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larryerick's review against another edition
4.0
I can't recall the last time, if ever, I read a book and told myself I really liked the author. Not the author's writing. The author. There was something that came through the writing that told me I would really like this person. Early on in this collection of stories I thought this person doesn't like men much, but that rather quickly was dispelled. She's just quick to assess "bad character". There's a particular level and style of humor throughout nearly all the stories (even though I would not call these humorous stories.) For instance, in a story about a woman and her mother on a trip, she has the woman recall a childhood event with her father. "On one of the family road trips thirty years ago, when she and Theda had had to go to the bathroom, their father had stopped the car and told them to 'go to the bathroom in the woods.' They had wandered through the woods for twenty minutes, looking for the bathroom, before they came back out to tell him they hadn't been able to find it." In another story, she offhandedly points out, "Every third Monday, he conducted the monthly departmental meeting -- aptly named, Agnes liked to joke, since she did indeed depart mental." Yet, later in a story of a woman whose cat died, "She had already -- carefully, obediently -- stepped through all the stages of bereavement: anger, denial, bargaining, Häagen-Dazs, rage." This is just a sprinkling, and it doesn't even touch the occasional humorous banter between characters. There's always a certain level of serious truth to her humor. And yet, this author is capable of a story about a child with cancer that seems only possible coming from someone that has lived every single painful moment of it. Despite my emphasis on the humor, there is a great deal of human insight and emotional depth and breadth to these stories. If I have any complaint, it is only that on rare occasion, her characters' own confusion bleeds over to the writing.
katebloniarz's review against another edition
5.0
There is a line in this book that moved into my brain and is still there.
Like a lizard with a little hat on.
Like a lizard with a little hat on.
shirkey123's review against another edition
4.0
made me LOL.
a big thank u to elena for putting lorrie moore on the map 4 me
a big thank u to elena for putting lorrie moore on the map 4 me
abbywdan's review against another edition
4.0
Finding tragedy in the everyday is as valuable as finding joy in it, if you ask me (Hugo!), and I rather enjoy her writing. I agree, it is anything but juicy, but there is something tasty in the communion-wafer-dryness of it all. OMG I just said that.
mkf_123's review against another edition
5.0
Every story is beautifully constructed and filled with questions big and small. I savored this book and will reread it when I want to jump into a world for a few pages.
nhelregel's review against another edition
4.0
This collection had me torn; Moore writes beautifully, but by the end of the collection I found myself confusing characters because many of the protagonists blended together. I'm all for creating an overarching mood/tone, but it got to be a bit much. That being said, some of these stories are magnificent: "People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk" is amazing, as it was when I first read it in another collection; "Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People" was probably my favorite.
rocketiza's review against another edition
3.0
A little sub-meh for me, well written but I never really felt engaged with it.
katdid's review against another edition
4.0
Yesterday afternoon, on the two-hour train ride back from my parents' house, I was reading the final story in this collection.
YES. THIS. YES.
I thought YES. THIS. YES. several times while reading these stories. I also laughed out loud like a psycho. And mostly I envied how effortless Moore makes this writing caper look; how her stories are absurdist but the characters still relatable and known. It's kind of a neat trick, the way she can take (say) a story about a baby with a tumour and make it both harrowing and farcical.
She would hug her parents goodbye, the gentle emptied sacks of them, and think Where did you go?
YES. THIS. YES.
I thought YES. THIS. YES. several times while reading these stories. I also laughed out loud like a psycho. And mostly I envied how effortless Moore makes this writing caper look; how her stories are absurdist but the characters still relatable and known. It's kind of a neat trick, the way she can take (say) a story about a baby with a tumour and make it both harrowing and farcical.