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De Lo Que Se Apoderan
A long-awaited collection of stories--twelve in all--by one of the most exciting writers at work today, the acclaimed author of Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Self-Help. Stories remarkable in their range, emotional force, and dark laughter, and in the sheer beauty and power of their language.
From the opening story, "Willing" --about a second-rate movie actress in her thirties who has moved back to Chicago, where she makes a seedy motel room her home and becomes involved with a mechanic who has not the least idea of who she is as a human being -- Birds of America unfolds a startlingly brilliant series of portraits of the unhinged, the lost, the unsettled of our America.
In the story "Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People", a woman newly separated from her husband is on a long-planned trip through Ireland with her mother. When they set out on an expedition to kiss the Blarney Stone, the image of wisdom and success that her mother has always put forth slips away to reveal the panicky woman she really is.
In "Charades", a family game at Christmas is transformed into a hilarious and insightful (and fundamentally upsetting) revelation of crumbling family ties.
In "Community Life", a shy, almost reclusive, librarian, Transylvania-born and Vermont-bred, moves in with her boyfriend, the local anarchist in a small university town, and all hell breaks loose.
And in "Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens", a woman who goes through the stages of grief as she mourns the death of her cat (Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Häagen Dazs, Rage) is seen by her friends as really mourning other issues: the impending death of her parents, the son she never had, Bosnia.
Lorrie Moore explores the personal and the universal, the idiosyncratic and the mundane, with all the wit, brio, and verve that have made her one of the best storytellers of our time.
From the opening story, "Willing" --about a second-rate movie actress in her thirties who has moved back to Chicago, where she makes a seedy motel room her home and becomes involved with a mechanic who has not the least idea of who she is as a human being -- Birds of America unfolds a startlingly brilliant series of portraits of the unhinged, the lost, the unsettled of our America.
In the story "Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People", a woman newly separated from her husband is on a long-planned trip through Ireland with her mother. When they set out on an expedition to kiss the Blarney Stone, the image of wisdom and success that her mother has always put forth slips away to reveal the panicky woman she really is.
In "Charades", a family game at Christmas is transformed into a hilarious and insightful (and fundamentally upsetting) revelation of crumbling family ties.
In "Community Life", a shy, almost reclusive, librarian, Transylvania-born and Vermont-bred, moves in with her boyfriend, the local anarchist in a small university town, and all hell breaks loose.
And in "Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens", a woman who goes through the stages of grief as she mourns the death of her cat (Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Häagen Dazs, Rage) is seen by her friends as really mourning other issues: the impending death of her parents, the son she never had, Bosnia.
Lorrie Moore explores the personal and the universal, the idiosyncratic and the mundane, with all the wit, brio, and verve that have made her one of the best storytellers of our time.
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First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Lorrie Moore
70 books2,582 followersLORRIE MOORE is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She is the recipient of a Lannan Foundation fellowship, as well as the PEN/Malamud Award and the Rea Award for her achievement in the short story. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,512 reviews
April 25, 2021
De una cosa estoy seguro, Lorrie Moore es una escritora inteligente, muy inteligente, tanto que en ocasiones tal exhibición de inteligencia llega a hacérseme pornográfica. Este hecho, incuestionable, me ha hecho sentir en no pocas ocasiones como alguien indefenso, desconcertado, desorientado. Un ejemplo:
Llegué a espetarle algo que ella puso en boca de un personaje en uno de sus cuentos: “A mí me va mejor con mujeres que trabajan a tiempo parcial”.
Bueno, no es del todo cierto, claro, muchos de sus relatos me han gustado, algunos mucho. Es notorio mi inclinación por los perdedores, por aquellos, como es el caso de muchos de los personajes aquí representados, que en un momento de su vida no se reconocen, que no saben ni cómo ni cuándo se desviaron de su trayectoria ni en qué momento se hizo imposible volver a ella. Personajes que hacen lo peor que pueden hacer o lo único que en el fondo son capaces de hacer o simplemente fue la vida la que les pasó por encima o fueron los demás los que se fueron alejando y les dejaron solos. Gente como tú o como yo, que se aburre, se siente sola o se desespera.
Pero también están esos otros cuentos que no me llegaron. El problema con estos, acabé pensando, se debía a mi inevitable tendencia a buscar el tema, la columna vertebral. Y en esa búsqueda me centré, posiblemente demasiado, en la anécdota cuando el suceso narrado no parecía ser sino un pretexto para las lucubraciones, los comentarios, los chascarrillos, las sentencias y frases lapidarias, aunque, de paso, también me mostrase su incuestionable valía como escritora, su personalísimo estilo. Era eso o volver a sentirme idiota y ya empezaba a estar un poco harto de sentirme idiota. En fin, que tal despliegue de medios al servicio únicamente de ese comentario ingenioso, de esa observación punzante me dejaban frío. Cada frase tenía que ser brillante, cada diálogo ocurrente. Todo ello no hacía otra cosa que transmitirme una cierta sensación de artificio, de juego, de un placer que empieza y acaba con la gran frase, lo que tampoco es que esté mal per se, pero acaba sabiendo a poco.
Los que me gustaron:
Dispuesta . Una actriz de mediana edad quiere huir de la imagen de sex simbol en la que se ha convertido y lo deja todo para acabar sometiéndose a un hombre vulgar.
Uno de los cuentos especialmente humorístico es La agencia inmobiliaria . Una ama de casa que sabe de todas y cada una de las veces que su adinerado marido la ha engañado (“con sus comienzos dulces y apremiantes, y un final agradecido de manos cogidas, lo peor del matrimonio estaba en el centro: era siempre un lío, una ruina, un campo intransitable”) y que acaba de superar un cáncer (“el oncólogo de Chicago le había dado un cincuenta por ciento de posibilidades... ¡qué mezquindad no mentir y decirle que las posibilidades eran de sesenta contra cuarenta!”) decide que el cambio que su vida necesita no es una aventura como le aconseja su amiga Carla (“Las aventuras son para los jóvenes, es como tomar drogas o saltar de precipicios. ¿Por qué querrías saltar de un precipicio? Oh, dijo Carla. Es obvio que no has visto algunos de los precipicios que he visto yo.”) es mudarse de casa... los dos juntos (“cada casa es una tumba... Lo cual hace que mudarse de casa sea una resurrección.”) La casa tiene muchos problemas y prácticamente al final del relato son asaltados mientras dormían. La mujer es quién mata al asaltante, “Dios santo, dijo su marido. Supongo que esto es lo que siempre has deseado: un hombre muerto en el suelo del dormitorio.”
Y, por último, el relato más famoso del libro … y con toda la razón, Gente así es la única que hay por aquí: farfullar canónico en oncología pediátrica . Un andar en la cuerda floja, un caminar por el filo de la navaja, un tour de forcé, etc. Un relato intenso, doloroso, que en manos de un cualquiera podría haber supuesto un fracaso estrepitoso. Una madre descubre sangre en el pañal de su bebé. El diagnóstico: cáncer; el tratamiento: operación y quimioterapia. Soberbio, no digo más.
"… una aflicción en sus ojos, algo triste y perdido que a veces le apuñala: el temor a una vida gastada en vano, o la incertidumbre sobre dónde dejó las llaves."Llego a sentirme idiota con frases como esta. ¿La habré entendido? ¿Sí? ¿No? ¿Es simplemente producto de un capricho ocurrente del momento? ¿Una llamada de atención, un eh, tú, despierta y pon más atención a lo que estás leyendo? ¿Contiene algo fundamental del relato o es pura tontuna? Por cosas así no llegaba a decidirme entre el odio y el amor por esta escritora. Acabé por hacer las dos cosas, a veces al mismo tiempo.
Llegué a espetarle algo que ella puso en boca de un personaje en uno de sus cuentos: “A mí me va mejor con mujeres que trabajan a tiempo parcial”.
Bueno, no es del todo cierto, claro, muchos de sus relatos me han gustado, algunos mucho. Es notorio mi inclinación por los perdedores, por aquellos, como es el caso de muchos de los personajes aquí representados, que en un momento de su vida no se reconocen, que no saben ni cómo ni cuándo se desviaron de su trayectoria ni en qué momento se hizo imposible volver a ella. Personajes que hacen lo peor que pueden hacer o lo único que en el fondo son capaces de hacer o simplemente fue la vida la que les pasó por encima o fueron los demás los que se fueron alejando y les dejaron solos. Gente como tú o como yo, que se aburre, se siente sola o se desespera.
Pero también están esos otros cuentos que no me llegaron. El problema con estos, acabé pensando, se debía a mi inevitable tendencia a buscar el tema, la columna vertebral. Y en esa búsqueda me centré, posiblemente demasiado, en la anécdota cuando el suceso narrado no parecía ser sino un pretexto para las lucubraciones, los comentarios, los chascarrillos, las sentencias y frases lapidarias, aunque, de paso, también me mostrase su incuestionable valía como escritora, su personalísimo estilo. Era eso o volver a sentirme idiota y ya empezaba a estar un poco harto de sentirme idiota. En fin, que tal despliegue de medios al servicio únicamente de ese comentario ingenioso, de esa observación punzante me dejaban frío. Cada frase tenía que ser brillante, cada diálogo ocurrente. Todo ello no hacía otra cosa que transmitirme una cierta sensación de artificio, de juego, de un placer que empieza y acaba con la gran frase, lo que tampoco es que esté mal per se, pero acaba sabiendo a poco.
Los que me gustaron:
Dispuesta . Una actriz de mediana edad quiere huir de la imagen de sex simbol en la que se ha convertido y lo deja todo para acabar sometiéndose a un hombre vulgar.
"Había momentos en que la falta de vitalidad era total, y entonces contemplaba su vida y se preguntaba: ¿Qué he hecho? O todavía peor, cuando se sentía cansada y no podía acabar la frase: ¿Qué?"Danza en Estados Unidos . El más triste de todos los cuentos, en el que un padre y una madre asisten impasibles a la grave enfermedad de su hijo causado por la improbable existencia en ambos del gen que la provoca.
"lo que hay que recordar de las historias de amor (...) es que son como tener mapaches en la chimenea (...) un día tratamos de ahuyentarlos con humo. Encendimos un fuego, aunque sabíamos que estaban ahí, porque esperábamos que el humo los hiciera salir disparados hacia arriba y que no volvieran nunca más. En cambio, se incendiaron y cayeron estrellándose en la sala, todos chamuscados y en llamas corriendo desesperados por aquí, hasta que murieron."Charadas . Desde la perspectiva de una de las hijas, asistimos a una fiesta familiar con el juego de películas incluido (no exactamente de películas, pero sí el mismo juego) a la que todos vinieron con sus parejas y con la esperanza de encontrar el nexo que en algún momento se perdió o que quizás nunca existió.
"De joven fue una madre frustrada y mezquina, y se alegra cuando sus hijos se comportan como si no se acordaran".Junto a esa inteligencia que mencionaba al principio, el otro aspecto sobresaliente del libro es su tono humorístico. Hay mucho humor en casi todos los relatos, humor inteligente, por supuesto.
Uno de los cuentos especialmente humorístico es La agencia inmobiliaria . Una ama de casa que sabe de todas y cada una de las veces que su adinerado marido la ha engañado (“con sus comienzos dulces y apremiantes, y un final agradecido de manos cogidas, lo peor del matrimonio estaba en el centro: era siempre un lío, una ruina, un campo intransitable”) y que acaba de superar un cáncer (“el oncólogo de Chicago le había dado un cincuenta por ciento de posibilidades... ¡qué mezquindad no mentir y decirle que las posibilidades eran de sesenta contra cuarenta!”) decide que el cambio que su vida necesita no es una aventura como le aconseja su amiga Carla (“Las aventuras son para los jóvenes, es como tomar drogas o saltar de precipicios. ¿Por qué querrías saltar de un precipicio? Oh, dijo Carla. Es obvio que no has visto algunos de los precipicios que he visto yo.”) es mudarse de casa... los dos juntos (“cada casa es una tumba... Lo cual hace que mudarse de casa sea una resurrección.”) La casa tiene muchos problemas y prácticamente al final del relato son asaltados mientras dormían. La mujer es quién mata al asaltante, “Dios santo, dijo su marido. Supongo que esto es lo que siempre has deseado: un hombre muerto en el suelo del dormitorio.”
Y, por último, el relato más famoso del libro … y con toda la razón, Gente así es la única que hay por aquí: farfullar canónico en oncología pediátrica . Un andar en la cuerda floja, un caminar por el filo de la navaja, un tour de forcé, etc. Un relato intenso, doloroso, que en manos de un cualquiera podría haber supuesto un fracaso estrepitoso. Una madre descubre sangre en el pañal de su bebé. El diagnóstico: cáncer; el tratamiento: operación y quimioterapia. Soberbio, no digo más.
“Todo el mundo nos admira por nuestra valentía, no tienen idea de lo que están diciendo. La valentía requiere opciones.”¿Y los pájaros? Pues alguno hay en cada uno de los relatos, quizás sea esa la simple y única razón del título, pues su papel no es nunca relevante. Aunque también puede ser que la desorientación que sufren sus personajes en algún momento le recordó a Moore a aquella paloma del poema de Alberti.
“Cuando un bebé tiene cáncer, incluso parece hasta estúpido haber dejado de fumar. Cuando un bebé tiene cáncer, piensas, ¿de quién nos estamos burlando? Pongámonos todos a encender cigarrillos. Cuando un bebé tiene cáncer, piensas, ¿a quién se le habrá ocurrido la idea? ¿Qué desenfreno celestial dio lugar a esto? Ponme una copa para que me pueda negar a brindar.”
July 25, 2007
Birds of America is a story collection by one of the most talented (but minimal) writers around, Lorrie Moore. The stories here are not big or grand or epic, but work simply as little one-act plays, exposing the inherent complexities and dramas in the everyday lives we all lead.
Moore's writing style is subtle, and laced with a fantastic sense of wit; witness, for example, her slight mocking of the health fad craze in the names she creates for juice bars; or her sly commentary about the misnomer of "busy bee" in the story "Whatever You Want, Fine." Added to this wit is a keen sense of what it means to be on this earth and to interact with someone else (I'm being cliche here, because I'm no Lorrie Moore), to have an effect upon someone's life simply because you happen to walk a similar road together for awhile, and it is the way in which she explores this truth that gives her stories the weight they need to avoid being simple comic pieces.
The three best stories, in my opinion, are "Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens," "People Like That Are The Only People Here," and "Which is More Than I Can Say About Some People." The first story deals with a woman who has a wonderfully loving husband and a great daughter, but can't get over the loss of her cat, and so decides to undergo therapy that guarentees to "cure her by Christmas or the last session is free!" The second deals with pediatric oncology in a harrowing and moving way, about the distance illness brings between people, and the last deals with a mother and daughter, on a road trip through Ireland, and the ways in which revelations of character don't end simply because you know someone for years and years.
These are wonderful, wonderful stories, the kind that make you think about your own life, examine it in the ways the characters are examined here, that affirm realizations you yourself have come to or guide you toward ones you haven't, and I don't think you can ask for much more than that from a book.
Moore's writing style is subtle, and laced with a fantastic sense of wit; witness, for example, her slight mocking of the health fad craze in the names she creates for juice bars; or her sly commentary about the misnomer of "busy bee" in the story "Whatever You Want, Fine." Added to this wit is a keen sense of what it means to be on this earth and to interact with someone else (I'm being cliche here, because I'm no Lorrie Moore), to have an effect upon someone's life simply because you happen to walk a similar road together for awhile, and it is the way in which she explores this truth that gives her stories the weight they need to avoid being simple comic pieces.
The three best stories, in my opinion, are "Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens," "People Like That Are The Only People Here," and "Which is More Than I Can Say About Some People." The first story deals with a woman who has a wonderfully loving husband and a great daughter, but can't get over the loss of her cat, and so decides to undergo therapy that guarentees to "cure her by Christmas or the last session is free!" The second deals with pediatric oncology in a harrowing and moving way, about the distance illness brings between people, and the last deals with a mother and daughter, on a road trip through Ireland, and the ways in which revelations of character don't end simply because you know someone for years and years.
These are wonderful, wonderful stories, the kind that make you think about your own life, examine it in the ways the characters are examined here, that affirm realizations you yourself have come to or guide you toward ones you haven't, and I don't think you can ask for much more than that from a book.
March 18, 2021
I don't usually read short story collections but picked up this one for a book club.
Moore's stories are well-written and insightful, and she can write humorous scenes, but overall I thought the book was somewhat depressing. In the end I was left with the impression that it's almost impossible for two people to have a fulfilling relationship and almost everyone is unhappy in one way or another. Though this may very well be true it's still dispiriting to read about.
In some of these stories characters hook up with the wrong people because they're lonely and needy - and then are disappointed.
In other stories characters have dishonest and/or unfaithful partners and have a hard time dealing with it (throw the bum out would be my view - but this may be easier said than done).
One story is about parents coping with a baby who's stricken with cancer. Another is about a woman who was holding a friend's baby when an accident occurs, killing the child; of course the woman blames herself and can hardly go on.
I think my favorite story is about an unhappy spouse who learns to use a gun, then gets to shoot a nutcase who breaks into people's homes to make them sing. For me this was the most satisfying tale.
It's a good book but you'll probably need something light and fun after reading it.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....
May 4, 2021
I’m not a huge fan of short stories, and I feel like I was rather fooled by the cover of this book into tackling it. I have worked with the Whooping Crane reintroduction program here in Calgary, exercising young crane chicks, and I simply couldn’t resist the pretty cover with the Whooping Crane on it. Plus that alluring title (for a birder), Birds of America. How either the image or the title relate to the stories within remains a mystery to me.
Moore’s stories are rather bleak views of human relationships—told from all kinds of angles but with similar disappointments to go round. As in this dinner party exchange:
I don’t believe I’ve ever had a love affair which ended quite so spectacularly. Apparently, I am doing it wrong.
Moore’s stories are rather bleak views of human relationships—told from all kinds of angles but with similar disappointments to go round. As in this dinner party exchange:
"The thing to remember about love affairs," says Simone, "is that they are all like having raccoons in your chimney."
"Oh, not the raccoon story," groans Cal.
"Yes! The raccoons!" cries Eugene.
I'm sawing at my duck.
"We have raccoons sometimes in our chimney," explains Simone.
"Hmmm," I say, not surprised.
"And once we tried to smoke them out. We lit a fire, knowing they were there, but we hoped that the smoke would cause them to scurry out the top and never come back. Instead, they caught on fire and came crashing down into our living room, all charred and in flames and running madly around until they
dropped dead."
Simone swallows some wine. "Love affairs are like that," she says. "They all are like that."
I don’t believe I’ve ever had a love affair which ended quite so spectacularly. Apparently, I am doing it wrong.
October 11, 2019
The stories in this book hit upon universal themes; loss, loneliness, love, finding acceptance, overcoming fears- in short: LIFE.
There is so much sadness and heartbreak in these stories, but there is also humour. By the end of the book, I must admit I couldn’t recall one truly happy story.
Lorrie Moore is a master of the short story. Each story felt complete. I found her to be very clever with her words.
“ Her mother had given her the name Agnes, believing that a good looking woman was even more striking when her name was a homely one.”
“ Perhaps, she thought, that was where affection began: in an unlikely phrase, in a moment of someone’s having unexpectedly but at last said the right thing.”
My favourites in the collection were: Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens; Which is More than I Can Say; People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk; and Charades, which is honestly the funniest story as well. ( Christmas family squabbling humour!)
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys short stories. Lorrie Moore is an excellent writer and will not disappoint you:)
There is so much sadness and heartbreak in these stories, but there is also humour. By the end of the book, I must admit I couldn’t recall one truly happy story.
Lorrie Moore is a master of the short story. Each story felt complete. I found her to be very clever with her words.
“ Her mother had given her the name Agnes, believing that a good looking woman was even more striking when her name was a homely one.”
“ Perhaps, she thought, that was where affection began: in an unlikely phrase, in a moment of someone’s having unexpectedly but at last said the right thing.”
My favourites in the collection were: Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens; Which is More than I Can Say; People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk; and Charades, which is honestly the funniest story as well. ( Christmas family squabbling humour!)
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys short stories. Lorrie Moore is an excellent writer and will not disappoint you:)
September 30, 2007
One of my main strategies for dealing with life is, "If I don't laugh, I'll cry."
I think Lorrie Moore's strategy is to make me do both.
I think Lorrie Moore's strategy is to make me do both.
January 9, 2023
Sidra, a minor movie star for whom life has "taken on the aspect of a terrible mistake," Agnes, the failed writer whose meeting with a man triggers a painful flash of clarity. Or even Aileen, who can't get over the death of Bert, his cat; Ruth and her implacable humor, Adrienne, so moving in her distress; Mack, this father who had separated from his child. Through all these characters, a little offbeat, lost, and sometimes marginal, Lorrie Moore paints a portrait of America today.
Oscillating between hope and despair, both crazy and tragic, these men and women, so different, so endearing in their quest for distant happiness, are animated by an irresistible sense of humor. For them, distress is chased away with jokes, incessant puns, bursts of laughter, and mockery.
Oscillating between hope and despair, both crazy and tragic, these men and women, so different, so endearing in their quest for distant happiness, are animated by an irresistible sense of humor. For them, distress is chased away with jokes, incessant puns, bursts of laughter, and mockery.
February 3, 2023
As with any short story collection, I liked some of these stories more than others. I especially liked the last three, as my personal preference runs more toward the 'serious.' But I appreciate the wit in this collection, not many can do it or do it so well. And in each story there are passages that ache with beauty, as beneath the humor, there is pain, survival and even triumph.
Read
April 8, 2023Video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1lmQ...
April 13, 2023
Adrienne gets to accompany her husband, a research economist, to a posh artist-academic retreat where food and studios are provided while you pursue your writing or art with two dozen or so other guests. You must, however, dress for dinner. The seating is carefully arranged for "the cross-pollination of ideas." You might hear words like Heideggerian and ideological while munching salsiccia alla griglia con spinaci, but Adrienne has to gird herself when there's a discussion of peptides and rabbit tests or learning that lobsters have what's called a hemipenis. What the mischief is Adrienne doing there? "I married my husband," she asserts, "because I thought it would be a great way to meet guys."
Ah, you've never spent a month or two at such courtesy colonies? Adrienne is at what I assume to be the rather hoity Bellagio Center (Rockefeller funded) on Lake Como in Italy. There are several such places, not so fancy, of course, in the northeast US, and, indeed, I did time at one some years ago, longing to return to the confusion of NYC where I can really find my own serenity -- without the distraction of other colonists, who all bored me to death and, unlike the Bellagio, where the food was forgettable. I skipped breakfast, which stopped long before I awoke at the crack of ten or eleven, and lunch came in a picnic basket discreetly delivered to your studio. When I heard the put-put car motor of Little Red Riding Hood I'd jump to my desk and start typing. But dinner, where you had to mingle and chat, was fairly unbearable, as Adrienne also discovered. "I don't believe in casual sex," she deadpans to a friend, "I believe in casual marriage." Then I met a new arrival, the novelist Iris Owens, aka Harriet Daimler, and we'd huddle together wondering which guests were screwing each other (there was a lot of that) and down vodkas from the bottle she conveniently toted, which helped digestion.
Moore's story, "Terrific Mother," is Lorrie Moore at her very best. It's a laugh out loud sendup of such retreats or colonies, and I highly recommend to anyone with a conquering sense of humor. Adrienne lands at her retreat, you see, because she accidentally killed a friend's baby---. Ok, I stop here.
Many of Moore's stories deal with some terrible illness or disability: cancer, cystic fibrosis, Down Syndrome or just plain blindness. Death hovers. But her sad-funny writing always prickles. Admittedly, her women are usually depressives or needy, but then dropping a baby on stone is not exactly a fender bender, or is it?
Ah, you've never spent a month or two at such courtesy colonies? Adrienne is at what I assume to be the rather hoity Bellagio Center (Rockefeller funded) on Lake Como in Italy. There are several such places, not so fancy, of course, in the northeast US, and, indeed, I did time at one some years ago, longing to return to the confusion of NYC where I can really find my own serenity -- without the distraction of other colonists, who all bored me to death and, unlike the Bellagio, where the food was forgettable. I skipped breakfast, which stopped long before I awoke at the crack of ten or eleven, and lunch came in a picnic basket discreetly delivered to your studio. When I heard the put-put car motor of Little Red Riding Hood I'd jump to my desk and start typing. But dinner, where you had to mingle and chat, was fairly unbearable, as Adrienne also discovered. "I don't believe in casual sex," she deadpans to a friend, "I believe in casual marriage." Then I met a new arrival, the novelist Iris Owens, aka Harriet Daimler, and we'd huddle together wondering which guests were screwing each other (there was a lot of that) and down vodkas from the bottle she conveniently toted, which helped digestion.
Moore's story, "Terrific Mother," is Lorrie Moore at her very best. It's a laugh out loud sendup of such retreats or colonies, and I highly recommend to anyone with a conquering sense of humor. Adrienne lands at her retreat, you see, because she accidentally killed a friend's baby---. Ok, I stop here.
Many of Moore's stories deal with some terrible illness or disability: cancer, cystic fibrosis, Down Syndrome or just plain blindness. Death hovers. But her sad-funny writing always prickles. Admittedly, her women are usually depressives or needy, but then dropping a baby on stone is not exactly a fender bender, or is it?
November 24, 2012
"The thing to remember about love affairs," says Simone, "is that they are all like having raccoons in your chimney."
"Oh, not the raccoon story," groans Cal.
"Yes! The raccoons!" cries Eugene.
I'm sawing at my duck.
"We have raccoons sometimes in our chimney," explains
Simone.
"Hmmm," I say, not surprised.
"And once we tried to smoke them out. We lit a fire, know-
ing they were there, but we hoped that the smoke would cause
them to scurry out the top and never come back. Instead, they
caught on fire and came crashing down into our living room, all charred and in flames and running madly around until they
dropped dead."
Simone swallows some wine. "Love affairs are like that," she says. "They all are like that."
-------------------
So anyway, the story "People Like that are the only people Here" is great, every word skewered onto the page, and half way through I thought This Is No Mere Story, which Wikipedia confirmed was correct, it was autobiographical. But - the very next story "Terrific Mother" was so awful I thought I had to retire this book for a long time & finish it later. 40 pages of mind numbing couldn't give a flying fcuk about these people. 40 pages about a couple at a retreat for academic writers and the lass goes for a massage regularly and they decide they love each other or they don't and I could care a whole lot more about that.
"Oh, not the raccoon story," groans Cal.
"Yes! The raccoons!" cries Eugene.
I'm sawing at my duck.
"We have raccoons sometimes in our chimney," explains
Simone.
"Hmmm," I say, not surprised.
"And once we tried to smoke them out. We lit a fire, know-
ing they were there, but we hoped that the smoke would cause
them to scurry out the top and never come back. Instead, they
caught on fire and came crashing down into our living room, all charred and in flames and running madly around until they
dropped dead."
Simone swallows some wine. "Love affairs are like that," she says. "They all are like that."
-------------------
So anyway, the story "People Like that are the only people Here" is great, every word skewered onto the page, and half way through I thought This Is No Mere Story, which Wikipedia confirmed was correct, it was autobiographical. But - the very next story "Terrific Mother" was so awful I thought I had to retire this book for a long time & finish it later. 40 pages of mind numbing couldn't give a flying fcuk about these people. 40 pages about a couple at a retreat for academic writers and the lass goes for a massage regularly and they decide they love each other or they don't and I could care a whole lot more about that.
April 21, 2008
I really liked Lorrie Moore's "How To Be an Other Woman" (from the love stories collection I read) but I was not wowed by this book. The stories all seemed very similar - isolated, lonely people (mostly women) dealing with husbands and families and communities. I just looked at the overwhelmingly glowing reviews here on goodreads, and hmm, I just don't get it.
5 stars - "Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens"
4 stars - the joke in "Beautiful Grade" about the professor writing Flannery O'Connor articles ("A Good Man Really IS Hard To Find," "Everything That Rises MUST INDEED Converge," "The Totemic South: The Violent ACTUALLY DO Bear It Away")
-"Real Estate" (I thought I didn't like this one much until I got drunk and analyzed it)
3.5 stars - a mix of "Agnes of Iowa" and "Community Life". I felt like these two were especially similar but nearly great.
-"People Like That are the Only People Here"
2 stars - basically everything else
1 star - "What You Want To Do Fine" and "Charades"
5 stars - "Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens"
4 stars - the joke in "Beautiful Grade" about the professor writing Flannery O'Connor articles ("A Good Man Really IS Hard To Find," "Everything That Rises MUST INDEED Converge," "The Totemic South: The Violent ACTUALLY DO Bear It Away")
-"Real Estate" (I thought I didn't like this one much until I got drunk and analyzed it)
3.5 stars - a mix of "Agnes of Iowa" and "Community Life". I felt like these two were especially similar but nearly great.
-"People Like That are the Only People Here"
2 stars - basically everything else
1 star - "What You Want To Do Fine" and "Charades"
January 9, 2023
I’d read a few of Moore’s works before and not grasped what the fuss is about; turns out I’d just chosen the wrong ones to read. This collection is every bit as good as everyone has been saying for the last 25 years. Amy Bloom, Carol Shields and Helen Simpson are a few authors who struck me as having a similar tone and themes. Rich with psychological understanding of her characters – many of them women passing from youth to midlife, contemplating or being affected by adultery – and their relationships, the stories are sometimes wry and sometimes wrenching (that setup to “Terrific Mother”!). There were even two dysfunctional-family-at-the-holidays ones (“Charades” and “Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens”) for me to read in December.
I’ll single out four of the 12 as favourites, though, really, any or all would be worthy of anthologizing in a volume epitomizing the art of the short story. “Which Is More than I Can Say about Some People” has a mother and daughter learning new things about each other on a vacation to Ireland. “What You Want to Do Fine,” another road trip narrative, stars an unlikely gay couple, one half of which is the flamboyant (and blind) Quilty. “People Like That Are the Only People Here” is so vivid on the plight of parents with a child in the paediatric oncology ward that I feel I should check whether Moore lived through that too. And the best of the best: “Real Estate” (not least because she dared to print two full pages of laughter: “Ha!”), which turns gently surreal as Ruth and her philandering husband move into a house that turns out to be a wreck, infested by both animal and human pests.
Moore is as great at the sentence level as she is at overarching plots. Here are a few out-of-context lines I saved to go back to:
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
I’ll single out four of the 12 as favourites, though, really, any or all would be worthy of anthologizing in a volume epitomizing the art of the short story. “Which Is More than I Can Say about Some People” has a mother and daughter learning new things about each other on a vacation to Ireland. “What You Want to Do Fine,” another road trip narrative, stars an unlikely gay couple, one half of which is the flamboyant (and blind) Quilty. “People Like That Are the Only People Here” is so vivid on the plight of parents with a child in the paediatric oncology ward that I feel I should check whether Moore lived through that too. And the best of the best: “Real Estate” (not least because she dared to print two full pages of laughter: “Ha!”), which turns gently surreal as Ruth and her philandering husband move into a house that turns out to be a wreck, infested by both animal and human pests.
Moore is as great at the sentence level as she is at overarching plots. Here are a few out-of-context lines I saved to go back to:
She was starting to have two speeds: Coma and Hysteria.
In general, people were not road maps. People were not hieroglyphs or books. They were not stories. A person was a collection of accidents. A person was an infinite pile of rocks with things growing underneath.
Never a temple, her body had gone from being a home, to being a house, to being a phone booth, to being a kite. Nothing about it gave her proper shelter.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
December 4, 2019
I liked this book so much I got two copies because as I recall there were several different dustjackets for the book. I have two different birds....they are stickers...that's the way they must have done it. You can tell what a master of the short story she was by where they (the stories in this collection) were published: The Paris Review, The New Yorker, Harpers, Elle.
March 20, 2019
Some stories are awesome, others are lackluster…but some are awesome...
Like this one
Like this one
November 15, 2019
4.5 rounded down
It took a little while for me to warm to the style but in all honesty there’s not a weak story in this collection. Moore can write dialogue and convey human emotions and her character’s thoughts in a way nobody else can.
It took a little while for me to warm to the style but in all honesty there’s not a weak story in this collection. Moore can write dialogue and convey human emotions and her character’s thoughts in a way nobody else can.
July 27, 2025
Amerika Kuşları, on iki öyküden oluşuyor. Amerikalı yazar Lorrie Moore'un kaleme aldığı öyküler hem hüzünlü hem de yer yer komik.
Anne-kız ilişkisi, ikili ilişkiler, hastalık gibi konular oldukça gerçekçi diyaloglarla sade ama etkileyici bir şekilde işlenmiş. İşin ilginç yanı bu öykülerde empati kurabildiğim bir karakter olmadı, belki bu yüzden okuduktan sonra aklımda da pek kalmadı. Fakat on birinci öykü olan, bence kitabın en etkileyici öyküsü "Burada Sadece Böyle İnsanlar Bulunur: Ped-Onk Servisinde Düzenli Olarak Babıldayanlar" dan sonra kitabı daha çok sevdim. Anne, baba ve çocuk isimleriyle anlatılan öyküde çocuğuna kanser teşhisi konan bir anneyi dinliyoruz. Yazar bu çok ağır konuyu ajitasyona düşmeden, gayet gerçekçi ve başarılı bir şekilde işlemiş. Okuması ve hazmetmesi oldukça zordu doğrusunu söylemem gerekirse.
Moore'un hem komik hem hüzünlü olmayı başarabilen öykülerini genel olarak sevdim. Tam da hayat gibi her şeyden biraz vardı bu öykülerde... Sadece yer yer öykülerdeki Amerika havası nedeniyle kopukluk yaşadım ama kitabın ismi de Amerika Kuşları zaten. Yazar okuruna neyle karşılaşacağının mesajını vermiş diye düşünüyorum:)
Anne-kız ilişkisi, ikili ilişkiler, hastalık gibi konular oldukça gerçekçi diyaloglarla sade ama etkileyici bir şekilde işlenmiş. İşin ilginç yanı bu öykülerde empati kurabildiğim bir karakter olmadı, belki bu yüzden okuduktan sonra aklımda da pek kalmadı. Fakat on birinci öykü olan, bence kitabın en etkileyici öyküsü "Burada Sadece Böyle İnsanlar Bulunur: Ped-Onk Servisinde Düzenli Olarak Babıldayanlar" dan sonra kitabı daha çok sevdim. Anne, baba ve çocuk isimleriyle anlatılan öyküde çocuğuna kanser teşhisi konan bir anneyi dinliyoruz. Yazar bu çok ağır konuyu ajitasyona düşmeden, gayet gerçekçi ve başarılı bir şekilde işlemiş. Okuması ve hazmetmesi oldukça zordu doğrusunu söylemem gerekirse.
Moore'un hem komik hem hüzünlü olmayı başarabilen öykülerini genel olarak sevdim. Tam da hayat gibi her şeyden biraz vardı bu öykülerde... Sadece yer yer öykülerdeki Amerika havası nedeniyle kopukluk yaşadım ama kitabın ismi de Amerika Kuşları zaten. Yazar okuruna neyle karşılaşacağının mesajını vermiş diye düşünüyorum:)
April 22, 2020
Nelabai gerai žinau šiuolaikines JAV rašytojas, tuo labiau tas, kurios nėra Strout. Visai nežinojau, ko tikėtis iš Moore. Anotacijoj knyga vadinama jos finest kūrinių rinkiniu; pusę jo skaičiau nei šiaip, nei taip - disinterested. Apsakymai visai nieko, bet tokie sykiu ir apie nieką. Parašyti gražiai, šmaikščiai, apie nesusikalbėjimus, gyvenimiškas situacijas. Tai labai skiriasi nuo LT dramatinės novelės, kur nuo dalgiu įpjautos rankos laša kraujas ir iš ten turi atsekti visą pokario tragediją, sovietmečio absurdą, kaimo gelmę ir vsio takoje. Moore nėra ezopiška, nėra dramatiška, vietom jai patinka paradoksai arba tiesiog liūdni įvykių susidėstymai. Labai panašiai kaip su Munro: skaitai kai kuriuos (kaip man buvo su ankstyvesniais), nieko nevyksta, tik ta labai gerai pakeliama būties įdomybė, skaitai ir nesupranti, kame tas hype'as, bet whatever, gal čia šiaip dėl to, kad nesi baisiai jautrios sielos asmenybė. Nu ir ką!
O tada perskaitai TĄ apsakymą ir pamiršti visus savo "not impressed" įspūdžius. Ir paskui beveik viskas yra vis geriau.
Man taip buvo su Munro, buvo ir su šita Moore knyga. Iki pusės skaičiau greitai ir atsainiai, o tada likusioj pusėj - trys jos apsakymai, tokie gražūs, kad kitų galėjo šiaip ir nebūti.
- Vienam iš tų trijų - pagyvenęs aklas advokatas ir statybininkas tinkuotojas-dažytojas, vis dažniau užsilaikantis pas tą advokatą, skausmingai reaguojantis, kai draugai advokatui aiškina, kaip dažytojas nudažė ne tik jo namą, bet ir krūmus mėlynai (šiaip tai biški aptaškė). Galiausiai jie kažkaip tarsi nejučia susimeta, nebeišsimeta ir pradeda gyvent kartu. Apsakymas ilgas, rodo keletą metų - kaip jie keliauja, kaip į tą santykį įeina daugybė kitų dedamųjų - klasinė ir išsilavinimo nelygybė (entelektualas vs commonfolkas), šeimyninė padėtis (statybininkas turi seniai nematytą mažą sūnų), negalia, šiaip asimetriškas santykis. Skaičiau ir galvojau: kaip viskas būtų persunkta klišių ir standartinių išeičių, jei būtų įprasta pora vyras+moteris. O sykiu ir kaip kitaip aš pati skaityčiau, kiek mažiau ar kaip tik daugiau ko matyčiau. Gražu.
- Antras - kaip mažas vaikas, dar beveik kūdikėlis, suserga vėžiu ir tėvai gulasi su juo operacijai. Just that, tas vienas epizodas iš gyvenimo. Kaip tas epizodas turi pradžią, taip turi pabaigą (nespoilinsiu kokią), tai grynai tik ligos epizodas. Žiauriai buitiškas, čto vižu to poju, bet būtent tuo paprastumu labai skausmingas. Priminė Barneso prozą iš geresnio (ankstesnio) laikotarpio, dar tuo piktumu turi kažką iš Coetzee's. Gal tiesiog tai piktas, persiutęs kartėlis, kuris kyla iš bejėgiškumo, negalėjimo nieko padaryti, kai bent ką nors padaryti taip norisi (nu tai siunti).
- Trečias - kaip jauna moteris per balių draugų sode paima palaikyti jų kūdikį, neišlaikiusi pusiausvyros nukrenta ir.. vaikas žūva. Ir.. ji gyvena toliau. Išteka, vyras akademikas, išvažiuoja į Italiją, kažkokią mokslininkų rezidenciją, sunkiai pakelia visokias Akademines Diskusijas prie stalo. Ir visą laiką gyvenime ją seka tas mažutis vaiduokliukas, jau lyg biški paaugęs; jis nebūtinai yra pačiame tekste - bet mes žinom kad yra, ir tuo žinojimu visas apsakymas ir nuspalvintas.
Tie pradiniai apsakymai - pamirštami, bent aš greit pamiršau, bet tuos paskutinius norisi skaityt vis iš naujo, cituot, atsiminti. Norėčiau dar kada jos paskaityti.
Stiliukas:
Tas apie vaiko vėžį:
O tada perskaitai TĄ apsakymą ir pamiršti visus savo "not impressed" įspūdžius. Ir paskui beveik viskas yra vis geriau.
Man taip buvo su Munro, buvo ir su šita Moore knyga. Iki pusės skaičiau greitai ir atsainiai, o tada likusioj pusėj - trys jos apsakymai, tokie gražūs, kad kitų galėjo šiaip ir nebūti.
- Vienam iš tų trijų - pagyvenęs aklas advokatas ir statybininkas tinkuotojas-dažytojas, vis dažniau užsilaikantis pas tą advokatą, skausmingai reaguojantis, kai draugai advokatui aiškina, kaip dažytojas nudažė ne tik jo namą, bet ir krūmus mėlynai (šiaip tai biški aptaškė). Galiausiai jie kažkaip tarsi nejučia susimeta, nebeišsimeta ir pradeda gyvent kartu. Apsakymas ilgas, rodo keletą metų - kaip jie keliauja, kaip į tą santykį įeina daugybė kitų dedamųjų - klasinė ir išsilavinimo nelygybė (entelektualas vs commonfolkas), šeimyninė padėtis (statybininkas turi seniai nematytą mažą sūnų), negalia, šiaip asimetriškas santykis. Skaičiau ir galvojau: kaip viskas būtų persunkta klišių ir standartinių išeičių, jei būtų įprasta pora vyras+moteris. O sykiu ir kaip kitaip aš pati skaityčiau, kiek mažiau ar kaip tik daugiau ko matyčiau. Gražu.
- Antras - kaip mažas vaikas, dar beveik kūdikėlis, suserga vėžiu ir tėvai gulasi su juo operacijai. Just that, tas vienas epizodas iš gyvenimo. Kaip tas epizodas turi pradžią, taip turi pabaigą (nespoilinsiu kokią), tai grynai tik ligos epizodas. Žiauriai buitiškas, čto vižu to poju, bet būtent tuo paprastumu labai skausmingas. Priminė Barneso prozą iš geresnio (ankstesnio) laikotarpio, dar tuo piktumu turi kažką iš Coetzee's. Gal tiesiog tai piktas, persiutęs kartėlis, kuris kyla iš bejėgiškumo, negalėjimo nieko padaryti, kai bent ką nors padaryti taip norisi (nu tai siunti).
- Trečias - kaip jauna moteris per balių draugų sode paima palaikyti jų kūdikį, neišlaikiusi pusiausvyros nukrenta ir.. vaikas žūva. Ir.. ji gyvena toliau. Išteka, vyras akademikas, išvažiuoja į Italiją, kažkokią mokslininkų rezidenciją, sunkiai pakelia visokias Akademines Diskusijas prie stalo. Ir visą laiką gyvenime ją seka tas mažutis vaiduokliukas, jau lyg biški paaugęs; jis nebūtinai yra pačiame tekste - bet mes žinom kad yra, ir tuo žinojimu visas apsakymas ir nuspalvintas.
Tie pradiniai apsakymai - pamirštami, bent aš greit pamiršau, bet tuos paskutinius norisi skaityt vis iš naujo, cituot, atsiminti. Norėčiau dar kada jos paskaityti.
Stiliukas:
In her life, she had been given the gift of solitude, a knack for it, but now it would be of no professional use. She would have to become a people person.
"A peeper person?" queried her mother on the phone from Pittsburgh.
"People." Abby said.
"Oh, those," said her mother, and she sighed the sigh of death, though she was strong as a brick. (p. 27)
"You assume they're over and gone," said her friend Carla, who, in Ruth's living roomm was working on both her inner child and inner thighs, getting rid of the child but in touch with the thighs; Ruth couldn't keep it straight. (p. 180)
Tas apie vaiko vėžį:
"I cannot believe this is happening to our little boy," he says, and starts to sob again. "Why didn't it happen to one of us? It's so unfair. Just last week, my doctor declared me in perfect health: the prostate of a twenty-ear-old, the heart of a ten-year-old, the braing of an insect--or whatever it was he said. What a nightmare this is."
What words can be uttered? You turn just slightly and there it is: the death of your child. It is part symbol, part devil, and in your blind spot all along, until, if you are unlucky, it is completely upon you. Then it is a fierce little country abducting you; it holds you squarely inside itself like a cellar room--the best boundaries of you are boundaries of it. Are there windows? Sometimes aren't there windows? (p. 220)
The Tiny Tim Lounge is a little sitting area at the end of the Peed Onk corridor. There are two small sofas, a table, a rocking chair, a television and a VCR. There are various videos: Speed, Dune, and Star Wars. On one of the lounge walls there is a gold plaque with the singer Tiny Tim's name on it: his son was treated once at this hospital and so, five years ago, he donated oney for this lounge. It is a cramped little lounge, which, one suspects, would be larger if Tiny Tim's son had actually lived. Instead, he died here, at this hospital and now there is this tiny room which is part gratitude, part generosity, part fuck-you.
Sifting through the videocassettes, the Mother wonders what science fiction could begin to compete with the science fiction of cancer itself--a tumor with its differentiated muscle and bone cells, a clump of wild nothing and its mad, ambitious desire to be something: something inside you, instead of you, another organism, but with a monster's architecture, a demon's sabotage and chaos. Think of leukemia, a tumor diabolically taking liquid form, better to swim about incognito in the blood. George Lucas, direct that! (p. 229-230)
March 5, 2015
She's an excellent story writer - this is her best I think. I treasure my signed copy!
just come across some notes on this from a 1998 notebook:
her stuff can hit like a brick round the head. She recounts bruising, tiresome relationships fearlessly, picking the right moments out. Bitterness, the brutality of what we can think and feel, and how we can't forgive ourselves. In 'Real Estate' a death from lung cancer, intertwined with a story of a burglar who makes his victims sing and writes down the words, but can't recall the tunes when he gets home. The singing night, the spaceship like a set of lit teeth in the sky; the page and a half of Ha's! In Peed Onk a community of pain the mother doesn't want to join, but can't help. And the last one about a woman who accidentally kills a baby, marries an academic who is patient, awkward with her, takes her to Italy for a month with other academics. Great stuff.
just come across some notes on this from a 1998 notebook:
her stuff can hit like a brick round the head. She recounts bruising, tiresome relationships fearlessly, picking the right moments out. Bitterness, the brutality of what we can think and feel, and how we can't forgive ourselves. In 'Real Estate' a death from lung cancer, intertwined with a story of a burglar who makes his victims sing and writes down the words, but can't recall the tunes when he gets home. The singing night, the spaceship like a set of lit teeth in the sky; the page and a half of Ha's! In Peed Onk a community of pain the mother doesn't want to join, but can't help. And the last one about a woman who accidentally kills a baby, marries an academic who is patient, awkward with her, takes her to Italy for a month with other academics. Great stuff.
March 20, 2021
Leer los relatos de Lorrie Moore es introducirse en el mundo de personajes de ficción tan reales como los de carne y hueso.
La inteligencia de esta escritora encanta y abruma por momentos, porque no escribe de una forma exhibicionista, complaciente, sino que es cruda y realista, y esto se ve en la forma cómo sus personajes entienden y abordan su propio mundo.
La melancolía que los acompaña hace que uno sienta que en el trasfondo están al borde de una crisis existencial, que la esperanza como definición no existe, solo está la vida, representada sin adornos ni cursilerías.
De este libro hay historias que me gustaron más que otras. Si bien el ambiente casi es en medio de una situación sombría, hay pasajes y diálogos con ingenio, sarcasmo y genialidad que le dan ritmo a las historias.
La inteligencia de esta escritora encanta y abruma por momentos, porque no escribe de una forma exhibicionista, complaciente, sino que es cruda y realista, y esto se ve en la forma cómo sus personajes entienden y abordan su propio mundo.
La melancolía que los acompaña hace que uno sienta que en el trasfondo están al borde de una crisis existencial, que la esperanza como definición no existe, solo está la vida, representada sin adornos ni cursilerías.
De este libro hay historias que me gustaron más que otras. Si bien el ambiente casi es en medio de una situación sombría, hay pasajes y diálogos con ingenio, sarcasmo y genialidad que le dan ritmo a las historias.
November 7, 2017
The writing is very smart and I like the dark humor, the wisecracks. But the stories themselves are too much alike, the main characters are more or less of the same type and there is not too much happening. Good to read a single story once and a while but not an entire collection.
January 11, 2025
Lorrie Moore. Lorrie ¿qué? Lorrie Moore. ¿No has oido hablar de ella? Pues probablemente te estás perdiendo a una de las mejores escritoras de narrativa breve de Norteamérica. Y digo bien, Norteamérica, pues así incluyo también a la anciana dama canadiense. A ver, empecemos con algo claro: nadie escribe como Lorrie Moore. Porque sus relatos no se limitan a contar historias; diseccionan las relaciones humanas con una precisión quirúrgica y un humor tan ácido que te sorprendes riéndote de tus propios dolores. Y Pájaros de América es un excelente punto de entrada para conocer a Moore: una colección que despliega todo su ingenio, ternura y melancolía.
Hay autoras que hacen poesía del dolor, otras del amor, pero Lorrie Moore tiene una habilidad única: convierte el absurdo de la vida cotidiana en arte. Moore tiene la rara habilidad de hacer que el dolor se funda con el humor, como quien camina al borde del abismo y aún encuentra motivos para reír. Su prosa es afilada, repleta de juegos de palabras, observaciones ingeniosas que raspan justo donde duele y una ternura que nunca se permite ser empalagosa. Pero no te equivoques: debajo del ingenio hay un núcleo de profunda humanidad. Moore captura lo cotidiano con una sensibilidad que recuerda a Alice Munro, pero con un giro sarcástico que la sitúa en otro nivel. Es un equilibrio constante entre la risa y la tristeza, donde cada historia es un mapa emocional de personajes atrapados entre lo que desean y lo que tienen.
Y luego están los diálogos, claro. ¡Ah, los diálogos! ... Son como esas conversaciones que tienes en la cabeza a las tres de la mañana, solo que aquí Moore las convierte en pequeñas obras de arte llenas de ironía y verdad. Cada frase corta como un cuchillo bien afilado, y justo cuando crees que te ha dejado sin aire, te suelta una línea que te hace reír aunque duela un poco.
¿Y sus personajes? Los personajes de Lorrie Moore siempre han sido aves un poco torpes, buscando sentido en el aleteo desordenado de la vida. En esta colección se encuentran en pleno vuelo hacia la madurez, lidiando con la conciencia de la fragilidad humana, la mortalidad y las relaciones que, más que refugios, a menudo se convierten en jaulas emocionales. Muchas veces encontrarás mujeres enfrentadas a situaciones ordinarias y devastadoras a la vez, que simplemente tratan de sobrevivir mientras cargan con sus dudas, sus errores y el eco de las expectativas rotas. Porque cada cuento es una lección de cómo narrar la vida con todas sus contradicciones.
Gente así es la única que hay por aquí: farfullar canónico en oncología pediátrica - 5/5
Este relato duele: es un golpe directo al corazón. La crudeza de la narrativa sobre la enfermedad infantil y la lucha por conservar la cordura es magistral.
Danza en Estados Unidos - 4.5/5
Aquí Moore captura el contraste entre el arte y la vida cotidiana. Una bailarina visita a un viejo amigo cuya vida ha sido golpeada por la enfermedad de su hijo. El cuento tiene una levedad engañosa: la danza y la música funcionan como hilos que sostienen el peso emocional de una historia cargada de belleza y fragilidad. Poético y conmovedor. La historia captura el contraste entre la belleza del arte y la dureza de la vida. El diálogo íntimo entre los personajes refuerza el peso de la fragilidad humana sin perder el ritmo narrativo.
Dispuesta - 4/5
El relato abre con Sidra, una actriz que ha dejado atrás los focos para refugiarse en un anodino motel de Chicago. La narrativa traza su desencanto amoroso y profesional con una mirada mordaz hacia el fracaso y la autoaceptación. Moore no da tregua, pero tampoco juzga: sus personajes son simplemente humanos, imperfectos y, por ello, completamente reales. Es una historia sobre el desencanto, pero también sobre la posibilidad de aceptar la vida con todas sus grietas. El desencanto romántico narrado con ironía sutil.
Una madre estupenda - 4/5
¿Es posible seguir viviendo después de una tragedia devastadora? En este cuento, Moore narra la historia de una mujer que se aísla tras un accidente fatal. La autora evita sentimentalismos y opta por mostrar el proceso de duelo de una manera cruda, pero también con el toque de humor negro que la caracteriza. Un retrato de culpa y redención donde Moore despliega su habilidad para adentrarse en los rincones oscuros de la maternidad no convencional.
Que es más de lo que puedo decir de ciertas personas - 4.5/5
Este cuento aborda las relaciones madre-hija con el sello distintivo de Moore: humor irreverente y una mirada sobre las dinámicas familiares que desarma. Un viaje a Irlanda para besar la Piedra de Blarney se convierte en un examen silencioso de la relación entre ambas.
La agencia inmobiliaria - 4/5
La protagonista, Ruth, navega el desmoronamiento de su matrimonio mientras busca una casa que nunca termina de encontrar. La metáfora es clara: Ruth no solo busca un hogar físico, sino un lugar donde sentirse en paz consigo misma. Moore despliega su aguda observación de las pequeñas tragedias de la vida doméstica.
Vida en comunidad - 3.5/5
En uno de los relatos más sombríos de la colección, Moore retrata el deterioro emocional de una joven recién llegada a una ciudad universitaria. Su relación con un hombre mayor, que trivializa sus infidelidades, agrava su sensación de alienación. Una escena con murciélagos subraya su fractura interna mientras la protagonista empieza a percibir a la comunidad como su adversaria, plenamente consciente de su doble moral.
Agnes de Iowa - 3.5/5
Moore captura con maestría en este cuento la crisis entre las aspiraciones y la realidad a través de Agnes.
En todos estos cuentos, Lorrie Moore demuestra un dominio asombroso del relato breve, con personajes atrapados en la disonancia entre lo que esperan de la vida y la realidad a la que se enfrentan. Su prosa afilada, llena de ingenio, humor irónico y observaciones punzantes sobre la condición humana, convierte cada cuento en una disección emocional que oscila entre la tristeza y la comedia.
¿Por qué recomiendo leer a Moore? Porque te desafía. Porque sus cuentos no son postales bonitas del mundo, sino mapas de carreteras llenas de baches y giros inesperados. Porque Pájaros de América es una colección que muestra lo mejor y lo peor de la vida, y te deja agradecido por ambos. Y, sobre todo, porque es una lectura fascinante que refleja inquietudes similares a las que describe en su relato Arre borriquito, vamos a Belén (sic):
Hay autoras que hacen poesía del dolor, otras del amor, pero Lorrie Moore tiene una habilidad única: convierte el absurdo de la vida cotidiana en arte. Moore tiene la rara habilidad de hacer que el dolor se funda con el humor, como quien camina al borde del abismo y aún encuentra motivos para reír. Su prosa es afilada, repleta de juegos de palabras, observaciones ingeniosas que raspan justo donde duele y una ternura que nunca se permite ser empalagosa. Pero no te equivoques: debajo del ingenio hay un núcleo de profunda humanidad. Moore captura lo cotidiano con una sensibilidad que recuerda a Alice Munro, pero con un giro sarcástico que la sitúa en otro nivel. Es un equilibrio constante entre la risa y la tristeza, donde cada historia es un mapa emocional de personajes atrapados entre lo que desean y lo que tienen.
Y luego están los diálogos, claro. ¡Ah, los diálogos! ... Son como esas conversaciones que tienes en la cabeza a las tres de la mañana, solo que aquí Moore las convierte en pequeñas obras de arte llenas de ironía y verdad. Cada frase corta como un cuchillo bien afilado, y justo cuando crees que te ha dejado sin aire, te suelta una línea que te hace reír aunque duela un poco.
¿Y sus personajes? Los personajes de Lorrie Moore siempre han sido aves un poco torpes, buscando sentido en el aleteo desordenado de la vida. En esta colección se encuentran en pleno vuelo hacia la madurez, lidiando con la conciencia de la fragilidad humana, la mortalidad y las relaciones que, más que refugios, a menudo se convierten en jaulas emocionales. Muchas veces encontrarás mujeres enfrentadas a situaciones ordinarias y devastadoras a la vez, que simplemente tratan de sobrevivir mientras cargan con sus dudas, sus errores y el eco de las expectativas rotas. Porque cada cuento es una lección de cómo narrar la vida con todas sus contradicciones.
Gente así es la única que hay por aquí: farfullar canónico en oncología pediátrica - 5/5
Este relato duele: es un golpe directo al corazón. La crudeza de la narrativa sobre la enfermedad infantil y la lucha por conservar la cordura es magistral.
“Un principio: la Madre encuentra un coágulo de sangre en el pañal del Bebé. Pero ¿qué historia es ésta? ¿Quién puso esto aquí? Es grande y brillante, (…) Quizá pertenezca a otra persona. Quizá sea algo menstrual, algo que es de la Madre o de la Canguro; algo que el Bebé ha encontrado en la papelera y por sus propias razones de bebé demente lo ha guardado aquí. ¡Los bebés están locos!”Moore equilibra a la perfección el humor negro y la tragedia, convirtiéndolo en uno de sus relatos más memorables. Moore nos mete en la piel de una madre cuyo bebé es diagnosticado con cáncer. Pero en lugar de hundirse en el drama, la autora entrega una historia feroz, llena de ironía y resistencia. La narración oscila entre la angustia visceral y un humor oscuro que desafía las convenciones del género.
“(…) llama a la consulta del hospital infantil. «Sangre en el pañal», dice, y con voz alarmada y perpleja, la mujer al otro lado de la línea dice: «Venga enseguida.» ¡Qué servicio más encantadoramente instantáneo! Di sólo «sangre». Di sólo «pañal». ¡Y mira lo que consigues!”.Es uno de esos textos que no solo te conmueven, sino que te dejan pensando en la delgada línea entre el humor y el horror.
Danza en Estados Unidos - 4.5/5
Aquí Moore captura el contraste entre el arte y la vida cotidiana. Una bailarina visita a un viejo amigo cuya vida ha sido golpeada por la enfermedad de su hijo. El cuento tiene una levedad engañosa: la danza y la música funcionan como hilos que sostienen el peso emocional de una historia cargada de belleza y fragilidad. Poético y conmovedor. La historia captura el contraste entre la belleza del arte y la dureza de la vida. El diálogo íntimo entre los personajes refuerza el peso de la fragilidad humana sin perder el ritmo narrativo.
Dispuesta - 4/5
El relato abre con Sidra, una actriz que ha dejado atrás los focos para refugiarse en un anodino motel de Chicago. La narrativa traza su desencanto amoroso y profesional con una mirada mordaz hacia el fracaso y la autoaceptación. Moore no da tregua, pero tampoco juzga: sus personajes son simplemente humanos, imperfectos y, por ello, completamente reales. Es una historia sobre el desencanto, pero también sobre la posibilidad de aceptar la vida con todas sus grietas. El desencanto romántico narrado con ironía sutil.
”En ella había algo aturdido y como a la espera; Sidra descubrió que en las partes más sueltas de su corazón había pequeños fosos oscuros de aniquilación, y se abalanzó sobre ellos y cayó dentro.”Moore disecciona relaciones fallidas con una voz mordaz y reflexiva. Tal vez no alcanza la intensidad emocional de otros relatos, pero brilla en su perspicacia.
Una madre estupenda - 4/5
¿Es posible seguir viviendo después de una tragedia devastadora? En este cuento, Moore narra la historia de una mujer que se aísla tras un accidente fatal. La autora evita sentimentalismos y opta por mostrar el proceso de duelo de una manera cruda, pero también con el toque de humor negro que la caracteriza. Un retrato de culpa y redención donde Moore despliega su habilidad para adentrarse en los rincones oscuros de la maternidad no convencional.
Que es más de lo que puedo decir de ciertas personas - 4.5/5
Este cuento aborda las relaciones madre-hija con el sello distintivo de Moore: humor irreverente y una mirada sobre las dinámicas familiares que desarma. Un viaje a Irlanda para besar la Piedra de Blarney se convierte en un examen silencioso de la relación entre ambas.
”Mientras su madre trataba de arrastrarse hacia la piedra, Abby, que ya veía su cara desnuda, vio que aquella mujer feroz como una hoguera se había puesto nerviosa y melancólica: todo aquel alarde de grandeza había sido un truco. Sólo trataba de probar algo, trataba de desafiar y superar sus miedos en vano, en vez de aprender a vivir con ellos, y es que, maldita sea, vivías con ellos de todos modos”.Moore usa el viaje como metáfora de las distancias emocionales que a menudo persisten, incluso cuando el terreno físico parece haberse cruzado. Divertido y melancólico a la vez.
La agencia inmobiliaria - 4/5
La protagonista, Ruth, navega el desmoronamiento de su matrimonio mientras busca una casa que nunca termina de encontrar. La metáfora es clara: Ruth no solo busca un hogar físico, sino un lugar donde sentirse en paz consigo misma. Moore despliega su aguda observación de las pequeñas tragedias de la vida doméstica.
“A veces, cuando volvía de ver una película, pasaba por la antigua casa. La habían vendido a una pareja joven poco memorable, y ahora, cuando pasaba con el coche por delante y la observaba como un pervertido, comenzó a quererla recuperar.”Lleno de observaciones inteligentes, la fortaleza de este relato sobre la búsqueda de hogar radica en la disección del deseo y la nostalgia.
Vida en comunidad - 3.5/5
En uno de los relatos más sombríos de la colección, Moore retrata el deterioro emocional de una joven recién llegada a una ciudad universitaria. Su relación con un hombre mayor, que trivializa sus infidelidades, agrava su sensación de alienación. Una escena con murciélagos subraya su fractura interna mientras la protagonista empieza a percibir a la comunidad como su adversaria, plenamente consciente de su doble moral.
“Aquellos arrebatos de quisquillosidad moral era algo que había visto con frecuencia en la gente de allí. No eran buenas personas, no eran amables. Siempre iban tonteando de aquí para allá, y mentían a sus cónyuges. ¡Pero reciclaban los periódicos!”
Agnes de Iowa - 3.5/5
Moore captura con maestría en este cuento la crisis entre las aspiraciones y la realidad a través de Agnes.
“Su madre le había dado el nombre de Agnes, pues creía que una mujer guapa causaba todavía más efecto cuando tenía un nombre sin pretensiones.”Sin embargo, Agnes resultó ser poco agraciada. Aun así, persigue una vida sofisticada en Nueva York, asistiendo a fiestas en lofts de TriBeCa y pronunciando su nombre a la francesa: “Añés”. Una mirada al desencanto del medio oeste americano.
En todos estos cuentos, Lorrie Moore demuestra un dominio asombroso del relato breve, con personajes atrapados en la disonancia entre lo que esperan de la vida y la realidad a la que se enfrentan. Su prosa afilada, llena de ingenio, humor irónico y observaciones punzantes sobre la condición humana, convierte cada cuento en una disección emocional que oscila entre la tristeza y la comedia.
¿Por qué recomiendo leer a Moore? Porque te desafía. Porque sus cuentos no son postales bonitas del mundo, sino mapas de carreteras llenas de baches y giros inesperados. Porque Pájaros de América es una colección que muestra lo mejor y lo peor de la vida, y te deja agradecido por ambos. Y, sobre todo, porque es una lectura fascinante que refleja inquietudes similares a las que describe en su relato Arre borriquito, vamos a Belén (sic):
“La vida es como un largo viaje por un vasto país —dijo él—. A veces hace buen tiempo. A veces hace mal tiempo. A veces es tan malo que el coche se sale de la carretera.”Así que si te gustan los relatos que abren ventanas al alma humana, este libro tiene tu nombre escrito en la página de cortesía. Pero te advierto: los pájaros de Moore no siempre cantan. A veces graznan, a veces callan… pero siempre vuelan.
December 13, 2024
Nadie escribe diálogos tan lapidarios como Lorrie Moore. Van más allá de lo que en apariencia dicen las palabras. Y también están llenos de gracietas ("—Una pastectomía—dijo Aileen—, al pobre Bert lo que le extirparon fue la pasta.") Y creo que nadie pinta como ella el universo femenino de fin del siglo XX; atrás quedó la rigidez moral de las mujeres de Alice Munro. Tan solo con unas líneas de diálogo participas como lectora de múltiples perspectivas sobre la mujer, una mujer en general estafada en las cosas sencillas, en las relaciones convencionales, con los padres, hijos, amigos, amantes: actrices desencantadas y bailarinas en declive, hijas sombrías y madres dispuestas (que buscan de viaje por Irlanda —como en el cuento que más me ha gustado—, el don de la elocuencia), bibliotecarias solitarias y juezas nostálgicas, esposas dolientes y engañadas... Toda una constelación femenina que metafóricamente se encierra en jaulas, que escapa del nido familiar, que se expresa volando libre, que se estrella contra el cristal. Imposible olvidar el cuento titulado Gente así es la única que hay por aquí: farfullar canónico en oncología pediátrica en el que una madre escritora ficciona la circunstancia de su bebé con cáncer tirando de ironía para sobrellevar el duelo. Te ríes y te conjelas al mismo tiempo. Sí, al igual que en el resto de cuentos. La impronta dejada es esa: mucho dolor, pero camuflado bajo el humor.
April 14, 2015
To celebrate my one-year anniversary of joining Goodreads, I've decided to read and review one 5-star book from each of the five favorite new reading buddies I've met on GR. First up is
Birds of America
, a collection of 12 short stories from Lorrie Moore. It's a favorite book of my new pal Snotchocheez, a kind, wise, supportive, all-around cool guy.
Now, in 1998, when BOA was released, I was 20. I was a junior in college at Mizzou. I was fed up for life with the academic approach to analyzing literature. Call me simple (and do it slowly, with exaggerated head nods, to increase my chances of understanding you), but I like to read for enjoyment. My holy trinity is plot, character and voice, and that's all I need. I don't care about symbolism, and I don't want to spend an hour dissecting the deep meaning of a single descriptive paragraph.
BOA was a double whammy - a lofty, cerebral book designed to be cherished and studied by intellectuals that is itself densely populated with professors, writers and miscellaneous academic nimrods. It views them with the correct amount of detached irony while still being of the same mind, which to me was a blessing and a curse.
I'm glad I read BOA , and on any given page there were phrases and observations to love, with abundant sparkling wit applied toward a broad spectrum of human experiences. But this book was never a close friend or a page-turner. Its place was more in the lecture hall of my soul than the dorm room or even the dining hall. (I love the dining hall.)
This is a collection of twelve short stories, all but one of them previously published in the New Yorker, Harper's, The Paris Review , et al. The protagonists of most of these stories are restless, unsatisfied women in their thirties who distract themselves with devoted lesser men. Collectively, most of these characters are interchangeable.
Which made me think, when you have a bunch of same-ish stories that feature same-ish protagonists, why not composite them into a single novel? But then I thought, Well, because it's easier to just write a story here, a story there, get two bucks a word to publish them in a lit mag, then re-edit and compile them into a single book, get a fat check from Random House, do a nice little public-appearance tour to support it, then go back to your day job as tenured professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where you can assign your own book to your students as required reading and then spend a semester's worth of classes talking about how good it is using nothing but Big Words. Geez, I'm cynical.
BOA gains momentum as it goes, though. The first real break from the same-ish protagonist formula is like four stories from the end, with a vacationing gay couple where one is blind and the other is actually straight, or thought he was. You'll see seriously sick little kids (like, nearing death) pop up here and there, culminating in "People Like That Are the Only People Here," the most heart-wrenching story in the book. That story tunnels further into the human psyche than I could even attempt, and has some bitter belly laughs to boot.
The last story, "Wonderful Mother," begins with its protagonist being handed a baby at a family-and-friends function, losing her balance and fatally dropping the baby on its head. So let me point out - this is the kind of premise the short-story format is perfect for. Do I want to be stuck with an accidental baby-killer protagonist for 350 pages? Nope. Will I spend 40 pages full-on engaged while she marries some professor just because he insists on it, then takes her to this nightmarish European academic retreat? You bet I will.
By the way, I'm 37, I have a bachelor's degree, I'm a server in a fine-dining restaurant, I read a lot of young-adult fiction and celebrity memoirs, and my chances of going to grad school are still hovering steady at about 18%.
Now, in 1998, when BOA was released, I was 20. I was a junior in college at Mizzou. I was fed up for life with the academic approach to analyzing literature. Call me simple (and do it slowly, with exaggerated head nods, to increase my chances of understanding you), but I like to read for enjoyment. My holy trinity is plot, character and voice, and that's all I need. I don't care about symbolism, and I don't want to spend an hour dissecting the deep meaning of a single descriptive paragraph.
BOA was a double whammy - a lofty, cerebral book designed to be cherished and studied by intellectuals that is itself densely populated with professors, writers and miscellaneous academic nimrods. It views them with the correct amount of detached irony while still being of the same mind, which to me was a blessing and a curse.
I'm glad I read BOA , and on any given page there were phrases and observations to love, with abundant sparkling wit applied toward a broad spectrum of human experiences. But this book was never a close friend or a page-turner. Its place was more in the lecture hall of my soul than the dorm room or even the dining hall. (I love the dining hall.)
This is a collection of twelve short stories, all but one of them previously published in the New Yorker, Harper's, The Paris Review , et al. The protagonists of most of these stories are restless, unsatisfied women in their thirties who distract themselves with devoted lesser men. Collectively, most of these characters are interchangeable.
Which made me think, when you have a bunch of same-ish stories that feature same-ish protagonists, why not composite them into a single novel? But then I thought, Well, because it's easier to just write a story here, a story there, get two bucks a word to publish them in a lit mag, then re-edit and compile them into a single book, get a fat check from Random House, do a nice little public-appearance tour to support it, then go back to your day job as tenured professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where you can assign your own book to your students as required reading and then spend a semester's worth of classes talking about how good it is using nothing but Big Words. Geez, I'm cynical.
BOA gains momentum as it goes, though. The first real break from the same-ish protagonist formula is like four stories from the end, with a vacationing gay couple where one is blind and the other is actually straight, or thought he was. You'll see seriously sick little kids (like, nearing death) pop up here and there, culminating in "People Like That Are the Only People Here," the most heart-wrenching story in the book. That story tunnels further into the human psyche than I could even attempt, and has some bitter belly laughs to boot.
The last story, "Wonderful Mother," begins with its protagonist being handed a baby at a family-and-friends function, losing her balance and fatally dropping the baby on its head. So let me point out - this is the kind of premise the short-story format is perfect for. Do I want to be stuck with an accidental baby-killer protagonist for 350 pages? Nope. Will I spend 40 pages full-on engaged while she marries some professor just because he insists on it, then takes her to this nightmarish European academic retreat? You bet I will.
By the way, I'm 37, I have a bachelor's degree, I'm a server in a fine-dining restaurant, I read a lot of young-adult fiction and celebrity memoirs, and my chances of going to grad school are still hovering steady at about 18%.
October 1, 2024
"Hayatta başa çıkamayacağı kadar çok şey yüklenmişti. Tanrı onu başkasıyla mı karıştırmıştı?"
2022'nin Aralık ayında Julian Barnes'ın Penceremden adlı deneme derlemesini okumuş, bir dolu övgü düzdüğü Lorrie Moore kitabı Amerika Kuşları'nı epeyce merak etmiş, Türkçeye çevrilmediğini görüp üzülmüştüm. Bundan sadece birkaç ay sonra, Şubat 2023'te Holden Kitap bu kitabı yayımlayıverdi - edebiyat tanrılarının çağrılarıma kulak verdiği kutlu bir olaydı, mutlu bir şaşkınlık hissetmiştim. Kitabı hemen aldım ama ancak okuyabildim. Sonuç: Julian Barnes haklıymış.
Amerikan edebiyatıyla inişli çıkışlı ilişkimin çıkışlı anlarından birini yaşadım bu kitapla, mutluyum. 1957 doğumlu yazarın somut olarak kuşlar, soyut olaraksa annelik, ilişkiler, yalnızlık ve ölüm ekseninde birbirine bağlanan öykülerini, kullandığı alaycı ama hüzünlü dili, incelikli iç görülerini sahiden çok sevdim. Hikayelerin her birinde muhakkak metinden geçiveren kuşlar var, kiminde bir anlığına, kiminde daha uzun rol alıyor kuşlar ama hep oradalar, kitabın adı buradan mütevellit.
Bu görünen bağlantı. Bir de tematik olan var elbette. Kitaptaki on üç öykünün sayfalarından geçen insanların her biri fena halde yalnızlar. Tuhaf, ruhlarına sinmiş, kalabalıklarla tedavi edilemeyen bir yalnızlık onlarınki. Partnerlerinin yanında yalnızlar, çocuklarının yanında, ebeveynlerinin yanında. Bir tanışamama hali hâsıl tüm öykülerde, birbirleriyle bir türlü tam tanışamamış insanları okuyoruz. Ancak ölümle daha kol kola giden son üç öykü hariç kasvetli metinler değiller bunlar, Moore'un dilinde tuhaf bir alaycılık var, hayatın en karanlık anlarında bile orada bir yerde duran mizahı bulup çıkarıyor, bu da öyküleri aynı anda hem ağır, hem hafif kılıyor.
Bu incelemeyi, beni bu kitapla tanıştıran Julian Barnes'in sözleriyle bitireyim madem: "Onun yaşında biri için 'bilge' sıfatını kullanmakta tereddüt ediyorum. Ama bir yazarın tam olgunluğa eriştiğini görmek her zaman heyecan vericidir. Kanatlarını çırparak havalanmak eğlendirici olabilir ama bir sanatçının göklerde süzüldüğünü görmek insana kıvanç veriyor."
2022'nin Aralık ayında Julian Barnes'ın Penceremden adlı deneme derlemesini okumuş, bir dolu övgü düzdüğü Lorrie Moore kitabı Amerika Kuşları'nı epeyce merak etmiş, Türkçeye çevrilmediğini görüp üzülmüştüm. Bundan sadece birkaç ay sonra, Şubat 2023'te Holden Kitap bu kitabı yayımlayıverdi - edebiyat tanrılarının çağrılarıma kulak verdiği kutlu bir olaydı, mutlu bir şaşkınlık hissetmiştim. Kitabı hemen aldım ama ancak okuyabildim. Sonuç: Julian Barnes haklıymış.
Amerikan edebiyatıyla inişli çıkışlı ilişkimin çıkışlı anlarından birini yaşadım bu kitapla, mutluyum. 1957 doğumlu yazarın somut olarak kuşlar, soyut olaraksa annelik, ilişkiler, yalnızlık ve ölüm ekseninde birbirine bağlanan öykülerini, kullandığı alaycı ama hüzünlü dili, incelikli iç görülerini sahiden çok sevdim. Hikayelerin her birinde muhakkak metinden geçiveren kuşlar var, kiminde bir anlığına, kiminde daha uzun rol alıyor kuşlar ama hep oradalar, kitabın adı buradan mütevellit.
Bu görünen bağlantı. Bir de tematik olan var elbette. Kitaptaki on üç öykünün sayfalarından geçen insanların her biri fena halde yalnızlar. Tuhaf, ruhlarına sinmiş, kalabalıklarla tedavi edilemeyen bir yalnızlık onlarınki. Partnerlerinin yanında yalnızlar, çocuklarının yanında, ebeveynlerinin yanında. Bir tanışamama hali hâsıl tüm öykülerde, birbirleriyle bir türlü tam tanışamamış insanları okuyoruz. Ancak ölümle daha kol kola giden son üç öykü hariç kasvetli metinler değiller bunlar, Moore'un dilinde tuhaf bir alaycılık var, hayatın en karanlık anlarında bile orada bir yerde duran mizahı bulup çıkarıyor, bu da öyküleri aynı anda hem ağır, hem hafif kılıyor.
Bu incelemeyi, beni bu kitapla tanıştıran Julian Barnes'in sözleriyle bitireyim madem: "Onun yaşında biri için 'bilge' sıfatını kullanmakta tereddüt ediyorum. Ama bir yazarın tam olgunluğa eriştiğini görmek her zaman heyecan vericidir. Kanatlarını çırparak havalanmak eğlendirici olabilir ama bir sanatçının göklerde süzüldüğünü görmek insana kıvanç veriyor."
May 1, 2021
Lorrie moore me vuelve a dejar sobrecogido con su peculiar manera de escribir.Con esa combinación de humor negro, dolor e inteligencia, nos narra la vida de personajes solitarios y perdidos, que se van diluyendo en el gran sueño americano, debido a sus decisiones, o a su mala suerte del destino. Siempre con la sensación de no ser protagonistas de sus vidas.Sin entrometer la moralidad o algún juicio social, nos muestra esa colección de accidentes que son.
De mis relatos favoritos mencionaré 5:
-Que es más de lo que puedo decir de ciertas personas
-Danza en Estados Unidos
-Charadas
-La agencia inmobiliaria
Y el último, pero que más me removió y leí con el corazón estrujado:
-Gente así es la única que hay por aquí.
Mi nuevo estupefaciente
De mis relatos favoritos mencionaré 5:
-Que es más de lo que puedo decir de ciertas personas
-Danza en Estados Unidos
-Charadas
-La agencia inmobiliaria
Y el último, pero que más me removió y leí con el corazón estrujado:
-Gente así es la única que hay por aquí.
Mi nuevo estupefaciente
December 28, 2010
Lorrie “Morbid” Moore’s book of stories were bleak and foreboding, but they appealed to me more than I’d have thought. She is a very talented writer. It’s always appreciated when you can go deep into the heads of characters to discover those remote yet recognizable elements of the way we humans can be. It’s not like the stories are relentlessly dark. There’s even some humor at times – good, sharply observed stuff. It’s just drearier in tone than I’m used to enjoying, so it surprised me when I did.
December 18, 2017
Beautiful stories, obviously. This is also the book that everyone says YOU MUST READ THIS. So, of course I am resistant to it. I did like it, but I also felt like each story hit a similar note...which is probably a good thing for a collection, but is a bad thing for a reader. All of her stories (in here, nowhere else) have this feeling of spending a day in a musty house to me...not sure if that makes sense.
February 5, 2022
This was a unique collection of short stories. The characters and scenes were well-written, and they ranged from everyday slices-of-life, to tragic, to surrealistic. I listened to the audio, and I can say the narrator spending what seemed like several minutes letting loose a barrage of sobbing laughter was one of the strangest things I've ever heard in an audiobook. I really don't think I'd like to hear it again, honestly.
September 4, 2022
Astute, witty, delightful, sincere, and at times painfully heartfelt; Moore's writings have a pleasantly gentle manner of charting life's subtle peculiarities.
This was my first from Moore, and it's definitely encouraged to check out more of their work.
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Reading updates.
This was my first from Moore, and it's definitely encouraged to check out more of their work.
_______
Reading updates.
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