SOURCE: A review of The Ring of Brightest Angels around Heaven, in Review of Contemporary Fiction, Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring, 1996, p. 154.

In the following review, Laurence praises Moody's stylistic experimentation in The Ring of Brightest Angels around Heaven.

The celebrated author of the innovative novel The Ice Storm surprises us again with a totally unconventional collection of stories [The Ring of Brightest Angels around Heaven] that explore the idea of form. The title story, a novella actually, contemplates the Lower East Side with its heroin use and its sex clubs, the peep shows of Times Square, bondage, and the art scene. We follow three different characters from separate milieus of society. Rick Moody definitely lives inside of these creepy places as he portrays characters rarely seen, while another side of his brain is very literary. In “The Preliminary Notes” the narrator writes in deposition form a story about taping...