Rating: 
Summary: Mixed bag
Review: Overall, I enjoyed Demonology much less than Ice Storm and Purple America. There is a prevailing sense that Mr. Moody is trying too hard to be clever -- word choice, annoyingly excessive use of italics, even the structure of some of the stories -- seem too deliberate. There is also some seemingly graitious "shock" content, the stuff that's better left to the likes of Bret Easton Ellis, who does it much better. That being said, there are a couple of real gems in here, and it's worth sticking it out as Moody saves the best for last...the title story is a wonderful example of what exceptional short stories should be.
Rating: 
Summary: A literary catharsis
Review: Rick Moody is a major talent, so major that placing him in the context of other contemporary writers is difficult at best. Moody is Moody and he is either your cup of tea or he's not. His style of writing is kaleidoscopic. In this volume of thirteen short stories we are treated to a taste of what makes him so diverse, so fine a taleteller. From his complexly mesmerizing, rambling story in "Mansion on the Hill" to the terse three page "Drawer" to the hilarious take on a chronic loser in "The Double Zero", Moody's style pushes us along into places we'd sometime rather not go were it not for the brouhaha of the sales pitch of the author. I found some of the stories mannered, some a touch labored by writing gimmicks (must we be warned that evil or tragedy lurks behind the next page?. But this guy knows people and the bizarre American Gothic twisted humor that underlies much of our relationships. He tackles social issues, moral issues, foibles, stodgy thinking and just about every method of fantasy/memory that we use to button our past......and he makes it all interesting, even while we are embarassed to admit that we relate to his characters. This collection is yet further proof that Rick Moody is a force to contend with in contemporary American literature. Try it!
Rating: 
Summary: the best thing that's been written in a long time
Review: Rick Moody is certainly a giant in literature, up there with Delillo and Pynchon. This collection has some of the most inspired work I've ever read. Truly amazing.
Rating:
Summary: A fine collection by a talented writer
Review: Rick Moody is known as one of the most talented writers in the United States, and the strongest stories in this collection bear this out. When he's on, Moody's stories have the momentum of a runaway train, hurtling toward an end that never seems certain until the final word comes to rest. He can be absurdly funny and heartbreakingly insightful in the same paragraph, giving these stories a power they never would have realized at the hands of a lesser writer. His description of ostriches had me laughing out loud (and smiling now, writing of it) while the final story, in the context of all that had come before, is one of the most loving, most wounded, most sincere stories I've read of late.Moody is not perfect, of course. Some of these stories are clearly better than others. When he's at his best, Moody allows his narrator the unselfconscious telling of events; however, occasionally the narrator steps out of the story to announce context or philosophy or an awareness of the medium, rapidly deflating the stories, the illusion gone. Perhaps Moody intended this effect (the removal of the chicken mask in the opening story), but it didn't work for me.
All in all, this is a fine collection from a fine writer. Readers of short stories should not hesitate to make this book a part of their libraries.
Rating:
Summary: A challenging, major talent.
Review: Rick Moody is not an "easy" writer or a "fun" writer (though he is often funny). If you want that, keep looking. But, if you want a writer who reaches for the difficult, who looks deep within and without, who is a craftsman of language and thought, these stories are a great introduction to one of the most talented writers of his generation. The title "story" - more a dark meditation on a real life story - is heartbreaking and powerful.
Rating:
Summary: More Moody Magic
Review: Rick Moody pleases the most difficult to please. This may be his greatest achievement to date.
Rating:
Summary: Tour de Force that Can't Be Missed!
Review: The collection begins and ends with stories told by a male narrator addressing his dead sister (though the two pieces have nothing in common otherwise). "The Mansion on the Hill" is the story of an underachieving, slightly unbalanced guy who fails, catastrophically, at playing the avian mascot for a fast-food fried chicken joint. He lands a job at the Mansion on the Hill, a theme-room wedding venue that feels more like a funeral home, and slowly becomes enmeshed in the pathetic, lovelorn lives of his mostly dispirited coworkers; the climax of the story comes when he learns that his sister's former fiance is scheduled to be married at the Mansion on the Hill, less than a year after the sister's death. "Mansion" attempts to balance the fine line between comedy and tragedy, but the tone is uneven, and the desired effect is often unclear: was that supposed to be funny, or sad? In the end, it's merely pathetic, in all the various meanings of the word.
"Demonology," by contrast, feels much more intimate and personal, even autobiographical. It recounts the narrator's recollections of his sister in brief, unconnected snapshot scenes, which more or less center around Halloween and trick-or-treating (hence the candy), then jumps to a dispassionate description of her last moments; finally, the narrator addresses the sister, telling her how he feels in her absence despite (and because of) her inability to hear him. Though the narrator is the surviving sibling, he removes himself from the story, placing the focus squarely on his dead sister; it's a nice twist that she becomes present by her absence, alive in memory.
The finest pieces are those told in a fluid, stream-of-consciousness narrative, where the plot must be sifted out with careful attention to the flow of words. In just two-and-a-half pages, "Drawer" recounts an estranged husband's violent destruction of a piece of furniture that is, to him, symbolic of the failure of his marriage, but this can only be determined after the fact (and, probably, after several readings). "Boys" is a beautiful, lyrical story about two brothers growing from infancy to adulthood in the same house. The phrase "boys enter the house," used again and again until it feels like a litany, anchors the story and evokes the lengthy procession of mostly identical days; in the end, it gives way to "boys, no longer boys," as the children assume the role of adults in the face of tragedy.
Not all of the stories work perfectly, of course. "Pan's Fair Throng" is a mostly vexing, overlong piece that blends present-day realism, fairy-tale convention, and Fakespearean tone into a baffling hodge-podge that defies interpretation. It appears to be the story of a young hacker who goes on trial for turning another young man into a monkey by feeding him a potion. Despite some impressively authentic medieval speech, the tone often veers alarmingly into preciously post-modern pop-culture references, and the result is a muddy, confusing pastiche that isn't nearly as funny as the author probably thinks it is. "Surplus Value Books: Catalogue Number 13" purports to be a sale listing for the narrator's rare-book collection, many of which turn out to be "valuable" only because of their connections to central figures (or romantic obsessions) in the narrator's life. The conceit of personal-history-as-catalog-notes would be more interesting if it hadn't already been used, to greater effect, earlier in the book; as it is, the premise doesn't wear well with repetition, and feels a little too cute.
On the whole, however, Moody is a strikingly original and ferociously smart writer with a knack for offbeat protagonists in unusually imagined situations. Although regretfully fond of italicizing words, phrases, and entire paragraphs at times (the reason is unclear; often, it seems intended to give a heavily ironic emphasis to the words italicized, but the author's constant and unrelenting use of the device quickly weakens its impact), Moody writes well and evocatively; the reader may be confused or frustrated at times, but will never be bored. After finishing the book, I think I may finally have found the real reason for the cover image: like Smarties, these little stories are oddly addictive, despite their bittersweet tang. I purchased this book through Amazon.com right after another great purchase, THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez, about an unlucky writer addicted to the personals. Both books are from experimental, somewhat "edgy" New York authors, but that's where the similarity ends, although I recommend each highly.
Rating: 
Summary: the 3rd or 4th worst writer of his generation
Review: The most appealing thing about this book is the candy on the cover. These stories are, in a word, dull. No memorable characters. No gripping--or even mildly interesting--plots.
One editorial review in praise of this book is telling. It calls the collection "finely crafted" which I suppose is roughly equivalent to praising a movie for its cinematography: it's fine if you're in to that sort of thing, but don't expect too much in the way of entertainment.
In my opinion, it's Rick Moody's "style" that is largely to blame for the crappiness of this book. A guy in a chicken suit crashing a wedding ought to be interesting. But in Rick Moody's meandering, digressive prose, even this quirky scenario manages to become quite tiresome.
If you enjoy overblown language and slim plots, you may enjoy this book. I give it two stars because it's mediocre and forgettable rather than offensively bad.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Cool to be Kind
Review: The mystery is why so much space has been given over to Rick Moody's fiction; is it that he uses plenty of big words, phrases that sound fine but, in the end, hold little meaning. The title story is flat and deeply inhuman. Taken line by line the writing is silly, weak, and sloppy. It does not hold up. The feeling is of a writer who is eager to break ground, willing to do anything to grab his literary pie. Most of the stories here lean on tricks; on silly garb (to use a Moody word); a guy dressed like a chicken is a fine idea for a story, but this one seems humorless. Bad art in all guises seems good in so many ways. It is dressed up in pop iconic wear. These stories fail the tradition. They give short fiction a bad name. So many writers are on to Moody and eager to uncover him. Perhaps they fear him, too. Soon it will happen and the writers of reviews will begin to show the hollow core of these stories. If you take a close look at the big media reviews of his work, there is always a little big of a hedge. No one is saying: here is a great writer. Look at the dice and splice blurbs on his books.
