Leave it to Moody. The main character of THE DIVINERS isn't even
human! The Diviners is a script for a blockbuster saga,
broken into thirteen episodes as a made-for-television movie. Set
the day after the 2000 elections, THE DIVINERS could be described
as Rick Moody's updated take on Dos Passos's MANHATTAN TRANSFER,
encompassing new versions of old tales such as "The Tortoise and
the Hare," "The Purloined Letter," and even the common college
student's writing exercise --- If you saw an envelope on a desk,
would you open it?

Moody's character, Vic Freese (who might well have appeared in
Moody's most popular work, THE ICE STORM), opens the envelope to
reveal the script of The Diviners as all of man's history is
a quest for survival, a quest for suitable water that could only be
found by the magical forked stick in the hands of a diviner or
dowser. The higher calling of the quest for truth is clouded when
faced with survival itself --- a point Moody wiggles into the
narrative of his characters' lives, from the old woman drinking
beer on the toilet to the corporate executive faced with the widely
discounted Myers-Briggs late 1990s-era personality profile.

A shared subconsciousness brought on by acute mental illness,
self-destruction, and today's telecommunications saturation causes
a groupthink in New York City that ties the many characters of THE
DIVINERS together as they take the next broad leap in the history
of mankind. Of course, this theme is a lot to take on in a mere 567
pages, but Moody is a postmodernist most of the time, so anything
goes.

THE DIVINERS is character-driven and satirical, hard-hitting when
exposing the phoniness of Hollywood players and how their lies have
affected everything from the failure of modern publishing to the
failure of politics and government --- a representation without
representation, taxation that taxes our minds now that our wallets
are empty; the warped American mindset that tolerates and even
endorses mediocrity, censorship, prejudice, genocide, Christian
fundamentalism, greed, ignorance, and, worst of all, motivational
speakers and reality shows.

Who's inside the inside? There's Vanessa Meandro, a Krispy Kreme
(Earth's lightest, highest-calorie donut) addict and slave driver
in charge of Means of Production, the independent film agency
fumbling with the script of The Diviners; Annabel Duffy,
struggling office assistant and anonymous co-author of The
Diviners with drunken, philandering faded action film star
Thaddeus Griffin; painter turned bicycle messenger Tyrone Duffy,
who may have assaulted a woman with a brick; mad hate crime driver
Ramon Martinez; Ranjeet Singh, the Eastern Indian television
expert/car service driver who wants to work in production; Mormon
millionaire Zimri Enderby; corporate king Jeffrey Meiser, who just
might buy The Diviners; accountant Lois DiNunzio who's all
mixed up with another accountant who would make Enron look clean;
and Laurie Anderson, Donald Trump and Matt Dillon, real stars
sprinkled through the night life of THE DIVINERS.

One hundred characters fill the novel. However, their lives, like
the news-dumb society of today's America, are about as interesting
as, well, "news" --- all headlines and little substance or emotion.
Moody skims the surface of New York life for a novel that works
startlingly well if the thinness portrayed in Capote's ANSWERED
PRAYERS is what is intended (theorists say Capote failed because he
could not find what Proust revealed since the Manhattan rich are so
shallow --- and who can find a there when there is no there
there?). Which all ties back to the script itself, a piece of
revisionist history stripped of its humanity; a formula movie, a
"formula" formula spoon fed to the millions of People
magazine junkies who pride themselves on being part of opening-day
box office statistics (these people are real --- I sat next to one
at the office!).

For lovers of literature, Moody preaches to the choir --- readers
who already know that it is high time to throw our televisions into
the harbor and reject all that television has stolen from America's
soul. For this point, THE DIVINERS is a masterpiece. For this
point, THE DIVINERS begs us to stop watching, stop worshipping, and
start living, a calling obese America simply cannot heed. Why think
when you can watch?