the time this book came out, I heard an interview on NPR with Rick Moody that made me want to read this book. So when I saw it at the lovely half-priced book store in Seattle last year, I picked it up. It always seemed a bit too heavy for a light read during the school year last year, so its been sitting on my shelf, waiting for the right time, which seems like it might be now.

After: It's not that long a book, and some of it was very interesting, but a large portion of the book revolved around the story "The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I hated "The Scarlet Letter", and I love reading but I'm not much for literary commentary, and a large portion of the memoir was analyzing every word of the story. In the end, I understood what the point of all of it was, but while I was reading those sections, I had a lot of trouble trudging through it. And at the end, I felt like I was left hanging. Moody explains that he left out tons of his life, but still, when he leaves off on his life story, he was a recovering alcoholic with no money and struggling as a writer - how did he make it from there to a successful writer? I'm left with so many more questions about his life. I need another memoir.

Posted by dahl at September 4, 2005 1:14 PM