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A review by brendaclay
A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
4.0
I'm still absorbing this novel, but overall, I agree with another reviewer that it's less than the sum of its parts. It chronicles a year or so in the life of Tassie, a Midwestern college girl, right after 9/11. Desperate for work, she becomes a nanny to a troubled couple who have just adopted a little girl of another race. She also gets involved with a supposedly Brazilian guy whose activities become more and more mysterious. At the same time, her younger brother, bereft of life options, joins the military and is shipped off to Afghanistan with disastrous results.
Don't get me wrong, Lorrie Moore's writing is amazing, but this book lacked focus and tried to address too much. It's true to life in that nothing ties up neatly, it all sort of ambles along, but I felt very disoriented when I finished this. Maybe that's what she was going for. Who knows.
Don't get me wrong, Lorrie Moore's writing is amazing, but this book lacked focus and tried to address too much. It's true to life in that nothing ties up neatly, it all sort of ambles along, but I felt very disoriented when I finished this. Maybe that's what she was going for. Who knows.