A review by cozylittlebrownhouse
A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

4.0

This was a really difficult book to rate for me. Parts of the book had me thinking "five stars" with others plummeting down to two stars. The prose was beautifully written and I was immediately sucked into the story of Tassie, Sarah, Edward, and Mary Emma. I actually found Sarah to be a much more interesting character than Tassie and wish the story would have focused more on her and her relationship with Edward and Mary Emma.

As for the negatives, I feel the two plots (the family she worked for / her personal life) did not connect at ALL, and I found the last 50 or so pages to be completely disjointed from the book. Tassie's family had such a small role in the book, so to have the life-changing event occur at the end of the novel was jarring and out of place for me as the reader. Also, I think the author tried to cram in WAY too may social issues into one book.

Good, sometimes great, but it only gets three stars.