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<book id="6076387">
  <title><![CDATA[A Gate at the Stairs]]></title>
  <isbn><![CDATA[0375409289]]></isbn>
  <isbn13><![CDATA[9780375409288]]></isbn13>
  <work>
  <best-book-id type="integer">6076387</best-book-id>
  <books-count type="integer">6</books-count>
  <default-description>In her best-selling story collection, &lt;i&gt;Birds of America&lt;/i&gt; (&#8220;[it] will stand by itself as one of our funniest, most telling anatomies of human love and vulnerability&#8221; &#8212;James McManus, front page of &lt;i&gt;The New York Times Book Review&lt;/i&gt;), Lorrie Moore wrote about the disconnect between men and women, about the precariousness of women on the edge, and about loneliness and loss.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Now, in her dazzling new novel&#8212;her first in more than a decade&#8212;Moore turns her eye on the anxiety and disconnection of post-9/11 America, on the insidiousness of racism, the blind-sidedness of war, and the recklessness thrust on others in the name of love.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;As the United States begins gearing up for war in the Middle East, twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, the Midwestern&lt;b&gt; &lt;/b&gt;daughter of a gentleman hill farmer&#8212;his &#8220;Keltjin potatoes&#8221; are justifiably famous&#8212;has come to a university town as a college student, her brain on fire with Chaucer, Sylvia Plath, Simone de Beauvoir.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Between semesters, she takes a job as a part-time nanny.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The family she works for seems both mysterious and glamorous to her, and although Tassie had once found children boring, she comes to care for, and to protect, their newly adopted little girl as her own.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;As the year unfolds and she is drawn deeper into each of these lives, her own life back home becomes ever more alien to her: her parents are frailer; her brother, aimless and lost in high school, contemplates joining the military. Tassie finds herself becoming more and more the stranger she felt herself to be, and as life and love unravel dramatically, even shockingly, she is forever changed.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;This long-awaited new novel by one of the most heralded writers of the past two&lt;b&gt; &lt;/b&gt;decades is lyrical, funny, moving, and devastating; Lorrie Moore&#8217;s most ambitious book to date&#8212;textured, beguiling, and wise.</default-description>
  <id type="integer">6252965</id>
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  <original-language-id type="integer" nil="true"></original-language-id>
  <original-publication-day type="integer">1</original-publication-day>
  <original-publication-month type="integer">9</original-publication-month>
  <original-publication-year type="integer">2009</original-publication-year>
  <original-title>A Gate at the Stairs</original-title>
  <rating-dist>total:670|5:52|4:116|3:95|2:58|1:8|</rating-dist>
  <ratings-count type="integer">670</ratings-count>
  <ratings-sum type="integer">2412</ratings-sum>
  <reviews-count type="integer">2513</reviews-count>
  <text-reviews-count type="integer">312</text-reviews-count>
</work>

  <average_rating><![CDATA[3.60]]></average_rating>
  <ratings_count><![CDATA[664]]></ratings_count>
  <text_reviews_count><![CDATA[309]]></text_reviews_count>
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6076387.A_Gate_at_the_Stairs]]></url>
  <authors>
        <author id="11746">
      <name><![CDATA[Lorrie Moore]]></name>
      <role><![CDATA[]]></role>
      <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11746.Lorrie_Moore]]></url>
      <average_rating><![CDATA[4.03]]></average_rating>
      <ratings_count><![CDATA[8377]]></ratings_count>
      <text_reviews_count><![CDATA[1204]]></text_reviews_count>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <reviews start="1" end="20" total="2505">
    <review id="61979315">
  <user id="334035">
    <name><![CDATA[Sara]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/334035-sara?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>3</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Jul 02 20:55:53 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Aug 30 18:08:59 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[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...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/61979315">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/61979315?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="77069633">
  <user id="575599">
    <name><![CDATA[Jennifer]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Seattle, WA]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/575599-jennifer?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Nov 07 20:56:02 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Nov 07 21:08:36 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I so wanted to love this book, but....I just don't think it worked. I love Lorrie Moore and was so excited to see that she had a new novel. And the reviews! They have been great. But for me, the whole thing was a mess. <br/><br/>The core story, in which a white family adopts a biracial baby, has p...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77069633">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77069633?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="76009386">
  <user id="1653207">
    <name><![CDATA[Map]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1653207-map?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Oct 28 09:42:32 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Oct 28 15:10:16 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[So close and yet . . . Lorrie Moore is a beautiful writer, and there were parts of this post 9/11 coming-of-age story that were lovely. But no matter how much I wanted to like Tassie, the sheltered farm girl turned coed at the novel's center,  I could not. It's not that I disliked her; I actually fe...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76009386">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76009386?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="74849472">
  <user id="994266">
    <name><![CDATA[Angela]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[San Diego, CA]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/994266-angela?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sat Oct 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Oct 17 14:58:54 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Oct 17 15:11:04 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count>1</read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[It's Lorrie Moore, all growed up. In her latest novel, <em>A Gate at the Stairs</em>, Moore presents a fleshed out narrative that seems a step more mature than her story collections or earlier <em>Anagrams</em>. A bit of a bildungsroman, the novel follows Tassie Keltjin from a small town midwestern farm to a universi...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74849472">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74849472?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="73287329">
  <user id="1361000">
    <name><![CDATA[Tony]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Chadds Ford, PA]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1361000-tony?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sat Oct 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Oct 03 05:53:19 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Oct 03 05:53:48 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Moore, Lorrie.  A GATE AT THE STAIRS.  (2009).  ****.  It’a been a long wait for Ms. Moore’s latest book; fifteen years.  Her first book, “Birds of America,” was magnificent, and I grabbed every succeeding book as it came out and looked forward to relishing her style and magic use of words. ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73287329">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73287329?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="73079722">
  <user id="1856914">
    <name><![CDATA[Lauren]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1856914-lauren?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>1</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[no one]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Oct 01 05:08:32 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Oct 01 08:02:06 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[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 Moor...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73079722">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73079722?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="72750322">
  <user id="434480">
    <name><![CDATA[Darrenglass]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Gettysburg, PA]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/434480-darrenglass?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Sep 28 05:26:11 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Sep 28 05:35:07 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[How had I never heard of Lorrie Moore before?<br/><br/>I dont think that I had ever heard her name before a few months ago when I read a short story by her in The New Yorker and immediately fell in love with it.  That short story turned out to be an excerpt from her new novel, A GATE AT THE STAIRS...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72750322">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72750322?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="72508959">
  <user id="764994">
    <name><![CDATA[Rick]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/764994-rick?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Tue Sep 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Sep 25 19:09:50 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Sep 25 19:13:31 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This is the first work of Moore’s that I’ve read but it likely won’t be my last. She is clearly talented and ambitious with a fine ear for dialogue and a philosopher’s adaptation of issues to life through finely realized characters. She is wryly observant, sensitive to the nuances of individ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72508959">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72508959?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="71180940">
  <user id="1015919">
    <name><![CDATA[Catherine]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Vermillion, SD]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1015919-catherine?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>2</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
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      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Sep 14 09:46:10 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Sep 14 09:46:10 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Some reviewers are responding to this novel much as I expected: &quot;Moore is too clever by half, the voice of her narrator is too mature, the plot is unbelievable.&quot; 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...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71180940">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71180940?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="71051319">
  <user id="1783655">
    <name><![CDATA[Sarah]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Chicago, IL]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1783655-sarah?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>3</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Sep 13 07:44:30 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Sep 13 08:25:57 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I was surprised that I didn't much care for this book, as I love Moore's short stories. Also, I read a galley of it, so I'm not sure how much I can really responsibly say about it. But! I'll continue anyway. &quot;A Gate at the Stairs&quot; to me felt messy, bloated, and full of superfluous descript...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71051319">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71051319?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="65296540">
  <user id="33887">
    <name><![CDATA[Imogen]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Oakland, CA]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/33887-imogen?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>2</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
  <spoiler_flag>true</spoiler_flag>
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      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Jul 28 12:56:31 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Jul 28 13:06:13 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Look, don't ever let anybody tell you that Lorrie Moore is a novelist, instead of a short story writer. Which isn't to say that she can't write novels- she can. I loved this one. And I loved <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19634.Who_Will_Run_the_Frog_Hospital" title="Who Will Run the Frog Hospital by Lorrie Moore">Frog Hospital</a>. And I loved... did <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19635.Anagrams" title="Anagrams by Lorrie Moore">Anagrams</a> count as a novel? It's just that the way she writes, this thing I ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65296540">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65296540?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="65202495">
  <user id="2567981">
    <name><![CDATA[Greg]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[New York, NY]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2567981-greg?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>2</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
  <spoiler_flag>true</spoiler_flag>
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      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Mon Jul 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Jul 27 18:49:56 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Jul 28 17:30:06 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I love Lorrie Moore, I really do. I just finished an uncorrected proof of A Gate at the Stairs. There is a lot going on in this book, which chronicles one loss after another in a Wisconsin farm girl's first year at college. The protagonist is pure Moore: a smart well-read but socially inept girl who...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65202495">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65202495?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="59951433">
  <user id="1074362">
    <name><![CDATA[Michael]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Montreal, Canada]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1074362-michael?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>4</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Jun 16 17:00:18 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Jun 16 22:03:46 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I've read all of Lorrie Moore's previous books, and I read them some time ago. And so when I got my hands on this, I was excited: it's been fifteen years since her last novel, a decade since her last story collection.<br/><br/>Which made its sudden familiarity something between comforting and disc...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/59951433">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/59951433?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="76154245">
  <user id="905073">
    <name><![CDATA[Diandra]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Long Beach, CA]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/905073-diandra?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="2009" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Mon Nov 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Oct 29 15:57:36 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Nov 02 11:30:02 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[About a week before this book was released I read a little New York Times piece about the author and her journey writing this book.  She stated (somewhere in the middle of the interview) that she cried the whole time while writing this book.  And, although, I definitely believe Moore captured the th...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76154245">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76154245?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="75772578">
  <user id="689806">
    <name><![CDATA[Sarah]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/689806-sarah?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>0</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Oct 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Oct 26 08:54:45 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Oct 29 17:16:55 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Lorrie Moore is hilarious. In this novel she's mostly hilarious. A Gate at the Stairs is narrated by Tassie, a college student who has been hired by a family (still in the process of adoption) as a babysitter. The dynamics of the family, of her college roommate, of her first boyfriend, of her awaken...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75772578">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75772578?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="72282143">
  <user id="1530057">
    <name><![CDATA[Ellen]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Ware, MA]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1530057-ellen?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Sep 23 16:53:50 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Sep 27 14:39:44 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[What an amazing writer.  Lorrie Moore is funny, observant, smart, and a magician with words.  Her writing is dense with description that is memorable and that gives one a whole new slant on something common.  Like describing looking out at window icicles like being caught in the mouth of a monster w...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72282143">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72282143?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="73617293">
  <user id="2737565">
    <name><![CDATA[Trevor]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Hoboken, NJ]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2737565-trevor?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at>Tue Oct 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Oct 06 07:32:10 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Oct 06 07:46:45 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[A fantastic, mesmerizing novel. I have seen this mentioned in countless reviews but it really warrants repeated mentioning: this is a book that is breathtakingly sad and heartbreakingly despondent while simultaneously managing to be hilariously, laugh-out-loud funny and extremely uplifting. <br/><br/>...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73617293">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73617293?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="72321789">
  <user id="78710">
    <name><![CDATA[Elaine]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/78710-elaine?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
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      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at>Tue Sep 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Sep 24 05:16:57 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Sep 29 00:49:31 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[&quot;I decided to make a little project out of the meadow. First I took my father'sclippers and cut the daisies and pink clusters of milkweed: I thought I would put them in some vases around the house but quickly saw they were crawling with ants. Then I took the mower and rake and took the thistle ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72321789">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72321789?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="71504930">
  <user id="2636554">
    <name><![CDATA[Katie]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Corte Madera, CA]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2636554-katie-m?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
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      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at>Mon Sep 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Sep 16 21:26:40 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Sep 21 09:52:11 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I’m bummed. Is it because my expectations were too high—Lorrie Moore being the brilliant writer she is? Is it because I read some mediocre reviews of this book before opening it? Possibly. But a really good, well crafted Lorrie Moore novel could have trumped either of these issues. This is not t...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71504930">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71504930?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="71380639">
  <user id="219032">
    <name><![CDATA[madeline]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/219032-madeline?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Sep 15 23:07:01 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Sep 20 15:08:43 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Lorrie Moore attempts to write about my generation with mixed results.  The novel is funny, of course, and highly quotable, with a little heartbreak thrown in.  However, I feel like the choice to &quot;ground&quot; the setting within a particular time was largely a mistake.  For me, the mentions of ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71380639">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71380639?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    </reviews>
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