Rating: 
Summary: sentences that make you swoon
Review: i don't understand why exactly, but rick moody seems to make some readers angry. the characters are unlikeable, they say. the sentences are too long. does reading nabakov make the same readers angry? maybe they stumbled onto the ice storm expecting something else, something safe. ignore them.
rick moody taps into the part of the world you only notice when you're really looking. he's funny and he's sad and i would hang out in this book forever, because the way the characters see things makes total sense to me.
"Blundering into the kitchen, he felt sure that it would always be this way, this blunt little diorama of a life with its cessation of miracles would never change--except that it would get worse."
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting read
Review: I feel that while it's useful to compare novels to films, it's wrong to just say that one or the other is better. So my review will be simply based on what I thought of the novel. I liked Moody's writing style, especially the straightforward depictions of topics that are often somewhat muted in literature, such as sex and drugs. Though some parts of it seemed slow and artificial, overall it presented an interesting picture of the life of a troubled family in the 70s. I think it provides a good example of a family dealing with a crisis and avoiding breaking apart by keeping closer together. I would recommend the novel to those willing to experience some disturbing and thought-provoking moments.
Rating:
Summary: It's a good book
Review: I found this to be a dull look at a suburban family falling into moral ruin.
Rating:
Summary: A well-written, not-nice story
Review: In the late fall of 1973 I was a twenty-nine-year librarian in Dallas, cheering on the downfall of Richard Nixon and learning to write book reviews. As Moody says, it was a very, very different time -- so different I doubt anyone under thirty-five can even imagine it. No call waiting, no cable TV, no AIDS or HIV, no laser printers, no CDs, no Reagan Revolution. The names Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin still meant something. We knew who Rose Mary Woods was, too. But still, New Canaan, Connecticut, was a very different place from north Texas. That fall, Benjamin Hood and his wife, Elena, took the final step toward the break-up of their shaky, unhappy marriage. Wendy Hood, age fourteen, was becoming known as a slut, though she wasn't a bad kid and it wasn't entirely her fault. Her brother, Paul, wasn't having much fun as a seventeen-year-old preppie, either. It was the year the key party came to the upscale suburbs. None of the characters in this painful-to-read novel are particularly likable. You might feel sorry for them, at least some of the time, but you wouldn't particularly want to spend time with any of them, or at least I wouldn't. But Moody keeps you reading, wondering how they're going to screw themselves up next. Making an engrossing story out of unpleasant people and distasteful situations isn't easy, but he manages it.
Rating:
Summary: It's a good book
Review: It's about a suburban family in Connecticut in November of 1973. Adultery, wife-swapping, deteriorating marriages, teenagers experimenting with sex, and how an ice storm brings the whole of it to a head. It held my interest and I read it in three days. I purchased the book because I wanted to learn more about the characters from the movie. The film (though great) just about grazed the surface of what these people are supposed to be like! In the book they are a lot more disturbed, deep-thinking, and sexual than the actors portrayed them in the film. The same scenes are more graphic in the book and further things happen that wouldn't be appropriate onscreen. The author uses a lot of brand names, current events, and celebrity mentions that are accurate to the times he's writing about. It was fun reading about some TV shows and news bits I'd totally forgotten about! The only problem I had with him is that sometimes he'll say a sentence in a very elaborate fashion, but what he's said doesn't come across as making much sense, and some of the comparables he made didn't connect well in my opinion. More often, though, he could get a point across brilliantly. A few other concepts that didn't jibe were Wendy Hood's having a lesbian experience as an adolescent in 1973, and having a single friend or boy interested in her after the whole school finds out about it! Not too realistic! She would've been ostracized like she had the plague for doing something like that back then! Mikey and Sandy wouldn't have wanted any part of her and the girls would've been beating her up on a daily basis! Another thing that was inconsistent, where the author confused 1973 with current times (and I had a feeling he was going to make this mistake) was in his writing that Elena Hood had breast-fed. She was supposed to have given birth in 1957 and 1959, Mr. Moody. In the late 50's almost NO ONE breast-fed. Everyone bottle-fed in those days. Breast-feeding didn't make its big comeback till around the late 70's.
Rating: 
Summary: Utterly disappointing
Review: Like many, I came to this novel after being suitably impressed with Ang Lee's film. In fact, I expected to enjoy the book even more than the film, because, nine times out of ten, the book is superior. Unfortunately, this is not the case with The Ice Storm. I don't even know where to begin in listing the problems of this novel, but I guess I'll start with the characters. I'm not someone who thinks you always have to love the characters, heck, I don't even necessarily want to like them at all. All I ask is that they be interesting. None of the characters is interesting. Each of them is a paper-thin stock character with a few attributes hastily applied. None of them have unique voices (save for Paul's roommate, whose voice is ridiculously forced), and they are all cliched. You've got the alcoholic dad who is unhappy in his marriage and his life, his wife who is trying to take control of her own life, their kids who do as their parents do for lack of guidance...it's like a catalogue of how not to write a domestic novel. Their actions feel forced, as if Moody is sitting there behind them, pushing them ahead. The worst problem with the novel is that the language is tepid and lifeless. Nothing in the novel is described outright; everything is compared to something else. Generally these analogies are confusing, occasionally they are nonsensical. His metaphors are equally frustrating, and frequently downright hackneyed. A frozen house with pipes bursting as a metaphor for a family bursting at the seams? Give me a break. What makes all of this worse is the afterword in which Moody talks about how much he loves language and how beautiful it is. I'm sure he loves language, but The Ice Storm definitely doesn't reflect that. In short, this is a bland, lifeless book which was somehow turned into a wonderful film. I highly recommend the latter.
Rating:
Summary: Depiction of a cultural wasteland and it's tragedy
Review: Rick Moody's classic book on the 70s is rich with detail of the era. Set in New Canaan, CT, an affluent WASP town which some consider a suburb of NY, two dysfunctional families pay the ultimate price for their jaded life-styles. It's the children who suffer as their parents struggle with issues too myriad and complicated to detail in a short review. Suffice it to say that a neighborhood key party provides the chaotic climax to an evening on which an ice storm rages outside, while a metaphorical storm of ice rages within.
Rating:
Summary: one of the best modern novels
Review: The Ice Storm is one of the best books i have ever read. It works on a lot of different levels. The characters AREN'T fully developed, in the conventional sense, but that is delibrate. In fact, it's where a lot of the book's power comes from: no one i know is "fully developed" either. Is the book too cold? Look at the title. Moody writes about something clearly personal to him, but avoids becoming overly sentimental. The Ice Storm requires and rewards close reading.
Rating:
Summary: A CONTEMPORARY CLASSIC
Review: There is no other book that explains what's like growing up in the 70s better than THE ICE STORM. A very beautiful and delicate family drama. Yes, it's very cold but that's the point the author wants to emphasize. Most folks complain that the characters are not fully developed - its not a flaw at all. Its simply because the characters dont know themselves - they're confused and lost in a chilly world. Very distant also. We're not supposed to feel any warmth or comfortable.Moody wants us to feel distant with the characters - dont forget the progantist is the oldest son Paul whos totally lost and frozen. We see his family through his eyes.Reading the book is like visiting my childhood again. My parents spent too much time partying and tyring to keep up with the sexual revolution. It does have a devastating price - my father died of alcoholism last Christmas and I don't talk to my mom and sister anymore. For a very long time, my family forgot how to huddle even in the most difficult time. And th book rings very true for me and many other young folks. Moody is also a genius with words and his writing is very beautiful.
Rating: 
Summary: Ice Storm: Amazing and slow
Review: This is with out a doubt a great novel. Rick Moody perfectly draws the hood family as a typical dysfunctional family in the 70's. Each character is relatable and stands out on their own, yet helps complete the family and story. Considering the time this book was written, it is really is remarkable how honest moody's characters are. The things this family goes through are timeless. If you enjoyed American Beauty, you'll like this book. I personally found some reading to be a little slow. I hear that if you "survived" the 70's this is the book for you. I was born in the 80's. Maybe that explains a little disappointment? Definately a must read.
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