Purple America: A Novel

Hex an alcoholic has been left to care for his mother: Billie, who is immobilised in the final stages of a wasting disease. Hex's life spirals out of control during a hectic two day period and it's Rick Moody's ability to tell this sorry tale with both humour and compassion that kept me riveted to

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this novel.

The rush of events start with Billie's second husband Lou planning to leave the household for good as soon as he can get through his last day at work at the nuclear power plant. Unfortunately while he is undergoing his farewell party an emergency situation develops with the plant. Meanwhile Hex after bathing his mother decides to take her out for dinner, where he has far to much to drink and bumps into Jane an old flame. Leaving a now distressed Billie in the hands of the less than able Jane, Hex chases after Lou. An altercation with Lou's workmate leads to a scuffle and back home Jane's attempts to give Billie another bath results in her being hospitalised. Meanwhile a radiation link from the nuclear power plant becomes worse than first thought.

This is story of people who are not quite able to cope with life's problems, despite their best intentions. Hex is always thinking about giving up drinking. Lou cannot face the final stages of Billie's illness and Jane unlucky in love is always prepared to give her men the benefit of the doubt. They all feel guilty in various ways about Billie and their responsibilities to her, while Billie the most intelligent of them all is trying to deal with the pain and her approaching death..

Rick Moody's use of first and third person narrative style, slipping effortlessly between the two allows him to let the reader view the world through the eyes of his characters. His masterly variations in speech and thought patterns further adds identity. Hex suffers from a life long stutter that worsens with embarrassment, but can ease with inebriation his thoughts are expressed on the page in fragmented form as he becomes more drunk. Billie finds speaking painful and so her clear and precise thoughts are expressed in short sharp phrases. Jane's thoughts are expressed by colloquialisms and TV culture and ramble on inconclusively. Moody's finest achievement is in making his story amusing. The reader smiles at the characters ineptness although never losing sight of the fact that that they are all doing the best they can. Moody shows his writing skill with an opening sentence of three pages that describe Hex's bathing of his mother:

...whosoever notes this response calmly, whosoever now finally sets his mother's glasses on her nose and adjusts the stems to make sure that they are comfortable on her ears, whosoever kisses his mother a second time where her disordered hair is thinnest and takes her now fully in his arms to carry her to the wheelchair in the doorway, whosoever says to his waiting mom while stuttering out of generalized anxiety and because of insufficient pause for the inflow and outflow of breath, "Hey, Mom, you look p-p-p-p-pretty fabulous t-t-t-tonight, you look like a million bucks.".....
Hex Raitliffe. And if he's a hero, then heroes are five-and-dime, and the world is crowded with them as it is with stray pets, worn tires, and missing keys.

Some of the humour is dark, some of it is pure slapstick, but much of it will bring a wry smile to the readers face. There are deeper issues here as well. The effects of the wasting disease on Billie and her subsequent loss of dignity. is foreshadowed by the possibility of the radiation leak and the fact that her first husband died as a result of H bomb testing. The unspoken thought here is that many people could end up like Billie.

There is much to enjoy here and my only criticism is that the novel seems to run away from Moody in its denouement. Having said that, the quality of the writing, the humour and depth of characterisation makes this as good a novel as you will find on many Literary prize shortlists. An enthusiastic

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