Mixed reviews for Rick Moody’s new satirical novel The Four Fingers of Death

The Four Fingers of Death (Little Brown, July 2010), a new 725-page Vonnegutesque novel by award-winning author Rick Moody that features “a hard-luck writer in 2025, whose novelization of a remake of the 1963 horror cult classic, The Crawling Hand, spins a satirical tale of a returning Mars expedition,” has received mixed reviews over the past few weeks. Here’s a selective recap:

• The New York Times: “It may be that Moody is intentionally turning [main character and author Montese] Crandall into a pathetic figure here by giving him bad jokes, or Moody may himself be straining for humor that doesn’t work. Unfortunately, either way, it’s no fun to read.”

• The Globe and Mail: Moody’s “epic postmodern paean to schlocky old horror films kicks realism in the ass."

• The Wall Street Journal: “If nothing else, The Four Fingers of Death provides further evidence for the inverse relationship between literary theory and literary quality. As a ‘project’ -- that's what the author calls the book in his acknowledgments -- it succeeds; as a novel, it's harebrained and largely unreadable.”

• Bookslut: “Four Fingers seems admirable -- ‘novelicious,’ let’s say, to coin a term in keeping with the text’s ludic anarchy, the tickling it gives a form that’s so often been labeled as dying or dead.”

• NPR: Moody’s “energy and sheer inventiveness make The Four Fingers of Death an original and exhilarating read.” Severed Thumbs Up.

• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Moody’s “new book, chockablock with the novelist's stylistic mastery, is a parody of science fiction with its dystopian pessimism and contemporary meta fiction with its personal obsessions. (Told you it was annoying.)” One finger short.

• The Washington Post: “Any similarities between Vonnegut's work and Moody's novel are superficial. The best of Vonnegut's novels were lean and focused; he didn't need 700 pages to write Cat's Cradle or Slaughterhouse-Five.”

Both NPR and The Wall Street Journal have posted the introduction to The Four Fingers of Death.