The Ice Storm

by Rick Moody

One thing I do very rarely is read a book after I have seen a film based on it. I read The Ice Storm mostly because of the film, though. Because I really, really liked the film and - even though tragedy strikes at one point - the story does not live off of surprising twist and turns.

It is about two families, more or less neighbors, in the affluent town of New Canaan, set in the early years of the 1970's. The people living their are really to upper class to really have participated in the hippie revolutions on the 60's but still fancy some sort of sexual adventure. Here, this manifests itself in a key party, set on the night of very low temperatures. But not all participants in exchange of partners are as open as they initially fancy themselves to be. The encounters described are not happy and/or exciting ones, in the end.

With the parents preoccupied with their very hip parties, their children are off to chase their own adventures, some even sexual ones. With all the relationship problems finally breaking open for the Hood and Williams family, the ultimate devastation comes when Mike, one of the Williams' sons, dies of electrocution while resting on a guardrail that is struck by a live wire that has been downed by the storm.

This captures the 70's feeling wonderfully and effortlessly, it is something of a pleasant surprise for me. I have once before read Rick Moody, his short story collection Demonology, that left me somewhat underwhelmed.

Do watch the film, as well, if you get a chance.

They were transfixed, the Hoods and the Williamses, by the spectacle of a lost future. It brought them together and it drove them apart but maybe this parting was inevitable, anyway.

8/10