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A Gate at the Stairs

by Lorrie Moore

3.14 · rating details · 7,922 ratings · 2,182 reviews

In her best-selling story collection, Birds of America (“[it] will stand by itself as one of our funniest, most telling anatomies of human love and vulnerability” —James McManus, front page of The New York Times Book Review), Lorrie Moore wrote about the disconnect between men and women, about the precariousness of women on the edge, and about loneliness and loss.

Now, in h...more

Hardcover, 322 pages

Published September 1st 2009 by Knopf (first published 2009)

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Apr 04, 2011

Barbara rated it

I was eager to read this book, especially because I have heard and read such special things about Lorrie Moore. I came to the conclusion that I really did not enjoy this, but I am hesitant to give it less than 3 stars.

Moore has presented us with a coming of age story about a young lady, Tassie, from the mid-west who has entered a small undistinguished college a few hours from her home. There were amusing moments, there were scenes of passionate sex and even a finely described dining ...more

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Jan 25, 2011

Josh Ang rated it

The problem with this book is that it has no centre. Moore can't decide if she wants it to be about the travails of 20-year-old Tassie who grapples with being a country girl thrown into the big city campus (alarm bells rang in my head at the pointedness of making her half-Jewish as well) or about the 40- something chef Sarah, with a mysterious past and who adopts a little girl of mixed race parentage.

For a large part of the story, Sarah looms uncertainly as a close-to-central character, likeabl...more

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Sep 14, 2009

Catherine rated it

Some reviewers are responding to this novel much as I expected: "Moore is too clever by half, the voice of her narrator is too mature, the plot is unbelievable." My response is that she IS too clever by half, and -- so what? The narrator has the voice of a 50-ish academic professor because that is who is speaking ; she makes references to "later I would find out," or "another boyfriend would later tell me." As for the plot and its spotty verisimilitude, I would sug...more

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Aug 28, 2009

Amber rated it

I love Lorrie Moore's writing. I love it so much that I spent my college years ripping her off (well, trying to anyway) in fiction writing workshops. Her short story collections rank high among my favorite books. But I've never fallen in love with any of her novels in the same way. All of those wonderful little moments of wry humor amidst sadness are there, but the structure of it just doesn't quite work for me. There's a bit with a college boyfriend who isn't what he appears that gets handled i...more

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Mar 28, 2010

Shasta8sisyphus rated it

gems so far:

A dialog between a young college student and her new employer:

"'Bach's first French suite. Do you know it?'
After some clicking and static, [the cd:] began, stately and sad. 'I think so,' I said, not sure at all. My friends had already begun to lie, to bluff a sophistication they felt that at the end of the ten-second bluff they would authentically possess. But I was not only less inclined this way but less skilled. 'Maybe not, though,' I added. ...more

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Feb 05, 2010

DLKeur rated it

Recommends it for: an airhead

Try angsty, "atmospheric", and utterly self-indulgent, never mind the fact that it's too obvious that her editor must be illiterate. Either that or she knows someone or is related to someone to get this kind of bottom-of-the-pit novel published by a major publishing house.

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Jan 23, 2011

Ravi Jain rated it

I came to this novel with great expectations, considering the praise heaped on it (dozens of top 10 and bestseller lists). And indeed from the first few sentences you had the feeling you were in the hands of a sure, masterful storyteller. But over the course of the novel it unraveled and became an inchoate mix of sophomoric polemic, coming-of-age story, carictaurish depictions of terrorists, and clever wordplay.

The story's vehicle is Tassie, a 20-yr old college freshman who becom...moreI came to this novel with great expectations, considering the praise heaped on it (dozens of top 10 and bestseller lists). And indeed from the first few sentences you had the feeling you were in the hands of a sure, masterful storyteller. But over the course of the novel it unraveled and became an inchoate mix of sophomoric polemic, coming-of-age story, carictaurish depictions of terrorists, and clever wordplay.

The story's vehicle is Tassie, a 20-yr old college freshman who becomes a nanny for a wealthy, over-educated, white liberal couple who adopt an infant girl who is part African-American. It is best when it takes us on the journey of an open adoption, that too in a situation where the complication is not only the class and race issues of this particular adoption but the conflicts and emotional fractures of the adopting parents. The adoption story is in fact where the novel's heart lies, and where it is not only sweet and funny but heartbreakingly sad; the latter so much so that I had to put the put book aside at times. Along the way we get lots of biting comments on the class and social differences between the liberal college town where Tassie goes to school and her country roots.

However all this gets buried in extraneous sub-plots: Tassie's infatuation with a classmate (wont give the spoiler here), her brother Robert's aimless stumbling into volunteering for duty in Afghanistan, and her ambivalent relationships with her parents. The worst sections are pages and pages where the politics of interracial adoption are debated by a group of parents whom Tassie listens to while babysitting -- a clumsy and transparent device for directly inserting polemic and social commentary into the novel without bothering to give them the clothing of character and plot. The continual wordplay by Tasie, her room-mate Murph, her brother and her father are wearing. Finally, like so many contemporary novels, the male characters are the worst and receive no compassion - the confused brother, the vain and selfish husband, the hopeless boyfriend, and so on.

All in all, disappointing and not worth the effort. (less)

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Mar 25, 2010

Ed rated it

Shelves: 2010, 2-stars, read-on-kindle, new-author-to-me, tournament-of-books-2010

I picked up Lorrie Moore's "A Gate At The Stairs" based on the many appearances it made on the best-of/year-end book lists for 2009. Although, while I do my best to avoid reading reviews beforehand, I couldn't help but notice the star-ratings were pretty muddy on it.

While the book was readable, I felt there was just always something very odd/off about it. Some books you know are great from the first page (or even sentence!), but "Gate" had me still hanging when ...more

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Oct 31, 2011

Sarah rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 04, 2009

Lauren rated it

Recommends it for: no one

The end sequence took hold of me. One hundred pages into it, I hated this book. The last twenty pages actually seemed like something that might happen, and it resonnated with somethings happening in my life. Moore is out of her league her, writing about things that she does not know. Loorie Moore is 52. She has not been an undergraduate in college for 30 years and it showed in this book. When she used the band name Modest Mouse, it sounded clunky, fake, phony as my good friend Holden might...more

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Aug 30, 2009

Sara rated it

I read an uncorrected proof of this and the experience was slightly jarring - typoes, sections that repeated themselves that I wasn't sure were intentional, etc. I can't say how close my copy is to the final published version but what I read was what I've come to expect from Moore - it's funny, it's emotionally complex, the prose is easily readable while also remaining incredibly rich, and the narrative voice is compelling to follow. It details roughly one year in the life of Tassie Keltjin, a t...more

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Aug 06, 2011

Larry Hoffer added it

I've read one Lorrie Moore short story collection and her other novel, Who Will Run the Frog Hospital. She's a great writer. While often she creates characters with interesting quirks, she's really at her best when she's depicting everyday stories and everyday people.

I enjoyed this book a lot. This is the story of Tassie Keltjin, a Midwestern college student in the throes of no ambition and general boredom, who is hired by a couple to watch their baby. As anyone who has had a nanny, babysitt...more

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Aug 02, 2011

JChipol added it

If you read critics reviews of this book, they generally say the same: they love it. Reader’s reviews are much more diverse, with equal amounts of 1 star ratings to 5 stars. The person who lent me this book raved about it highly, so I was keen to read it and find out what it was about as she ‘didn’t want to spoil it’.

The Gate at The Stairs is a clever book and one which touches on some very thought provoking themes.

The story is primarily about Tassie Keltjin, the narrator of the story, a 20-yea...moreIf you read critics reviews of this book, they generally say the same: they love it. Reader’s reviews are much more diverse, with equal amounts of 1 star ratings to 5 stars. The person who lent me this book raved about it highly, so I was keen to read it and find out what it was about as she ‘didn’t want to spoil it’.

The Gate at The Stairs is a clever book and one which touches on some very thought provoking themes.

The story is primarily about Tassie Keltjin, the narrator of the story, a 20-year-old Midwest farm girl who is now away at college in a larger city than that in which she grew up.

The period is 20th Century America, under the shadow of the Twin Towers, which happened just a year earlier, and while it is not a simple tale of the loss of innocence, there is a definite feeling that Tassie - and therefore the American Midwest - can no longer seek refuge in the American dream, if indeed it ever existed. Maybe as Tassie has grown older it is also about her eyes opening to the wider issues in America and the world.

Tassie finds employment as a babysitter when she meets Sarah Brink, a 45-year-old restaurateur, who is far too busy and successful for a child. The child she and her husband Edward eventually adopt is a mixed-race toddler, Mary-Emma, or Emmie.

In this American consumerist society Tassie notices that Edward and Sarah write separate cheques at the adoption agency office. “Edward and I are splitting this down the middle,” says Sarah. Even the act of gaining a child seems somehow clinical and consumerist, let alone the fact that looking after and raising the child is left to someone else so that parents can work. Amongst the questions that the adoption, and attitudes to it, raise Tassie is also forced to question America’s attitudes to race, while she babysits the children of Sarah’s weekly group who meet to discuss race and America’s attitudes to non-white citizens.

Everything in Tassie’s world is a complicated and intricate affair. “My whole life feels like a horror show of slowly moving cars,” Sarah exclaims at one point. (The full impact of this statement is revealed at a later time in the story.) Tassie’s observations of the world around her touch on many themes; race, trust, consumerism and modern day America, as well as terrorism and loss of innocence.

As I said, the book is a clever one and one that I could happily imagine dissecting at GCSE. I was, however, left throughout wondering whether there was actually a ‘point’ to the book. It was a real and well described slice of life, and, as in real life, there is no resolution. "Shit happens", as they say. It all depends on whether you like to read about real life and the feeling that life’s experience leaves you with, or whether, like me, you need to escape from the banality and unfairness of life and need some kind of ending – not necessarily happy, but just one to mark that the story has ended. I feel like I have opened a window in someone’s life and watched for a while, then shut the window, not really knowing what happens after I’ve left watching.

All in all, the book was clever, and interesting, but not one I can say I was gripped with.

(less)

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Jan 03, 2012

Terry94705 rated it

I had much impatience with this book --as you might if you were sharing your apartment with a bright but chatty college freshman. Tessa bubbles along in this book and seems sure that you will appreciate her every discovery and turn of phrase. I did not, but persevered because I thought she (and the author) were reaching for something larger. Even late in the book, when I felt committed to the narrative, there were scenes that seemed silly and annoyed me. But I was glad I stuck with it. What se...more

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Dec 27, 2011

Evelyn rated it

Once more, goodreads' whole-stars-only rating system gets in the way of an honest review, for if I could have, I would have given this much heralded book no more than 1.5 stars. However, since there are no halfway measures, and to show how totally disappointed I was by this book, I opted to rate it down rather than up.

Over the past few months I'd seen many reviews of this book in publications I usually trust, such as The New Yorker and the NYT, all lavishly praised the author, the writ...more

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Dec 04, 2011

Nykki rated it

I liked the basic storyline of the white couple adopting a black child and the cultural problems this could bring them and also the racism they may bare the brunt of because of this. The view through the main character of the childminder was a great narrative to take but was bizare, especially as she attended the pre-adoption sessions as invited by the parents - I could just not see this happening at all. Add to this the twist of the adoptive parents being charged with negilence over their o...more

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Dec 03, 2011

CC rated it

· review of another edition

Keep in mind I read over 2/3rds of this novel while stuck in the hopeless abyss that is Jury Duty, and though I'm certain I would've disliked it anyway, that sure didn't help.

It's a coming-of-age novel about Tassie, a 20 year-old student from "the country" who attends a university, and gets a job as a nanny. The couple she works for adopts a bi-racial baby. Tassie also dates someone of a different race. This seems to be the theme, which may be the problem -- it's a book abo...more

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Nov 28, 2011

Jane rated it

What a quirky and rambling novel. The narrator, Tassie, goes to college, baby sits for a mismatched couple who adopt a biracial daughter, has an affair, suffers the death of her brother, and has a couple of roommates in addition to working on her parent's farm. I wish Moore had focused the novel on fewer events, but on the other hand, Tassie's year was a lot like life for most of us, living several plot lines at any given time. Had I been Moore's editor, I'd have suggested cutting, trimming, c...more

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Oct 06, 2011

Jennifer added it

There's so many elements that could make this an excellent novel and yet they all fail to do so. The novel introduces us to a college aged student from a small farming community and while it could be an exploration of her impressions of that bigger town's university lifestyle it only touches on that aspect. Further, once the narrator agrees to become a nanny for a family that is in the process of adopting a child, their story hijacks the narration and pulls the novel into what apparently the aut...more

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Sep 26, 2011

Maria D'alessandro rated it

This book has the weaknesses of a contemporary novel. Moore depends too much on the theme of politics of the time covered in the space of the novel to hold the story together and not enough on the actual plot and characters to push the story forward and create action and reaction. The end is very heavy and doesn't seem to occur naturally. Some things are drawn out while other major story lines are dropped. The main story line for the first half of the book was engaging and I found it hard to bel...more

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Sep 12, 2011

Carolyn Agosta rated it

I bought this book on the spur of the moment, at a Walden's that was closing in 2 hours. I knew nothing of the story beforehand, never heard of Lorrie Moore (although it looks like I should have) and just plunged in, reading it over two days of travel and finally at home.

The writing itself, the use of language, is sometimes a bit too much. In fact, it's often a bit too much, but rarely WAY too much. It's dense, packed, you have to step carefully through the paragraphs. As for the st...more

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Sep 07, 2011

Lorraine rated it

After being introduced to Lorrie Moore with her short stories (Birds of America), I was happy to have read “A Gate at the Stairs.” Moore’s prose is exquisite, almost rhythmic and the stream of consciousness voice could drive you crazy or entertain you. The novel seems to slowly drift along and move slowly, and then it goes forward, then backwards, and then sideways.

Tassie, the protagonist, is most likely in her late 40s as she looks back to her college days, particularly the year she w...moreAfter being introduced to Lorrie Moore with her short stories (Birds of America), I was happy to have read “A Gate at the Stairs.” Moore’s prose is exquisite, almost rhythmic and the stream of consciousness voice could drive you crazy or entertain you. The novel seems to slowly drift along and move slowly, and then it goes forward, then backwards, and then sideways.

Tassie, the protagonist, is most likely in her late 40s as she looks back to her college days, particularly the year she was 20 (“But that year, when I was twenty, I was as punctual as a priest. Were priests punctual? Cave-raised, divinely dazed, I believed them to be”).

Moore’s description of Midwestern life is truly entertaining. Tassie leaves her parents’ farm to go off to the city to college. The “city” is probably a small Midwestern college town, but to Tassie it’s like New York City. She needs a part-time job and becomes a Nanny for 45-year old Sarah and her husband Edward to an adopted biracial girl. It’s more like she becomes their servant. Sarah’s life is really centered on the upscale restaurant she owns and Edward is hardly around. The novel is about love and life. It is about coming to terms with loss. There probably is no coming to terms in Moore’s opinion.

I really liked the way Tassie reflects on what people say and do. For example, her employer Sarah says, “Where have you been?”

She replies, “What do you mean?” There was something in her voice I’d not really heard before. I wondered if this was her restaurant voice. Not as sharp as the coulis-and quenelles voice. But perhaps a beef-cheek-and-parsnip-gnocchi voice.

Or someone said “bullshit, and Tassie thinks to herself, “I have seen chickens run after it and eat it warm.”

The series of events that lead to the climax of this novel are woven together without definitive answers, yet in the end Tassie has learned more about life than she or the reader ever expected.

Why the title "A Gate at the Stairs"? Reading the following excerpt makes sense to me.
Sarah says to Tassie on her first day with the baby:
"...And you'll need to be watchful with that baby gate upstairs. I don't want her tumbling down. Or you tumbling up!" Then she paused. We stand there blank as walls. "Babygate! Now there's a scandal. You're so young, I'll bet you don't even know how the word gate came to mean disgrace."(less)

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Sep 03, 2011

Sara rated it

In terms of just being a decent read, one that immerses you in a slightly different world and exposes you to an emotional experience slightly different (and yet not disturbingly alien) from your own, this book does the trick. Tassie, a somewhat disaffected midwestern college student rides out her sophomore year of college, the ill-fated 2001-02 American school year, and works as an au pair for a couple adopting a baby. Good enough.

As to the mounds of critical praise this book received ...more

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Jul 31, 2011

Catherine Woodman added it

Having not read ANY of the books that ended up on the Notable Fiction of 2009 NYT list, it is hard for me to compare to the competitors, but I am hoping this wasn't one of the 5 best things written last year--I thought Brooklyn was better than this, and it wasn't even on the list. The book is heartbreakingly beautifully written, but somehow the last quarter of it is really not nearly as good as the first three quarters--the re are two events that happen in close succession, and one of them invo...more

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Jul 01, 2011

Mkb rated it

This is a collection of journal entries in search of a novel. The search was unsuccessful. And the first person narrator, a college sophomore female from a small upscale edge of town farm in suburban Wisconsin, has that all too familiar wry and self-deprecating voice, quickly recognizable as the work of an amateur novelist. The narrator goes through a year of her life with many events happening to her but she doesn't really do anything about them or show growth; she just makes cute comments. ...more

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Jun 21, 2011

Jenny rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I thought that this book was funny, engaging, and interesting. I'm not about the set the house on fire about it, but I don't think it deserves less than three stars simply because it isn't wholly believable. People wanna bitch about "oh, it's not REAL enough," but that really doesn't matter unless it's bad writing, which this was not.

When the brother died (which probably shouldn't even count as a spoiler, because the foreshadowing intermittently slaps even the most cluele...moreI thought that this book was funny, engaging, and interesting. I'm not about the set the house on fire about it, but I don't think it deserves less than three stars simply because it isn't wholly believable. People wanna bitch about "oh, it's not REAL enough," but that really doesn't matter unless it's bad writing, which this was not.

When the brother died (which probably shouldn't even count as a spoiler, because the foreshadowing intermittently slaps even the most clueless readers across the face, over and over), I was able to make a better connection to the inner-workings of the beginnings of our "War on Terror," and how exploited the uncertainties of the young (mostly) men coming fresh out of high school can be. At the same time, some of us who emerge from high school without much direction get to stumble around in college for awhile, change majors on someone else's dime, and find it. The complete pointlessness of this kid's death is punctuated hard by the fact that I was just as aimless when I left high school, but college was The Thing To Do, so I did it. People who didn't go seemed to think I had some greater purpose there than I ever did, just like this kid who looks up to his collegiate big sister. So he flounders and joins the army, frontal lobe not even finished developing.

The main plot line in this book follows the adoption of a little girl who is half black, half white. At first it was beyond annoying to read the declarations of greatness and points of contention that the white parents, along with the support group that they form with other adoptive parents of mixed kids, constantly rehashed and back-patted, until I got that the pretentious, do-goody attitude was exactly how people are, to a hilarious, gross degree. It takes me a minute to get things sometimes, but OH MY GOD, the portrayal of this group of white, liberal, college-town parents is something that every white, liberal, college-town parent should read. Just to keep themselves a little more grounded. I may be white, and I may be liberal, but I am not yet a parent, so I can still laugh. Hopefully they can, too. (less)

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Jun 10, 2011

Victoria Aldea added it · review of another edition

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore is a well-written, nostalgic piece of literature that captivates readers by it's topic and connection to the audience. The narrator, Tassie Keltjin, is a college student born in the midwest who has never been exposed to the big city life. When Tassie gets a job babysitting two year old Mary-Emma she bonds with the child almost instantly and is thrilled at the prospect of maintaining a special relationship with the child. Tassie goes on to grow and mature as s...more

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May 07, 2011

Lesley Weiss rated it

Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs a classic coming of age story, set in a Wisconsin college town in the year following 9/11. Tassie Keltjin is a naive 20-year-old, looking to make money babysitting. Her job with a couple of east-coast transplants and their newly adopted bi-racial daughter brings both love and heartbreak into her life. The fear, uncertainty and racial issues of the post-9/11 world and War of Terror have an unanticipated impact on her sheltered life, both through her romantic ex...moreLorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs a classic coming of age story, set in a Wisconsin college town in the year following 9/11. Tassie Keltjin is a naive 20-year-old, looking to make money babysitting. Her job with a couple of east-coast transplants and their newly adopted bi-racial daughter brings both love and heartbreak into her life. The fear, uncertainty and racial issues of the post-9/11 world and War of Terror have an unanticipated impact on her sheltered life, both through her romantic experiences and family issues.

Moore's descriptions and elegant sentences capture the post-adolescence of her young narrator perfectly. There's an almost willful innocence, and sometimes ignorance, behind Tassie's every move and thought, and the characters—even those that appear only briefly and then disappear—often tell us more about her and her mistakes and misperceptions than Tassie seems to realize for herself.

As a reader, I did run into a real dilemma reading this novel. As enjoyable as Moore's writing is (as she does have a great style), the perspective and timing of the novel clashed completely with my own experiences. Perhaps I'm over-identifying (and it's quite likely), but as a native Wisconsinite, who was in college at the time of 9/11, only a year older than the narrator, working as a part-time babysitter and as a classroom assistant in an urban kindergarten class in a Midwestern city with a sizeable college community, the perspective struck me as distinctly East Coast. The attitudes, especially in regard to race and world view, were exaggerated. I could tell that Moore, though she might teach at Madison, is definitely not a Midwesterner or a Wisconsinite. There were stereotypes and just some outright ignorance about the people and places she was writing about (especially Green Bay). Granted, young people exploring the world on their own for the first time will typically look back at their home with a little disdain (I know I did at that age), but since the narrator was looking back over a distance of time, this should have been tempered. It really read as though the mother, Sarah, was the one telling the story at times. Several members of my book club commented that the novel felt as though it were taking place ten or twenty years earlier than it was actually set. The Midwest of the novel is seriously dated.

Moore crafted a very well-written novel with a beautiful story, but the perspective will probably fail with many who should identify with it. (less)

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Apr 22, 2011

Veic Book added it

BC 3/14/2011

I have been hearing for years about what a great writer Lorrie Moore is, but have not read anything of hers, so I decided it was time.
Here is our book for Book Club - schedule for my house on March 14. I will add directions to the appointment.
Hope to see you there - Cheers!
CJ

A Gate at the Stairs
by Lorrie Moore
Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award
Finalist for the Orange Prize for Fiction
Chosen as a Best Book of t...more

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Apr 13, 2011

Megan Fletcher added it · review of another edition

Lorrie Moore knits together the shadow of 9/11 and a young girl’s bumpy coming-of-age in this luminous, heart-wrenchingly wry novel—the author’s first in 15 years. Tassie Keltjin, 20, a smalltown girl weathering a clumsy college year in the Athens of the Midwest, is taken on as prospective nanny by brittle Sarah Brink, the proprietor of a pricey restaurant who is desperate to adopt a baby despite her dodgy past. Subsequent adventures in prospective motherhood involve a pregnant girl with scarcel...more

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About Lorrie Moore

Lorrie Moore was born in Glens Falls, New York in 1957. She attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where she tutored on an Indian reservation, and was editor of the university literary magazine and, at age 19, won Seventeen Magazine’s Fiction Contest. After graduating summa cum laude, she worked in New York for two years before going on to received a Masters in Fine Arts from Corne...more

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Quotes from A Gate at the Stairs

“It was like the classic scene in the movies where one lover is on the train and one is on the platform and the train starts to pull away, and the lover on the platform begins to trot along and then jog and then sprint and then gives up altogether as the train speeds irrevocably off. Except in this case I was all the parts: I was the lover on the platform, I was the lover on the train. And I was also the train.” — 20 people liked it

“Women now were told not to settle for second best, told that they deserved better, but at a time, it seemed, when there was so much less to go around.” — 9 people liked it

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