Scan barcode
leahsug's review against another edition
3.0
i was so ready to LOVE this book. great review and all. but..... i didn't love it. at all. maybe i missed something?
readgina_la_987's review against another edition
2.0
Some good descriptions - but on the whole I was not impressed.
celestelipkes's review against another edition
2.0
I'm ALL about Lorrie Moore's short stories, but this novel is a train wreck. I skimmed the last 20 pages; I just couldn't make myself finish. The novel feels like a series of unfocused short stories and, in an attempt to hit every hot-button topic of the 21st century (race! war! organic farming! adoption! post-9/11 trauma!), the book says very little about a whole lot. Characters of great promise are picked up, tossed around a bit, and thrown out of the plot (via convenient death, deportation, what have you) when Moore gets bored with them. The writing itself is often, as I expected, incredibly clever and beautiful. But that doesn't save the book--not by a long shot.
0smith's review against another edition
4.0
Moore blows me away time. Every sentence is a complex and gorgeous masterpiece in itself. Some plot lines are completely ridiculous but I was able to ignore them for love of her prose and Tassie’s narration. Distinctly midwestern humor, heartbreaking and insightful.
bonnieg's review against another edition
3.0
I have often read books i did not particularly enjoy, but which I admired. Less frequently I have experiences like this where I generally enjoy a book despite thinking it a bit of a hot mess.
There are a few potentially really good distinct stories in here but Moore (whose short stories I love) couldn't seem to decide which of the stories she wanted to tell. All the potential stories are about the transience of life, love, and certainly connection and about how we abdicate our duties at times and then are left to deal with the consequences of having done so. Those are pretty giant themes, and it turns out they do not create any real focus. There is a lot of other stuff here too. Moore throws on a jumbo sized variety pack of religion -- the casual antisemitism of Jews, the barely explored and false tribalism of Muslims, the godlessness of Unitarians, and the fact that despite the benign (and sometimes not so benign) neglect of our religious affiliations they still form a core part of our identity. Again, there was a book in this but it was just one of the many storylines. Then there is the character study, the focus on Tassie and her choices and connections; Tassie herself is charming and interesting, but also intermittently wise as an owl and naive as a baby. She is all extremes and there is not much in between. With more nuance she would have been a great character. Another side story that needed pruning (or better yet, amputation) was the dismal boyfriend story. It presented us with an inconsistent portrayal of Tassie and a hasty, shallow, oversimplified exploration of radicalization. You can't yadda yadda Islamic fundamentalism.
I wish Moore had stayed with Tassie and Sara's story. she clearly wanted to explore interracial adoption, and to wedge in the side stories she restricted most of that exploration to overheard snippets of conversation from support group meetings. That was a lazy way to get in the research the author found interesting, and which was, at least to me, interesting. Too bad it was not developed and explored. Instead we got this drive-by analysis of inter-racial adoption and endless pages filled with a silly antiwar message which did not fit with the rest of the story. (As Vonnegut said, there is no sense in writing against war “Why don't you write an anti-glacier book instead?" he said -- there will always be war and glaciers, though they will sometimes change form.) And yet I enjoyed the read overall. Moore is a wonderful writer, her humor and wordplay are best in class, and reading it is a joy. I went with a 3 here, but I am not sure that is accurate. More accurately I would say the prose is a 5, the structure is a 1, and there are many stories within the book all of which may have been 5s if fully explored, but which were 2s and 3s because they were not. Confused yet?
There are a few potentially really good distinct stories in here but Moore (whose short stories I love) couldn't seem to decide which of the stories she wanted to tell. All the potential stories are about the transience of life, love, and certainly connection and about how we abdicate our duties at times and then are left to deal with the consequences of having done so. Those are pretty giant themes, and it turns out they do not create any real focus. There is a lot of other stuff here too. Moore throws on a jumbo sized variety pack of religion -- the casual antisemitism of Jews, the barely explored and false tribalism of Muslims, the godlessness of Unitarians, and the fact that despite the benign (and sometimes not so benign) neglect of our religious affiliations they still form a core part of our identity. Again, there was a book in this but it was just one of the many storylines. Then there is the character study, the focus on Tassie and her choices and connections; Tassie herself is charming and interesting, but also intermittently wise as an owl and naive as a baby. She is all extremes and there is not much in between. With more nuance she would have been a great character. Another side story that needed pruning (or better yet, amputation) was the dismal boyfriend story. It presented us with an inconsistent portrayal of Tassie and a hasty, shallow, oversimplified exploration of radicalization. You can't yadda yadda Islamic fundamentalism.
I wish Moore had stayed with Tassie and Sara's story. she clearly wanted to explore interracial adoption, and to wedge in the side stories she restricted most of that exploration to overheard snippets of conversation from support group meetings. That was a lazy way to get in the research the author found interesting, and which was, at least to me, interesting. Too bad it was not developed and explored. Instead we got this drive-by analysis of inter-racial adoption and endless pages filled with a silly antiwar message which did not fit with the rest of the story. (As Vonnegut said, there is no sense in writing against war “Why don't you write an anti-glacier book instead?" he said -- there will always be war and glaciers, though they will sometimes change form.) And yet I enjoyed the read overall. Moore is a wonderful writer, her humor and wordplay are best in class, and reading it is a joy. I went with a 3 here, but I am not sure that is accurate. More accurately I would say the prose is a 5, the structure is a 1, and there are many stories within the book all of which may have been 5s if fully explored, but which were 2s and 3s because they were not. Confused yet?
kewillard's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, and War
padgysbooks's review against another edition
1.0
I really did like the beginning of this book. About half way through it just fell apart. I was so mad I spent the time reading it at all!
shiari's review against another edition
2.0
Really not sure how I feel about this book. I found it brilliant at times, disjointed at others, and sometimes pretentious.
runkefer's review against another edition
2.0
I listened to this as an audiobook, and that sometimes affects my experience of a book, but I was disappointed. I thought the college student's voice was inauthentic. There were constant random asides about things I didn't think a college student would care about. And too much word play and puns. There were also a number of anachronisms that kept throwing me out of the story. I didn't think the two main plots, about the nanny job and the brother going into the military, integrated well with each other. And what happened to the terrorist boyfriend? He just disappeared. What was his purpose in the story?
I know that often master short story writers, such as Lorrie Moore, don't translate well to longer works. I kind of feel like that happened in this book.
I know that often master short story writers, such as Lorrie Moore, don't translate well to longer works. I kind of feel like that happened in this book.
epadams's review against another edition
2.0
http://edwardsmagazinebookclub.com/2010/11/28/a-gate-at-the-stairs-by-lorrie-moore/
Published by Anchor Canada (Random House), 2010
I really wanted to enjoy this book. I did. The author is fairly well-known and her books are often recommended, especially in creative writing classes. I did not read any of them and I do hope that people do not read this book as their introduction to Moore because I was very disappointed with it as my own introduction to the author.
To delve into what I didn’t like:...
Published by Anchor Canada (Random House), 2010
I really wanted to enjoy this book. I did. The author is fairly well-known and her books are often recommended, especially in creative writing classes. I did not read any of them and I do hope that people do not read this book as their introduction to Moore because I was very disappointed with it as my own introduction to the author.
To delve into what I didn’t like:...