A review by a_mulhols
The Four Fingers of Death by Rick Moody

4.0

A Dickensian tale for the modern day, the narrative drift of this novel runs back and forth from relevant to absurd in the quickest of increments while maintaining equal devotion to both sides of the equation. For example an early section devotes nearly two pages to the impingement of age and increasing girth on the narrator's person, from the outside surely an excessive use of verbiage, but the section retains a playfulness that results in a riff that is anything but monotonous. In fact, it includes one of my favorite bits (to reveal my own biases) in which the author refers to his sideburns as having the "pelt of woodland animals". Though one must be prepared to dive in deep on this one, as it is not a quick read, it is certainly worth the effort that one might expend to traverse the many pages of this tome. I would highly recommend!