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Summary: Get in the tub and devour the wonderful tales of flight!!!!!
Review: A simply wonderful, playful, hysterical compelation of stories that are so much fun that I had to take a bath, everynight, and read just one. Dying to read the next story, I would bite my lip and wait, for I never wanted to finish the book. Moore is gifted without being high-chinned, funny without being obvious and blaring, deeply moving without sentimentality....I cannot wait until this "Thurber at the bridge of the century" publishes again! Have fun---I've not met a single reader who disagrees with Moore's worth!
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Summary: FLOCK TO BIRDS
Review: BIRDS OF AMERICA is, without a doubt, one of the best collections of short stories I've ever read, which is what I expected them to be, having read all of her other books. The stories are hilarious and dark; they pull back the skin of everyday life to reveal the magic and the horror. I cannot explain it well, except to say that I have seen the world with Moore's unique vision during the week since I finished the collection. I went on a trip to Stratford, Ontario this weekend with four friends, and I read aloud three of the stories in the car. "What You Want to Do Fine" is hilarious. "Real Estate" is disturbing." "Peed Onc" cannot be read aloud. I am tortured by her writing in the sense that I know that I will be disappointed with other books for quite awhile. If you love amazing writing (and word play), read BIRDS OF AMERICA.
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Summary: The World Is Better with Lorrie Moore In It
Review: Lorrie Moore is our greatest national treasure. Read her work, carefully and closely...Take in the staggering, breathtaking immensity of her talents...Then, go out into the world--taking the newfound depths of your heart & the newfound breadths of your mind & the newfound heights of your soul with you--and make it better than it is. Make it better for her. Because she deserves it to be better.
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Summary: A wonderful book that tears at the essence of life
Review: Once again, Lorrie Moore has hit the nail on the head. The stories in this collection hit hard (often with a biting wit) at love and life and how people seem lost all the time. She continues to out do herself.
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Summary: Stories come up in conversation
Review: In conversations over Thanksgiving weekend, I found myself frequently referring to incidents in the stories I had just read in "Birds of America". Lorrie Moore describes love and fear and joy in a way that is close to the bone and very real. The stories Real Estate and People Like That... will stay with me for a long time.I almost felt I should read the stories again to make sure I caught the puns and playfulness with words. As another reviewer mentioned, the word games do interrupt the story but I found them to be a welcome breath of fresh air.
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Summary: good not her best
Review: Apart from the fact that I was put off by the author's piece on her son's cancer (she was writing about a heart-wrenching subject in a too dryly ironic mode - that repelled me), the rest of the stories range from okay to superb. My favorites were "What You Want to Do Fine" about two gay men who take a road trip (loved the description of "The Bone Zone"), "Which is More Than I Can Say About Some People" another road trip with a mother and her adult daughter (Moore gets the irritated tension between the two just right) and "Dance In America". Moore is a genius at the absurd things children say as a matter of course. It's her adults who sometimes seem too much alike - full of suppressed longing, finding humor in everyday absurd moments, and always ironic. It's like they are all cut from the same personality mold. For newcomers to Moore, I would recommend her short novel "Who Will Run the Frog Hospital" first.
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Summary: Yuck!
Review: I just don't understand the fuss, and I usually like "dark" stories and writers. Maybe I should read more Moore, but I just couldn't get into "Birds."
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Summary: Did we read the same book?
Review: This is one of the funniest, saddest books I have ever read. There's a story in it about a man whose wife criticizes him because he doesn't know any songs, so he starts breaking into people's houses and forcing them at gunpoint to teach him songs. I don't understand the reviews here that call Ms. Moore's style "arrogant", since she has such a self-deprecating sense of humor. Whatever. I love this book.
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Summary: um, what?
Review: I too was suckered into this waste of words by David Sedaris, a man I cherish as my own flesh and blood. Though I will try not to hold it against him in the future, I could barely get through the first story. Upon attempting the second and finding yet another pathetic, despondent woman, I closed the book never to be reopened.
Dull, vapid, and melancholy. Snooze.
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Summary: I just don't get it
Review: I really don't get this book. I heard it recommended incredibly highly at a David Sedaris reading, and he is an author I respect and enjoy, so naturally I was looking forward to it when my book club chose to read Birds of America. Unfortunately, I would classify this as one of the worst books I have read. I found the stories depressing, the characters weak and needy, and the book completely lacking in anything compelling. The one bright point that allowed me to keep reading until I finished the book was the occasional brilliant phrasing that is used to describe something in a unique way. If you enjoy dark, disturbed, depressed characters with plenty of problems, you may find this readable. But if you prefer to believe that not everyone in the world and every relationship in the world is damaged and sad, you may want to steer clear of this book.
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