― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 14 October 2005 02:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― the pr00de abides (pr00de), Friday, 14 October 2005 02:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― the pr00de abides (pr00de), Friday, 14 October 2005 02:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 14 October 2005 03:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 14 October 2005 03:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― the pr00de abides (pr00de), Friday, 14 October 2005 03:10 (eighteen years ago) link
"Recently I received a letter from an acquaintance in which he said, 'By the way, I've been following and enjoying your work. It's getting better: deeper and sicker.' Because the letter was handwritten, I convinced myself, for a portion of the day, that perhaps the last word was richer. But then I picked up the letter and looked at the word again: there was the s, there was the k. There was no denying it. Even though denial has been my tendency of late. I had recently convinced myself that a note I'd received from an ex-beau (in what was a response to my announcement that I'd gotten married) had read 'Best Wishes for Oz'. I considered this an expression of bitterness on my ex-beau's part, a snide lapse, a doomed man's view of marriage, and it gave me great satisfaction. Best Wishes for Oz. Eat your heart out, I thought. You had your chance. Cry me a river. Later a friend, looking at the note, pointed out that, Look: this isn't an O. This is a nine - see the tail? And this isn't a Z. This is a 2. This says 92. 'Best Wishes for 92.' It hadn't been cryptic bitterness at all - only an indifferent little New Year's greeting. How unsatisfying!"
― etc, Friday, 14 October 2005 04:19 (eighteen years ago) link
She's published one or two new stories so far, but that's it. It's such a mystery -- most of the BoA stories appeared around a decade or so ago -- I remember my own excitment when each new one appeared in the New Yorker, with excitement of a writer hitting her stride -- but not much since.
― Eazy (Eazy), Friday, 14 October 2005 06:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― toby (tsg20), Friday, 14 October 2005 07:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― Cathy (Cathy), Friday, 14 October 2005 14:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 14 October 2005 15:41 (eighteen years ago) link
Easy, what a story, though, that you have to tell.
I agree with Scott Seward.
― the pinefox, Friday, 14 October 2005 16:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eazy (Eazy), Saturday, 15 October 2005 15:43 (eighteen years ago) link
OK, I dare say that she has published with UWP before.
Here is proof of the book:
http://www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/Presskits/Barnstorm.html
― the pinefox, Monday, 31 October 2005 16:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― the bobfox, Monday, 31 October 2005 16:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mooro (Mooro), Monday, 31 October 2005 17:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― the bellefox, Tuesday, 1 November 2005 13:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mooro (Mooro), Tuesday, 1 November 2005 17:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 1 November 2005 19:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mooro (Mooro), Tuesday, 1 November 2005 20:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 1 November 2005 20:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mooro (Mooro), Tuesday, 1 November 2005 21:24 (eighteen years ago) link
Scott Seward was entirely on the dollars.
― the pinefox, Sunday, 18 May 2008 11:45 (fifteen years ago) link
He was. I want to read the 3 new stories in the 'Collected Stories' without having to spend $50 on all the stories I already own. Does anyone know what they're called/where to find them online?
― James Morrison, Monday, 19 May 2008 04:29 (fifteen years ago) link
hated the lorrie moore review in the observer the other week - did anyone else read it?? so missed the point
― t_g, Monday, 19 May 2008 12:00 (fifteen years ago) link
Some of the uncollected stories are linked to on this ILB thread, James:
Lorrie Moore
― Stevie T, Monday, 19 May 2008 13:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Or just go straight to the New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/search/query?query=%22lorrie+moore%22&queryType=nonparsed&submitbtn.x=0&submitbtn.y=0&submitbtn=Submit
― Stevie T, Monday, 19 May 2008 13:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Ah, you are a magic person! Thanks.
― James Morrison, Tuesday, 20 May 2008 02:50 (fifteen years ago) link
Yes! All three are there in full! The first three results to come up are the three new stories.
― James Morrison, Tuesday, 20 May 2008 02:52 (fifteen years ago) link
The Pinefox biggied Lorrie Moore up to me once, so I have fingered and thumbed her books, but never read one all the way through.
That was me, six years ago.
I have now read about 100 pages of The Collected Stories and I am a bit worried because I think it might be hogwash. What would be good stories to dispel my fears? Or should I just plough on? I think the collection runs backwards, so perhaps I would enjoy the earlier funnier ones.
I mean this one about the Blarney Stone was really rubbish, wasn't it?
― PJ Miller, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 10:36 (fourteen years ago) link
havent read her collected stories, but her most famous one is 'people like that are the only people here' so maybe try that??
― just sayin, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 10:39 (fourteen years ago) link
that's not her best, PJM, but even that one is not hogwash to my ears. I wonder what it is that you don't like about it. maybe the lack of 70S WHO?
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 10:41 (fourteen years ago) link
ps / I don't think her earliest stories are her best: probably the Birds of America stuff + Anagrams is (+ her Frog Hospital novel which is not in that book) - so I'm not sure that getting back to the earliest work would make you keener.
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 10:42 (fourteen years ago) link
Thank you, both of you.
"Hogwash" is a bit strong.
What I don't like, I think, is the pseudo-depth. I will look for an example.
― PJ Miller, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:34 (fourteen years ago) link
Here we are, handily collected by Wikiquote:
Abby began to think that all the beauty and ugliness and turbulence one found scattered through nature, one could also find in people themselves, all collected there, all together in a single place. No matter what terror or loveliness the earth could produce- wind, seas- a person could produce the same, lived with the same, lived with all that mixed-up nature swirling inside, every bit. There was nothing as complex in the world- no flower or stone- as a single hello from a human being.
― PJ Miller, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 17:17 (fourteen years ago) link
I made one of the biggest about-faces in opinion with Lorrie Moore. Didn't like the early stories, thought they were written to fit in the New Yorker style, and then loved most of the stories that turned up in Birds of America as they begun to get printed in the mid-90s. "Beautiful Grade" and "People Like That Are..." are some of her best -- the kind of complexity of character, dialogue, jokes, everything, in such a dense way that it reads like the last of 100 drafts.
Recognizing her from her bookjacket photo, I asked her to dance once at a zydeco show in Madison, when I was 21 or so; no luck.
― Eazy, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 17:24 (fourteen years ago) link
I wish I could find an example of the one prose habit of hers that seems to have infected loads of other writers -- it's this thing where a certain word or phrase will appear in the text and then the main character will start whimsically disassembling or punning on it in her head. (I think it's a great and charming habit of Moore's, but when anyone else does it it tends to reveal the artificiality of a character suddenly mulling over the wording of a third-person narrator or whatever.)
(This thread makes me feel accomplished, btw, because my "favorite joke I've ever made" from upthread has since been replaced by one that's actually funny)
― nabisco, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 17:48 (fourteen years ago) link
terrible borscht belt shtick of a writer. hideously overrated
― more tang than an astronaut (bug), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 19:01 (fourteen years ago) link
Chekhov did the same thing, though.
― Eazy, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 19:03 (fourteen years ago) link
every lorrie moore story sounds like it's narrated by the old lady from the shoebox greetings cards:
https://www.sewforless.com/products/MX0025.jpg
― more tang than an astronaut (bug), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 19:09 (fourteen years ago) link
is your real name Dale Peck?
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 19:17 (fourteen years ago) link
no?
― more tang than an astronaut (bug), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 19:19 (fourteen years ago) link
I really can't imagine Chekhov doing the thing I have in mind -- especially since it really wouldn't work in translation
― nabisco, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 19:52 (fourteen years ago) link
theres a really nice story of hers in this weeks new yorker
― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 14:01 (fourteen years ago) link
rings a little bit false in places--some of sarah brinks dialog, and a college girl refrencing burt lancaster in what i assume (wrongly?) is 2009 or nearby--but shes so charming and funny that i forgive her
― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 14:05 (fourteen years ago) link
tbh lorrie moore reminds me a little bit of estela, which is a very high compliment to ms moore
― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 14:06 (fourteen years ago) link
i read anagrams and half of 'self-help' recently. i half-liked them. i wish anagrams didn't seem to need to resolve so
― thomp, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 14:22 (fourteen years ago) link
anyone read the new book yet??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
gotta go find an actual book store around here. i hope there is one left.
― scott seward, Sunday, 30 August 2009 19:01 (fourteen years ago) link
was the story in the nyer from a couple months back an excerpt from the new one?
― fleetwood (max), Sunday, 30 August 2009 19:03 (fourteen years ago) link
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LtWv2%2B3RL._SS500_.jpg
― scott seward, Sunday, 30 August 2009 19:03 (fourteen years ago) link
It does have some spectacular cringe moments though, she's fantastic at making you feel really embarassed for her characters.
Coffin scene and the boyfriend plot were poor though, and kind of unnecessary.
I've only read the latest one and Frog Hospital. Should get Anagrams at some point. Birds of America I've avoided because I have enough half-read short story collections as it is.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 23 October 2010 15:08 (thirteen years ago) link
i couldn't finish birds of america. the smugness put me off. self-help is pretty good, though. the last story, "to fill," is lorrie being fantastic at making you feel embarrassed for her characters
― kamerad, Saturday, 23 October 2010 16:02 (thirteen years ago) link
Only read The Collected Stories...god, what a book. Picked up A Gate at the Stairs for £2 the other day, will have to wait till I finish my degree before I start it really.
― Darren Huckerby (Dwight Yorke), Saturday, 23 October 2010 16:24 (thirteen years ago) link
£2!
It's definitely worth £2.
― the pinefox, Saturday, 23 October 2010 23:12 (thirteen years ago) link
But if you want something dark, shit, read People Like That Are the Only People Here.― the pr00de abides (pr00de), Thursday, October 13, 2005 10:55 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
just got to this in birds of america...fuck it's so good
― johnny crunch, Friday, 4 February 2011 18:43 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah that storys p much a modern classic now
― just sayin, Friday, 4 February 2011 18:48 (thirteen years ago) link
moore on memoirs: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/may/12/what-if/?page=1
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 26 April 2011 19:56 (thirteen years ago) link
on friday night lights http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/aug/18/very-deep-america-friday-night-lights/?page=1
― just sayin, Friday, 29 July 2011 21:58 (twelve years ago) link
Bill believes in free speech. He believes in expensive speech. He doesn't believe in showing "Fire" in a crowded movie theater, but he does believe in shouting "Fie!" and has done it twice himself--both times at Forrest Gump
― Langdon Alger Stole the Highlights (cryptosicko), Saturday, 26 December 2020 23:56 (three years ago) link
Certainly 'safe' is what I am now - or am supposed to be. Safety is in me, holds me straight, like a spine. My blood travels no new routes, simply knows its way, lingers, grows drowsy and fond. Though there are times, even recently, in the small city where we live, when I've left my husband for a late walk, the moon out hanging upside down like some garish, show-offy bird, like some fantastical mistake - what life of offices and dull tasks could have a moon in it, flooding the sky and streets, without its seeming preposterous? - and in my walks, toward the silent corners, the cold mulchy smells, the treetops suddenly waving in a wind, I've felt an old wildness again. Revenant and drunken. It isn't sexual, not really. It has more to do with adventure and escape, like a boy's desire to run away, revving thwartedly like a wish, twisting in me like a bolt, some shadow fastened at the feet and gunning for the rest, though, finally, it has always stayed to one side, as if it were some other impossible life and knew it, like a good dog, good dog, good dog. It has always stayed.
― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Saturday, 16 December 2023 22:01 (four months ago) link
knew right away that was from who will run the frog hospital
will be carrying paragraphs of that book with me forever
― ivy., Saturday, 16 December 2023 22:06 (four months ago) link