melissamaerz 's review for:

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
4.0

This is the book that made me change my mind about Lorrie Moore. (Birds of America made me think she was hugely overrated.) A total page-turner with so many moments of beautiful writing and a final 1/3 that just ripped the heart right out of me so that I stayed up reading and crying until 3:00 am. Though I still wish she'd stop with the cutesy observations about language - I refuse to believe that characters in the midst of tragedy would stop to ponder terrible puns. ("You put the 'soul' in solider"? Groan...)