Self-Help
by Lorrie Moore
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lorrie MooreEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-03-13
ISBN: 0307277291
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Self-Help
Book Review: Encounters with The Self
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm rather late coming to the fiction of Lorrie Moore but, definitely better late than never. A recent short story by Moore in The New Yorker (from her newly published novel) finally got me into her tailwind that's been in the atmosphere since her first book of short stories, "Self Help," was published in 1985. In some ways, these idiosyncratic stories of the-self-in-transition may even be more timely now in the 21st century than they were in the 80s. I think we as a culture are more ready to see the The Self as a fragmented, ambiguous entity that has to continuously struggle to keep up the facades of the old traditions that, for example, either hobble women or have simply outlived their old definitions.
Moore writes with an intensity and originality about women (and men) grappling with the fallout of postmodernity. It's been said, and sung, that there is a thin line between love and hate and all the relationships in "Self Help" come under the microscope and are found to partake of both. A sense of alienation and melancholy pervades the protagonists of "Self Help" as they are swept along on the vicissitudes of emotions that are never less than complex and laced with the mystery of growing pains and the pains that diminish us as we grow older. Moore writes about mothers, daughters, lovers, husbands, and, ultimately, about women as creative people at the mercy of never-ending stages of transition. If Alice Munro is the great modern classicist of the short story, Moore is the next-generation's candidate for writing of a more experimental nature, mirroring the increasing fragmentation of our world where the biology of women is at right angles to their need for self-expression. These stories do not provide easy closure on the fate of any of the protagonists, but in their courageous free fall and protracted states of inquiry lie their snippets of liberation and moments of epiphany.
Summary of Self-Help
In these tales of loss and pleasure, lovers and family, a woman learns to conduct an affair, a child of divorce dances with her mother, and a woman with a terminal illness contemplates her exit. Filled with the sharp humor, emotional acuity, and joyful language Moore has become famous for, these nine glittering tales marked the introduction of an extravagantly gifted writer.Short Stories Books
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