Like Life

Rating:
Summary: A Lorrie Moore book is a treasure
Review: Lorrie Moore has an unmatched ability to mix verbal jokes and funny moments with tragic ones. She makes it look easy, but the craftmanship inherent in her work is quite complicated. She makes her readers feel her characters with their hearts and their minds. You'll laugh out loud and you feel lingering sadness.

My favorite story in the collection is "Places to Look for your Mind." I couldn't stop thinking about it, the characters were so real to me.

This whole book is a pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: "It's like life, but it's not necessarily life."
Review: This quote, from the title story of Lorrie Moore's ridiculously good collection, really seems to sum up her writing here. All of her stories are so unbelievably bizarre, at times, and yet, we know they're real. She writes about things we only thought existed in our heads--perceptions, comparisons, understandings of life that we could once insist were our own neuroses, yet apparently, Moore's had all the same ideas, and has put them to paper in some of the most intriguing and complex and, at times, subtly hilarious stories I've ever read.

"Like Life" is where you'll find her story, "You're Ugly, Too," which I found in a collection of stories dubbed the best since 1970, a Scribner anthology, and what sparked my interest in Moore. "You're Ugly, Too" is a brilliant piece, and definitely one of my favorites. I also loved "The Jewish Hunter," which I was reading during pre-cal one day, and started laughing like an idiot at various points. (Not good.) "Starving Again" is an incredible piece. In fact, I didn't quite think I got it 100% until I was sitting in a restaurant with someone one day, and they were going on and on, and all I could think about was our food coming to the table....Well, read the story, you'll see. It's definitely one of those great stories that you experience in your own life, and then go back and read again, and appreciate it all the better.

"Like Life" is an incredible collection, and I'm already on my second and third readings of these stories. It's hard to read them and not look at life differently after.

Rating:
Summary: like life
Review: this small collection of stories are enjoyable and well worth reading. i've heard a lot of good things about moore, and this collection shows me that she may be as good a i've heard. the stories are well written, but they don't grab you the way you expect. still, a solid collection.