Since the publication of Self-Help, her first collection of stories, Lorrie Moore has been hailed as one of the greatest and most influential voices in American fiction. Her ferociously funny, soulful stories tell of the gulf between men and women, the loneliness of the broken-hearted and the yearned-for, impossible intimacies we crave. Gathered here for the first time in a beautiful hardback edition is the complete stories along with three new and previously unpublished in book form: Paper Losses, The Juniper Tree, Debarking.
The Collected Stories of Lorrie Moore
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.40
Trade in The Collected Stories of Lorrie Moore for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.40, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Learn more
|
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
-
Seasonal Offer:
This title is part of our Seasonal Offers promotion.
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Book Description
Wonderful collection from one of the most acclaimed and influential writers of her generation.
About the Author
Lorrie Moore was born in 1957 in Glens Falls, New York, and attended St Lawrence University and Cornell University. Her work has appeared frequently in the New Yorker and Best American Short Stories. She currently teaches English at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She is the author of three collections of short stories - Self-Help, Like Life and Birds of America - and the novels Anagrams and Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? She is also editor of The Faber Book of Contemporary Stories About Childhood.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
'Although Kit and Rafe had met in the peace movement, marching, organizing, making no-nukes signs, now they wanted to kill each other.'
The opening lines of the opening story remind us of some of Lorrie Moore's attributes; the ability to set a scene concisely and with wit and to explore how people and relationships change. She is right up there with the very best of short story writers such as Carver, Munro or Updike. Her dialogue is superb and spare. She writes about people and situations we instantly recognise with the impact of an observational stand up comic - but with compassion and humanity also. Superb.
The opening lines of the opening story remind us of some of Lorrie Moore's attributes; the ability to set a scene concisely and with wit and to explore how people and relationships change. She is right up there with the very best of short story writers such as Carver, Munro or Updike. Her dialogue is superb and spare. She writes about people and situations we instantly recognise with the impact of an observational stand up comic - but with compassion and humanity also. Superb.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By Prof Pine
Format:Paperback
I've never been a fan of short stories but if anyone can bring about a conversion in me, it's Lorrie Moore.
This collection features some outstanding short stories achieving the emotional depth of full-blown novels, notably `People like them are the only people here', `Terrific Mother' and the hilarious `You're Ugly Too'.
`Terrific Mother' deals with the emotion that descends on all mothers before they leave the delivery room - guilt. For Adrienne the guilt is engendered by experiencing motherhood vicariously, when holding a friend's baby, and from the random, accidental yet traumatic event that follows. Thereafter Adrienne subconsciously renounces her right ever to love or to be loved, with devastating consequences for her marriage ("I married my husband because I thought it would be a great way to meet guys") and the social situations she is thrust into as the result of her husband's secondment amongst the academic fraternity of Italy. Here she inhabits the uncomfortable cloak of `spouse' and endures some excruciating and hilarious conversations, where no one speaks to her directly and Moore observes: `at times like this, she thought, it was probably a good idea to carry a small hand puppet'.
Deeply moving, witty and tragicomic.
This collection features some outstanding short stories achieving the emotional depth of full-blown novels, notably `People like them are the only people here', `Terrific Mother' and the hilarious `You're Ugly Too'.
`Terrific Mother' deals with the emotion that descends on all mothers before they leave the delivery room - guilt. For Adrienne the guilt is engendered by experiencing motherhood vicariously, when holding a friend's baby, and from the random, accidental yet traumatic event that follows. Thereafter Adrienne subconsciously renounces her right ever to love or to be loved, with devastating consequences for her marriage ("I married my husband because I thought it would be a great way to meet guys") and the social situations she is thrust into as the result of her husband's secondment amongst the academic fraternity of Italy. Here she inhabits the uncomfortable cloak of `spouse' and endures some excruciating and hilarious conversations, where no one speaks to her directly and Moore observes: `at times like this, she thought, it was probably a good idea to carry a small hand puppet'.
Deeply moving, witty and tragicomic.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
"...those were good years. Only a little crying, only a little drinking."
8 Nov 2010
By Eileen Shaw
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
The collection is vast - 37 stories, an average length of 28-30 pages a story - Lorrie Moore doesn't do many short short-stories, this will take a while to wade through and you have to like the genre, which I know many don't. But the thing about Lorrie Moore is how marvellously alive and buzzing her people are, even when they are like Boy 2, in Two Boys, mournful, serious, clinging - you see completely what Moore is doing. I must admit, I don't usually like stories where no one has a name - if you can't be bothered to name your protagonist how can his or her human properties resonate properly? In the better stories, names are given. A favourite for me was What You Want To Do Fine, which is about Quilty, a blind lawyer who falls in love with Mack, a young painter and decorator - their road trip across America is an absolute delight. Another favourite is People Like That Are The Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk (long, rather silly titles are maybe an affectation the reader could do without) is an immensely moving story about a child with leukaemia and his parents. Children feature more in the later stories and one can see the development of Moore's art take that turn, especially as the stories about children (and about parents remembering childhood) become a feature of her fine and delicately-strung sensibilities. There is some beautiful writing. This is from the above-mentioned Peed Onk:
"Pulling through is what people do around here. There is a kind of bravery in their lives that isn't bravery at all. It is automatic, unflinching, a mix of man and machine, consuming and unquestionable obligation meeting illness move for move in a giant even-steven game of chess - an unending round of something that looks like shadowboxing, though between love and death, which is the shadow?"
I love her writing unreservedly - yes, she sometimes over-reaches - but show me someone who is doing anything close to this deeply empathetic and honest exposure of the fine bones, the grit and gristle, of human existence in `the Land of the Free' today and I'll bow to your superior mental radar.
"Pulling through is what people do around here. There is a kind of bravery in their lives that isn't bravery at all. It is automatic, unflinching, a mix of man and machine, consuming and unquestionable obligation meeting illness move for move in a giant even-steven game of chess - an unending round of something that looks like shadowboxing, though between love and death, which is the shadow?"
I love her writing unreservedly - yes, she sometimes over-reaches - but show me someone who is doing anything close to this deeply empathetic and honest exposure of the fine bones, the grit and gristle, of human existence in `the Land of the Free' today and I'll bow to your superior mental radar.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
stories of Lorriw Moore
I thought some of the stories were rather dull - others were more engaging but I often found it hard to relate to the main characters.I don't think I'd recommend the book.
Published 9 days ago by lindsey evans
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really good reads of various lengths
Quirky and unexpected story lines, delivered with wit and verve. Very enjoyable stories - some can cover a short bus ride or others are quite extended bedtime reads.
Published 1 month ago by Jane Bushby
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliantly observed
Lorrie Moore is a brilliant writer and observer of life. This is an incredible collection and I'd recommend it to anyone who loves good writing. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Annie
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
