Let me say how happy I was to come across this collection while browsing at my local library. Both The Ice Storm & Garden State are on my Favorite Movie list, and I am a fan of short stories in general so I opened this book excited to delve into Mr. Moody's written word. Then it became what I like to refer to as adult homework, when I have to assign myself a number of pages or set amount of time to read and push myself to complete the book. Not because I have to, mind you, but because I wanted to love what I was reading. Much of the writing was prententious, stuffy and overreaching in scope. I can appreciate Moody's efforts to be a unique voice, but he puts off a little too much of what I like to refer to as White People's Problems, meaning extreme narcissism and making a huge deal out of things in life that really aren't that important in the whole human experience. "Willie Fahnstock: The Boxed Set" was a creative idea, and I could identify with different songs and music set to different eras of your life, but all I really ended up thinking about was whether I had the songs I liked from it in my collection. I DID LOVE three stories: "Boys", "Demonology" and "Ineluctable Modality of the Vaginal". The spoke to me because they were insightful, emotive and felt like stories that Moody actually cared about writing. I won't spoil them here, and if you can find those stories or gt this book on loan, they are worth reading. But if I Thad to pay for this book, I wouldn't waste my money. I am not giving up hope and will try one of his novels. I think it's really a matter of topic, because Moody CAN write well, especially when he's not trying to hard to impress anyone.