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3.16 AVERAGE
3.16 AVERAGE
Parts of this book were really good, and other parts left me thinking, "What the...?" It seemed like Moore was trying to tell two different stories here and they didn't really mesh very well. I really enjoyed the parts that were about a white couple adopting a black girl and trying to navigate parenthood while being sensitive to their racial differences. But this story is weighed down by the other story of the main character's coming of age in a New England college and starting to resent her hickish hometown and family. The narrator often notices when other people are being pretentious but she herself is often making pretentious and snobbish observations. And then a third story suddenly jumps in at the end and further confuses the point of the book - I have no idea what that was supposed to be.
Beautifully written coming-of-age story but a little too depressing--death, lost adoptions, break-ups. Ouch.
I'm really struggling with rating this book. On the one hand, the writing in this novel is AMAZING. There is no other way to put it. It's such a beautifully written book. I kept re-reading certain passages, amazed at just how beautifully they were written. Particular bits and pieces of this book were some of the most beautiful writing that I've encountered.
I thought the book was very readable and I didn't find myself struggling with the actual reading of the book at all. However, I did struggle with the very clear plot problems that I found throughout the novel. Those plot points ultimately took away from the overall novel for me. I did not love the characters but I liked them enough to find them compelling and keep reading about them. However, I felt like the plot was all over the place, here then there then back here again. Many of the plots that were initially developed seemed to pepper out with no obvious conclusion. And the conclusions that were made in a few of the plots were ineffectual and left me cold. Ultimately, I felt that Moore may have been trying to do just a bit too much with one book, with one story. And, ultimately, the novel as a whole fell short of what it could have been.
In the end, what stays with me is the writing. The amazing writing. There are scenes from this book that will stick with me forever, they were so beautifully and poetically written that I cannot seem to stop re-visiting them. That alone was worth the reading of this book. I'd hoped for more but I'll take what I was able to get. If you're a fan of beautiful writing and not entirely bothered by plot devices that often do not work, this might be a book you'd enjoy. Otherwise, you might want to look elsewhere for your next book.
I thought the book was very readable and I didn't find myself struggling with the actual reading of the book at all. However, I did struggle with the very clear plot problems that I found throughout the novel. Those plot points ultimately took away from the overall novel for me. I did not love the characters but I liked them enough to find them compelling and keep reading about them. However, I felt like the plot was all over the place, here then there then back here again. Many of the plots that were initially developed seemed to pepper out with no obvious conclusion. And the conclusions that were made in a few of the plots were ineffectual and left me cold. Ultimately, I felt that Moore may have been trying to do just a bit too much with one book, with one story. And, ultimately, the novel as a whole fell short of what it could have been.
In the end, what stays with me is the writing. The amazing writing. There are scenes from this book that will stick with me forever, they were so beautifully and poetically written that I cannot seem to stop re-visiting them. That alone was worth the reading of this book. I'd hoped for more but I'll take what I was able to get. If you're a fan of beautiful writing and not entirely bothered by plot devices that often do not work, this might be a book you'd enjoy. Otherwise, you might want to look elsewhere for your next book.
Longer review for this book can be found here on my blog.
Probably closer to a 4.5 rating. This book was beautifully written with a truly interesting story. It definitely peaked and slowed back down a lot towards the end, but I found the narrative so investing I didn't really mind. Tassie was a character I actually felt I could connect to and her personality was perfectly constructed, making her a believable character whose pain you could sympathise with. Some of the events of the story I didn't see coming a mile off...
Probably closer to a 4.5 rating. This book was beautifully written with a truly interesting story. It definitely peaked and slowed back down a lot towards the end, but I found the narrative so investing I didn't really mind. Tassie was a character I actually felt I could connect to and her personality was perfectly constructed, making her a believable character whose pain you could sympathise with. Some of the events of the story I didn't see coming a mile off...
I love Lorrie Moore. She is the master of character development and story and all elements of both. I would love to write like her! I recently read this and was drawn back into her style, from what I have found to be realistic and generally sad. In this book, a college woman becomes a baby sitter for a wealthier white couple who adopt an African American child. She goes through the process with the 'mother' and depicts some of the potentially seedier sides of adoption processes. She also shows us how we wear our choices, how sometimes a child is a hope for a new life or a shield for the existing one perhaps. For me, her main character is always sympathetic and struggling to get by like any other ordinary American young woman, she is real.
This was an original and compelling novel. Lorrie Moore writes in a way that is funny, fresh, and relevant. However, her narrative voice can feel a little pat after a while - witty, cynical, and pleased with itself only goes so far. I've only read stories by her in the past, and reading an entire novel got a little bit wearisome. But, overall, a good read.
I really enjoyed this book and found the author's style to be quite compelling...even if it started feeling old by the end. The story was a good one. 3.5 stars.
A Gate at the Stairs is The new York Times' One Of The Best Books Of The Year winners as well as various other literary awards and nominations. At first I enjoyed reading, but then had to work my way through the audio book. It seemed like it was a bunch of short stories woven together loosely. One thing I don't like about short stories is so often they leave me hanging (so to speak) without any kind of satisfactory ending or explanation. That's what this book felt like to me. I never could figure out how she could go to college and be able to baby-sit so much, too. Then the mysterious boyfriend who was just using her and then disappeared. Was he connected to a terrorist cell? or was he not? Mr. and Mrs. had-so-much-money but were adopting a biracial girl without much emotional involvement of the Mr. A baby gate at the top of a staircase was mentioned, but I didn't get why that was the book's title. Guess I didn't care for this book much after I finished it.
I loved that this was written by a prof at UW Madison. The story was set in a small WI town as well as a typical college town. I enjoyed the main character a lot. She was funny, witty, believable, and likable. It was slow from time to time but I liked this one.