In Like Life’s eight exquisite stories, Lorrie Moore’s characters stumble through their daily existence. These men and wo...
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reviews
Dec 17, 2009
Lina
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Lorrie Moore writes with such bizarre starkness yet fills you with a complete picture of each displaced woman she profiles. She is a master of the unspoken with turns of fresh and real dialogue.
"Message from outer space," the girl seethes as she spits right next to the pure and carefully clean woman who bathes in a scalding tub with capful of Lysol every night.
Pricless.
"Short stories chronicle the "like lives" (as opposed to love live More...
"Message from outer space," the girl seethes as she spits right next to the pure and carefully clean woman who bathes in a scalding tub with capful of Lysol every night.
Pricless.
"Short stories chronicle the "like lives" (as opposed to love live More...
Feb 08, 2008
Anne
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I know this is supposed to be everyone's "early"-Moore favorite, but it just isn't mine. The much-anthologized "You're Ugly, Too" is fine--not brilliant, sorry, but perfectly fine--but I find many of the others to have a weird kind of rage or self-hatred or insecurity or something boiling up from within that gives them a sour tone. Moore harnesses all that said rage/self-hatred/insecurity to better effect elsewhere, I think.
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Aug 31, 2009
Lizzie
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Pretty sure I borrowed this from Meg over two years ago. Sorry Meg! Thanks Meg!
On the title page is what seems to be a stamp mark from a used book store in Kho Tao, Thailand. There is probably a good story there for Meg to tell in comments.
I'm not the most practiced short story reader, with only medium Lorrie Moore exposure. In high school I got a copy of Birds of America at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore in Chicago, because I liked the stickers on the cover and because More...
On the title page is what seems to be a stamp mark from a used book store in Kho Tao, Thailand. There is probably a good story there for Meg to tell in comments.
I'm not the most practiced short story reader, with only medium Lorrie Moore exposure. In high school I got a copy of Birds of America at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore in Chicago, because I liked the stickers on the cover and because More...
Dec 16, 2009
Tao
rated it:
I like this book.
I have read this book many times. I do not read it that much anymore. A lot of it is annoying to me now but I read it many times before. I read some of the stories maybe 10 times.
I feel like Lorrie Moore worked a lot harder and longer and with more agony in her face while editing than anyone else I have read, for short stories.
I have read this book many times. I do not read it that much anymore. A lot of it is annoying to me now but I read it many times before. I read some of the stories maybe 10 times.
I feel like Lorrie Moore worked a lot harder and longer and with more agony in her face while editing than anyone else I have read, for short stories.
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Feb 18, 2009
Christopher
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I have to give this collection three stars because Lorrie Moore's writing is just that good; no matter what her subject matter, at the very least, I always enjoy hearing her voice and encountering her narrative structures. However, it's a somewhat mean-spirited collection. Almost all of the characters are women displaced from the East Coast to the Midwest, who seem not necessarily unable to understand midwestern culture so much as unwilling to even attempt to, and because of this I often find
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Dec 17, 2009
Tanveer
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This book is making me depressed because I'll never be as good a writer as Lorrie Moore.
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May 25, 2009
Emalie
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This book is an inspiration in it’s quiet deliverance of realistic characters. Constructed of eight short stories about the loveliness and heartache in the smallest most trite life experiences, it was compelling and I busted through it nonstop. This created an obsession with reading as many books of hers as I could get ahold of, as is evident in my reading list for 2008; I admire her style so much.
"Moore dances around the edges of broken relationships with a delicacy that expr More...
"Moore dances around the edges of broken relationships with a delicacy that expr More...
Oct 11, 2009
lyn
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Lorrie Moore is one of my favorite contemporary authors. I have a big collection of her short stories on order from Amazon, but I was glad to see this smaller, early collection hiding in the library (most places only carry Birds of America). Her writing is so poignant, incisive and witty, with such precise and startling figures of speech--I both love it and hate it at the same time, because I know I'll never achieve what she manages to in prose. Moore's gifts are luminous; that rare person who
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Oct 27, 2010
Lauren
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Hit and miss. Definitely liked this better than her novel. Love some of her sentences, really like a few of the stories. The first two were a little off for me, the middle ones were my favourite, her turns of phrase and images sometimes make me stop and imagine, or laugh at how odd (but human, and real) they are - I forget the name of the story, but the guy whose wife left him for someone that is like a man out of a book (he should have asked her which book?), and all he can do is read self-help
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Nov 11, 2008
Ciara
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full disclosure: i really like lorrie moore's books, but i can't always tell one from the other. is this the one that is all in second-person? i don't think so. i think this is some other one. is this even a novel, or is it short stories? i can't remember. she should get her publishing house to spruce up the covers of her books a little more so i can tell them apart. basically, the four stars come from the consistent strength of moore as a writer. you can pick up anything she has written & it pr
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Oct 19, 2008
Katherine
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Lorrie Moore is a widely-acknowledged master of the short story, and there is something undeniably masterful about the stories in "Like Life." Moore has a poetic precision with words that elevates simple descriptions into something very special, little gems like "the cool, leathery wafer" of a cat's ear between a woman's fingers.
That said, there's something about the stories that didn't resonate with me as deeply as it could have. I found them to be bleak, sometim More...
That said, there's something about the stories that didn't resonate with me as deeply as it could have. I found them to be bleak, sometim More...
Apr 20, 2008
Steven
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Recently re-read a few of the stories in this collection. Some thoughts on those stories: “Two Boys” has a quite clever device: a parallel story about the spitting girl, which is more interesting that the main line story about the two boys. It’s a great technique for making the story about more than one thing. “Joy—” like “You’re Ugly,Too—” creates a multi-textured portrait of the character, using a mix of scenes, and close-third narrated back story. Both of these stories are models for how to c
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Dec 13, 2007
Juliet
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in "two boys" a strange young woman is seeing two very differant guys at once. it's such a weird story. really dark and sort of funny- here's an excerpt:
"I mean, if I were sleeping with somebody else also, wouldn't that make everyone happy?" She thought again of Boy Number Two, whom too often she denied. When she hung up, she would phone him.
"Happy?" hooted Number One. "More than happy. We're talking delirious." He was the fun More...
"I mean, if I were sleeping with somebody else also, wouldn't that make everyone happy?" She thought again of Boy Number Two, whom too often she denied. When she hung up, she would phone him.
"Happy?" hooted Number One. "More than happy. We're talking delirious." He was the fun More...
May 16, 2008
Paul
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Adam Mars-Jones has this to say about LM:
"The dominant influence on American short fiction when Moore started publishing was the stoic minimalism of Raymond Carver, the recovering binger's pledge of: 'One sentence at a time.' She escaped that influence, and was spared the struggle of throwing it off, but its underlying principle of whittling away excess is something her stories badly need. A Lorrie Moore story can sometimes be like a schoolroom full of precocious kids, every sen More...
"The dominant influence on American short fiction when Moore started publishing was the stoic minimalism of Raymond Carver, the recovering binger's pledge of: 'One sentence at a time.' She escaped that influence, and was spared the struggle of throwing it off, but its underlying principle of whittling away excess is something her stories badly need. A Lorrie Moore story can sometimes be like a schoolroom full of precocious kids, every sen More...
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Sep 17, 2011
Leo
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Moore is amazing. She's able to weave in and out of the empty gaps of people's lives and put down markers on her pages as stories. Without naming them, she simply points out the little aches that we don't know what to call and taps you on the back and says, "There, there." Sure, it's not a cure, and certainly, awareness doesn't solve anything, and neither does a tap on the back, but it's something and that something should count; if only to show that others, too, have those same namele
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Oct 08, 2009
Eric
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I'm a Lorrie Moore fan from the four short-stories I read before I read this book, but I might have picked the wrong book to start on. I remember not hearing much about this book but I got it for free. So all I can say is that the writing was strong but the pieces didn't seem to hold together as compared to stories of hers I found elsewhere. They didn't generate to a strong finish as much as they eloquently seemed to because of Moore's poignant style.
Aug 05, 2009
Kevin
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The character Odette in the story "The Jewish Hunter" expresses what is probably both Moore's strenght and weakness as a writer: "Nothing is a joke with me. It just all comes out like one." Funny and poignant are emotional chords played too often in the short space of this collection. On the other hand, no American writer working today deploys metaphor with such surprise and torsion. Don't miss it, but avoid the temptation to read the whole thing in a short space of time.
Aug 17, 2011
Aloysius
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To be honest, I'm not a fan of short stories. I really found some of these hard to get through. Having said that, there were some moments of existential bliss in Moore's narratives that will make you ponder and brood for a little while. Other than that, I really didn't find anything else to cherish here as I really couldn't connect to any of there characters. I might consider looking at some of Moore's other work in future though.
Aug 30, 2009
Laurie
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Like Life is a short story collection that I only read or had heard of because it made the nutso "1001 Books To Read Before You Die" list. That being, this has to be one of the better suggestions that list has given me.
What works about this? Well, the stories themselves are nothing more than slightly more filled in Carver stories which are set in New York and deal more with the female psyche. That being said, I feel that the comparison does her no justice. She might have a More...
What works about this? Well, the stories themselves are nothing more than slightly more filled in Carver stories which are set in New York and deal more with the female psyche. That being said, I feel that the comparison does her no justice. She might have a More...
Oct 12, 2011
Ariel
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I started this in the bathroom. One of my old roommates, who was basically a stranger to me, left it in there. I started reading the first story, about dating two boys (it's called "Two Boys") and I was all, like, "uh, is this my life?! written about by a GENIUS?!" So I plucked the book from the bathroom and then took it onto the subway, where I continued to freak out. I think a lot of ladies get into reading Loorie Moore by the Principle of Overidentification. In the story "
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Nov 11, 2011
Hazel
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Read my blog post about Lorrie Moore, Self-Help, Like Life, and the University of Wisconsin. http://www.hazelfoster.com/2011/11/11/lo...
Mar 03, 2009
Tali
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I liked Birds of America more. I don't know if it's because I have a tendency to like the first book I read of an author the most, or if it's because Like Life is an earlier work and she's grown a lot. I give it a four only in relation to Birds of America. If it were in relation to other books, it might have a five.
Jul 23, 2010
Alvin
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An uneven collection, but still terrific. In a few spots the action slows and reading becomes a bit of a slog, but even at it's worst, Moore's prose sparkles with wit and insight. Also, one can't help but be impressed by her rootless, confused, and thoroughly modern characters. They're so familiar and real they leap off the page.
Dec 30, 2010
Karen
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I really enjoy Lorrie Moore's writing and point of view generally and I enjoyed this book specifically. I can relate to many of the characters, even when they're not characters that I want to relate to. This is a book about relationships between people that are often problematic or dysfunctional. In this way it is similar to Self Help, another collection of Moore's short stories. It's tone, however, is darker and some of the characters are more grotesque or absurd.
Jul 23, 2010
Cassie
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"How disappointing America must seem.To wander the streets of a city that was not yours, a city with its back turned, to be a boy from far away and step ashore here, one's imagination suddenly so concrete and mistaken, how could that not break your heart? But perhaps, she thought, John had dreamed so long and hard of this place that he had hoped it right out of existence. Probably no place in the world could withstand such an assault of human wishing."
Aug 05, 2009
nicole
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hands down my favorite short story writer. didn't exactly have a favorite, as they all seemed to end too quickly. reading flannery o'conner recently however made me nervous, as i expected each of of moore's stories to have that ghastly ending and was so excited when it didn't turn out that way. listened to st. vincent's actor a lot while reading.
May 10, 2011
Douglas
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I love Lorrie Moore's literary voice, but the dark texture of her stories can weigh on me before I'm finished. Perhaps it was a mistake to read this and her "Self Help" back-to-back. But I so enjoy her metaphors and analogies and witty dialog that I can't stop myself. Sweet torture.
Dec 04, 2010
Jennifer
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A great collection of stories that made me really hate life and be glad I was not one of the characters. These stories are amazingly depressing and so much fun, and the humor keeps you going. I haven't reread it recently and I plan on again reading it for a more comprehensive review.
Apr 24, 2010
Joan
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Remarkable early stories by the vaunted Moore. Her ability with language and her aptitude for changing voice according to the narrative's needs are exceptional. The well regarded story "You're Ugly, Too" has a protagonist with a distinctive ironic style that is captivating.
Mar 18, 2010
Karlan
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I enjoyed reading these eight short stories published in 1988. The title story was my least favorite, a futuristic story about unhappy people. As a New Yorker reader, I find stories familiar then discover I'd already read them but can't quite recall what happens next.
