Birds of America : Stories

Rating:
Summary: Did I spit on you?
Review: So funny you will laugh out loud and spray the person next to you. Birds of America : Stories by Lorrie Moore is an AB workout you can do without even a single sit-up. Brilliant, funny, flawless, etc. Worth every cent. Also: the cover design is absolutely original and creative.

Rating:
Summary: Look! I'm! Writing! Like! Lorrie! Moore!
Review: The author seems to think exclamation points add something to the story, but they only draw attention to the writer (who seemed hellbent on trying out her Paula Poundstone impersonation and she's not even close to being as funny as Paula Poundstone) and seem emblematic of what's wrong here: too much style and attention to the crafting of the sentences and not enough attention to the substance of the story. I would call this whole book typical of the Tina Brown New Yorker fiction school. (That is to say heavily hyped, shallow, melodramatic, and underwritten.) I didn't care about the characters, I was stunned that the author has such a wonderful pedigree, and I was left thinking, I spent my hard-earned money on this? If you see a hardback 1st Edition of this book at your local remainders shop, you'll know that's mine.

Rating:
Summary: mostly positive
Review: In Lorrie Moore's previous story "Like Life," a character responds to her doctor's diagnosis of 'Precancer,' by saying '*Pre*cancer?'...'Isn't that...like *life*?' This voice, the most wonderful thing about Lorrie Moore's writing, remains mostly intact in _Birds of America_. Standout stories are "People Like That Are the Only People Here," "Real Estate," "Community Life," "Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens." Like life, these stories are about practicing and practicing to do the thing the best. But there is something here that isn't in any of her previous books. Most of the characters have a sense of secret doom, something horrible they don't notice that's maybe looking over their shoulder as they dance, shelve books, drive to New Orleans. Sometimes it's explained, in delicious Lorrie Moore style, as in "Community Life," -- 'She missed her mother the most.' But more often, it's just there, having not much to do with the circumstances of the story. Moore is known for discovering this darkness, grabbing it, telling it jokes, stealing its nose. In most of these stories, though, she keeps her back to it. As if it might go away if no one talks to it, if it's made clear that it's not welcome. As if there's no longer the will or the way to argue with it. This weakens the stories. But they are still beautiful, and as only Lorrie Moore could write them.

Rating:
Summary: Eloquent, touching and achingly beautiful.
Review: One of the finest collection of short stories I've ever read. Moore, whose story, "People Like that are the Only People Here," performed a short-story literary hat trick this year, is simply one of the most honest, funny, charming and intelligent writers working today.

Rating:
Summary: Great vivid description!
Review: This is the first of her books that I have read and I am happy with it. The characters in this book jumped out at me. Lorrie Moore uses simple but vivid words to bring her characters to life. While reading this book on the train, I found myself laughing out loud on several occassions.

Rating:
Summary: Humor, rich storytelling, deep sense of humanity
Review: Things actually *happen* in these stories. No mere "slices of life" or snapshots of late 20th century angst in her characters suffice for Ms. Moore. There *is* angst in these stories, to be sure, and plenty of it. But at the end, some conflict is usually resolved. You don't expect any of these characters to live happily ever after the story ends. But somehow Ms. Moore takes the sorrowed and fractured lives of her characters and is able, in many of the stories, to extract pearls of goodness. This is done wonderfully in the next-to-last story, "People Like That Are The Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk", in which the mother of a young child dying of cancer struggles to find a way to bring dignity to their suffering. This is a very difficult story to read, but it is real, and there is hope to be found there; there *has* to be.

I gather from reviews of her earlier books that Ms. Moore is already known for her quick-witted dialogues and pithy stabs at our modern culture. These things pepper the stories in "Birds of America"; the humor kept me from sinking from the weight of the more somber narratives. I know Ifm having a rich reading experience when I find myself frequently pausing to laugh or to let some observation sink in. This was my experience of reading this book.

The humanity of her main characters is well-drawn here; they are people whom you come to know and empathize with. Sometimes the author invites you to delve deeply into their sorrowed pasts and unmet expectations, as in "Terrific Mother"; sometimes she explains them through the fast-moving events of the story and sharp exchanges of dialogue, as in "What You Want To Do Fine."

Several of these stories are what I would call epiphanal; for example, at the end of "Beautiful Grade", the reader comes to understand the middle-aged college professor who, inexplicably to his colleagues and friends, has taken up with a student more than 20 years his junior. All through the story Ms. Moore was preparing me for the denouement, and when she brings the story in for a landing, I read the ending again, placed the book down, and noted that although I was sitting in the same chair in the same place, somehow I had been moved. The same thing happened at the end of "Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People", although on a happier note. I wanted to respond by raising a glass in toast to the daughter who finally is able to understand something of the source of her motherfs need to be vigorous, fearless, and take-charge, even still at age 60, as they travel through Ireland together.

I donft know how they do it, but my favorite writers of fiction are able to mix the elements of sharp humor, keen observation, sympathetic and realistic studies of characters, and finally, a deep sense of humanity. Ms. Moore has demonstrated this talent in "Birds of America", and if you read it, you will be the richer for it.

Rating:
Summary: vital moments
Review: I spend most of my life in tiny moments, micro-epiphanies that hit and run before they are even consciously registered. Is that a happy face on the cheese grater? The sound of that car reminds me of laying in bed in 1963. Lorrie Moore is the only writer I've ever encountered who can build stories out of these incredible, fleeting yet meaningful moments. Sometimes her stories and characters just plain bum me out they can be so desolate, but I'd go through just about anything for those off-hand similies and observations that sum up the feeling of life with such immediacy. Lorrie, thank you so much. Please write faster.

Rating:
Summary: Where is ego and hope?
Review: I have always admired Lori Moore's work, but now I think she's mired. The overriding theme seems to be of people who believe they are abject failures because they are not what society wishes them to be. They have no resourses, they have no hopes. They see no grace anywhere in the world. They just slog along overcome by the events that happen to them.

One of the things good writers do is have the descriptions of the corporal world reveal character. But these stories are overmuch in this service. Or perhaps it is that I don't believe the characters. I don't know any humans like this, which would be fine if this was satire or allegory. But is it? the people I know have protective egos and hope and smile at inane road signs.

Rating:
Summary: Slightly annoying
Review: Lorrie Moore's novel pulls you through fast, but there's something too self-conciously clever about her characters. Occasionally, I was left with the same bad feeling you get when children on television are horribly precocious. Still, definitely worth a read. In places, her writing takes your breath away.

Rating:
Summary: Not her best
Review: Read her earlier books first; they are delights and easily earn 5 stars. This one falls short...too repetitive, seems like she is running out of material.