Purple America

Purple America, by Rick Moody, is one of the best books on grungy, sad, pathetic American life. Life where your dream car is a Honda, where you know local heroes like the manager at the nuclear waste plant, and where old women pee in their sleep in the booths at diners usually found off the turnpike. Purple America is a day in the life of a woman who is getting ready to die. Along the way we meet her stuttering son, Dexter, who drinks continuously, his main squeeze of the day, Jane, a waitress at the diner, and the old woman’s ex-husband, who has recently abandoned her due to the strain her illness was putting on him. We jump around in perspectives, which is usually disjunctive, but Moody smoothes the transitions to aid readers along. His language, informal mainly, but full of a boisterous voice, carries the somewhat plain story along to keep everyone alive, quite literally. There are parts that are completely expository; exploring the earlier days of Dexter’s childhood. Then there are parts where you wonder, “What the…” as Dexter cleans areas of his mother in the bathtub, which generally should never be explored by a son. The characters are no different than the people you meet down at WalMart or Denny’s, who check you out as you buy pads and tampons, or as you order questionable over-easy eggs. Readers, who have flipped through any of Chuck Palahniuk with vigor, will for sure see Rick Moody as a pleasant, if not more stimulating read. Anyone else who has begun to feel quite pathetic lately will also smile as they realize they are not scrubbing someone else’s near-death-mother in a tub. A generally good read for anyone bitter and sarcastic who like other’s personal pain. Rick Moody grew up and studied in the East Coast, mainly around Connecticut, which leads to no surprise, is where a majority of his novels are set. His other works include Garden State and Ice Storm but the most positive reviews have been given to Purple America.