Bark: Stories – Deckle Edge Author: Visit Amazon's Lorrie Moore Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0307594130 | Format: EPUB
Bark: Stories – Deckle Edge Description
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, March 2014: Here’s a reason Lorrie Moore is so beloved by her baby boomer brethren: she’s smart, she’s funny, her eye is even sharper than her tongue. In Bark, her latest collection of stories, all those qualities are well on display. “He had never been involved with the mentally ill before,” she writes of her mid-life anti-hero in the (sort-of) title story, "Debarking." "[B]ut he now felt more than ever that there should be strong international laws against them being too good looking.” Acerbic? Check. Knowing? Check. Says out loud on the page what we less talented, less observant mere mortals wish we could form so well in thought? Check. Check. Check. The only reason not to read these seven stories is that, perhaps, they’re just too accurate and perceptive about the way we live now--but then, why would you ever want to read stories that were anything else? --Sara Nelson
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Moore’s first collection of short stories, the uncommonly perceptive and energetically articulate Birds of America (1998), established her prominent place in the renaissance of the American short story that made itself heard with great innovation in the 1980s and 1990s. Since then, she has alternated between story collections and novels, and now a new compilation of stories will add support to the widely held opinion that the short form is her true forte. Her talent is best exhibited in the collection’s longest stories (each around 40 pages); her comfort with that length is indicated by her careful avoidance of overplotting, which, of course, dulls the effect of an expansive short story, and by not allowing the stories to seem like the outlines of novels that never got developed. These two examples of her proficiency shine: “Debarking” is about a divorced man who enters the dating scene only to experience complications with the is-she-crazy woman he starts dating and also within himself, as intimacy seems the natural antidote to “global craziness”; “Wings” concerns husband-and-wife musicians whose dreams haven’t panned out. A major ingredient of Moore’s tales of troubled lives is an abiding humor, which serves to protect her characters, in all their frailties, from grating on the reader as too pathetic. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: An extensive author tour will attract many Moore enthusiasts and generate both publicity and sales. --Brad Hooper
See all Editorial Reviews
- Hardcover: 208 pages
- Publisher: Knopf; First Edition edition (February 25, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0307594130
- ISBN-13: 978-0307594136
- Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I love short stories but am never entirely sure how to review books of them. Giving the plot or a brief summary for each story seems kind of pointless and often redundant given that that information is usually available on the site anyway. In this case, I've decided instead to respond to some of the points others have made in their reviews.
Some have noted that some of the stories seem dated. Yes, they do. It's a fair point. Stories of the Democratic convention of 2008 or the war in Iraq may eventually pale, but I think they're still fresh enough not to seem hopelessly antiquated.
It's been noted that the book is short. Yes, and I wish it were longer. But I don't know that it's fair to knock a book for its length if the quality is there. I believe it is here.
The endings have been faulted here. I have to confess that I don't really understand this complaint. One of the many beauties of the short story is the diversity of endings. Sometimes, short stories wrap everything up with a nice bow. Other times, they simply end. And there are a variety of possibilities in between. I did not have a problem with the endings.
Some have said that these stories don't represent Moore at her best. Agreed. But even Moore at less than her best is wonderful to read. Indeed, her stories always (including here) seem welcoming. As someone else put it, and I second the point, Moore is a master at drawing you in, at giving you a full character in a paragraph. A student of the craft of short story writing would do well to study these, and those who simply enjoy reading should be rewarded.
I have read all of Lorrie Moore's short story collections and have enjoyed them greatly, except for this book. I love her novels, especiallyA Gate at the Stairs (Vintage Contemporaries) and Anagrams. This collection, however, seems postured and very self-aware. It feels like the words were chosen so carefully that they lose their organic feeling. At times, I felt impatient to finish the story I was reading.
Many of the stories deal with themes of isolation, loneliness, anger, and bitterness. There are betrayals in relationships and self-soothing with alcohol. So many of the people, especially women, have been burned by their partners that I wonder if Ms. Moore thinks intimacy between the sexes is at all possible. The relationships portrayed in this book are so banal and shallow that I finished it with a feeling of hopelessness.
In 'Debarking', Ira is recently divorced from Marilyn and feels very hateful towards her for breaking up their marriage. He begins dating a woman named Zora who has a bizarre relationship with her son, making intimacy with Ira impossible. The backdrop of the story is the Gulf War. Ira feels that in wartime it is better to be with someone than to try and deal with the world on your own. 'Referential' deals with a woman whose 16 year-old son has manic depressive illness and her lover is pulling away from her and her son. 'Wings' is about KC, a woman whose band has fallen apart. She lives with Dench in a very meaningless relationship.
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