Take a photo of a barcode or cover
superdilettante 's review for:
A Gate at the Stairs
by Lorrie Moore
"Don't make your own life your project in your own life: total waste of time."
This sums up the whole book, really: characters unchanged by anything, trapped in their own miserable indifference and static states. Tassie was ultimately "whatevs" about everything, including her lying, fundamentalist, Muslim boyfriend (she gives up a pretty good speech when he tells her he's taking off because he's suspected of being in a terrorist cell, but after that there's no contemplation of the situation at all); her lying, involuntarily murderous employers ("just keep this paperwhite paste for me"? what the fuck?); and the removal-into-oblivion of the child in her care. "Whatevs," all the characters seemed to be saying, even when faced with devastating losses or bright sparks of joy. Resolved to be stuck inside the human wheel, no desire to make a project of --i.e. attempt to influence outcomes in--their own lives.
I'm really sorry I wasted the time it took to see if my first evaluation was correct.
This sums up the whole book, really: characters unchanged by anything, trapped in their own miserable indifference and static states. Tassie was ultimately "whatevs" about everything, including her lying, fundamentalist, Muslim boyfriend (she gives up a pretty good speech when he tells her he's taking off because he's suspected of being in a terrorist cell, but after that there's no contemplation of the situation at all); her lying, involuntarily murderous employers ("just keep this paperwhite paste for me"? what the fuck?); and the removal-into-oblivion of the child in her care. "Whatevs," all the characters seemed to be saying, even when faced with devastating losses or bright sparks of joy. Resolved to be stuck inside the human wheel, no desire to make a project of --i.e. attempt to influence outcomes in--their own lives.
I'm really sorry I wasted the time it took to see if my first evaluation was correct.