Self-Help
by Lorrie Moore
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Years ago I read Lorrie Moore's excellent Who Will Run the Frog Hospital for a grad school class (on memoirs?) and I have been a fan ever since. Every so often I will run across one of her essays or stories and find myself in stitches, although her humor almost always comes with a healthy dose of irony or solemnity to keep it from being a pure laugh fest. This semester I began my Creative Writing course with an out loud, round-the-class, reading of an essay (which turns out to be from Self-Help...more
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Read in December, 2007
Haven fallen in love with Anagrams, I was quite eager to read this Self-Help. Many consider it to be Moore's best work - it's certainly her best-known - so I had pretty high expectations. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed - I found it neither as consistent nor as affecting as Anagrams.
The book is at it's best when it stuck close to what made Anagrams so fantastic - stories of people who find themselves stuck in lives very different from what they had orig...more
The book is at it's best when it stuck close to what made Anagrams so fantastic - stories of people who find themselves stuck in lives very different from what they had orig...more
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Read in October, 2005
I found "Self-Help" to be an uneven collection, but the badn outweighed the good. I suggest sticking with the standout pieces and skipping the rest. The opening piece, "How to Be an Other Woman" is an exceptional short story. Moore is great at finding the perfect turn of phrase. Her humor is often sardonic but never completely cold. Her writing style is cool, detached - but there's enough warmth to strike a balance. The next story, "What Is Seized" has a very underg...more
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Read in January, 2008
You pick up Lorrie Moore’s collection of short stories called Self-Help because you’ve always admired her writing. Plus, your own writing is often compared to hers. Not because you are a master of the form, like Moore, but more because your short stories are peppered with a sort of sad and self-deprecating humor.
What you love about reading short story collections over short story anthologies is that you can pick up the threads that move throughout the stories. Moore has a thing for opera...more
What you love about reading short story collections over short story anthologies is that you can pick up the threads that move throughout the stories. Moore has a thing for opera...more
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
everyone
Moore's first collection of stories introduced her as a writer capable of both heartbreaking sadness and quick wit. Rarely do these two qualities mesh so well in such a difficult medium, but Moore takes on the challenge with the sophistication of a writer much older than 26 (her age when it was published).
The six stories written in the second person imperative create a more serious tone than expected. Somehow the tasks of being a writer and being an other woman seem similar. Moore explain...more
The six stories written in the second person imperative create a more serious tone than expected. Somehow the tasks of being a writer and being an other woman seem similar. Moore explain...more
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Read in December, 2007
Self-Help is a collection of short stories. Moore's writing is very witty and bitter, a combination that I really enjoy. The book explores several lives: a cancer patient who has decided on suicide as an aesthetic choice, a woman who is learning how to be the other woman, notes on how to be a writer, and a woman who is ravenous for puns, stealing, and food finds herself in a situation that is driving her deeper into her obsessions. There are nine stories in all, each one interesting and funny in...more
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Read in May, 2008
I've been reading through this collection again with my 318 class, and, I have to say, I don't like it as much as I remember. There some incredible pieces and some incredible lines, but I can't help feeling that it's getting repetitive. It does provide for great class discussion, though, so it's serving it's purpose.
ADDED:
My students liked the collection, overall, though many, like me, felt a little overwhelmed by Moore by the end. It's a lot. I admire Lorrie Moore and many of my stu...more
ADDED:
My students liked the collection, overall, though many, like me, felt a little overwhelmed by Moore by the end. It's a lot. I admire Lorrie Moore and many of my stu...more
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Read in January, 1998
recommended to Kattie by:
Lorrie Moore (went to a reading for school)recommends it for: Lovers of short stories and well-chosen words
I absolutely love this book. Its one of my all time favorites. Lorrie Moore is a master of words and controls them with a flow like music. This collection of short stories was apparently her master's thesis, and the beginning of her high praise for literature.
I read in an interview once that Reese Witherspoon is a big fan of reading, and this is her favorite as well. Makes me believe she has good taste. Sample some of Moore's impeccible form and you will be amazed and one happy reader. ...more
I read in an interview once that Reese Witherspoon is a big fan of reading, and this is her favorite as well. Makes me believe she has good taste. Sample some of Moore's impeccible form and you will be amazed and one happy reader. ...more
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lorrie moore said once that she is constantly blamed in writing classes for students '2nd person' story phases, most of which are terrible and cause massive headaches to the writing teacher community. i'm proud to say that my 2nd person phase happened way way before i read either moore or rebecca brown, both of whom, i think, write some amazing 2nd person stories (and i also think mine are pretty good sometimes). but yeah, i love these stories, individually and as a whole. and the 'how to be...more
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Read in January, 2008
This isn't a book I probably would have picked up if one of Nick's friends (who'd read it for a lit class) hadn't loaned it to me.
Normally, I'm not a big fan of short stories, but I really enjoyed Moore's in this collection. She has a style of writing that is unique and there were lines that really stuck with me. Some of the stories I liked more than others (How to Be an Other Woman one of them).
There is a definite theme to the collection: Of loss, relationship heartache, parental heart...more
Normally, I'm not a big fan of short stories, but I really enjoyed Moore's in this collection. She has a style of writing that is unique and there were lines that really stuck with me. Some of the stories I liked more than others (How to Be an Other Woman one of them).
There is a definite theme to the collection: Of loss, relationship heartache, parental heart...more
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Read in March, 2008
i really liked this book at first. the stories were interesting and intriguing. but then they started to get somewhat monotonous, all reading like how-to manuals (how to be an other woman, how to talk to your mother, etc.). I realize that this book is called "self-help" and apparently that is what these stories hope to have you do. BUT the repetitive story structures and procedural writing style got old quickly. i liked lorrie moore's writing and am interested in checking out some of h...more
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recommended to Helen by:
I bought it at Jonathan Benton Booksellers!
I liked "How" and "How to be a writer" and the one where the woman stole money from Hats and Scarves and stabbed her husband. I love how Lorrie Moore takes parts of words and makes them into jokes or makes them mean something different from what they usually mean and it makes you understand something.
"In the elevator I touch my face, touch my eyes to see if they are behaving, if they are being, if they are having or misbehaving, miss being had. The words conflate an...more
"In the elevator I touch my face, touch my eyes to see if they are behaving, if they are being, if they are having or misbehaving, miss being had. The words conflate an...more
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I don't know what happened to my copy. I've lent it to so many people as my favorite book ever. A collection of short stories, mostly told in the 2nd person (which my 9th grade english teacher said did not exist: cannot believe they let her teach, at a decent school no less). So many emotions told in such short stories, so few words. She lets you get in her characters' heads, maybe it's the voice. Not a fan of her other books. Sigh... my copy was loved. worn all around. dog-eared. I hope ...more
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Read in April, 2008
I was all over the place with this one. I loved Birds of America, Like Life, and Who Will Run the Frog Hospital but this one I wasn't as enthusiastic about.
I don't think that I like the stories that are told in second person. Even those are really well-written and powerful, but I get tired of the stilted use of "you."
Overall, some of the stories I was lukewarm about but the ones I liked, I really, really liked. There were just fewer of those, for me, in this collection.
I don't think that I like the stories that are told in second person. Even those are really well-written and powerful, but I get tired of the stilted use of "you."
Overall, some of the stories I was lukewarm about but the ones I liked, I really, really liked. There were just fewer of those, for me, in this collection.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
you.
probably the most conceptually cohesive collection i've ever read and i freaking love that about it. mostly stories are written in an instructional second person (hence, the name). only lacks that fifth star for me because a few of the stories were a break from this style and i really would have liked to see it carried throughout.
she's a fave, fo sho.
also, i found this in a thrift store for 50 cents on the "self-help" shelf, which is pretty entertaining.
she's a fave, fo sho.
also, i found this in a thrift store for 50 cents on the "self-help" shelf, which is pretty entertaining.
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Read in November, 1998
Her first collection. And while a few of the stories are more ideas that didn't quite bloom into full-fledged stories, most of these impressed the hell out of me and still do. Moore has a gift for riding between hilarity and heartbreak, and if she sometimes chooses the joke instead of the true emotional moment, who's to blame her? Sometimes a joke makes the sadness avoided all the sharper.
And she was in her teens and early twenties when she wrote them. Wow.
And she was in her teens and early twenties when she wrote them. Wow.
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Read in October, 2007
there was something about these stories, and as i read more of lorrie moore's work i'm beginning to realize it's about her writing in general, that just makes you think. you start to look at your own life and compare them to the characters in the story. stories that come off as simple end up really have a great depth and meaning. or at least thats what they had for me. this book made me really addicted to her work and i had to read more.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone with cynical tendenices
I actually started to read this book sometime ago for a report in class and never picked it up again until now. It is not about self help at all. It is actually a series of short stories about different people in different situations where they kinda of realize how crappy the situation they are in is. These characters kinda of view themselves like one might view reality if they are watching television, slightly dettached but aware.
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Lorrie Moore's ability to create fully-fledged characters and cross the line between pathos and gut-busting hilarity is dead-on remarkable. You can tell in her writing that Moore has, perhaps, experimented in writing poetry. But, lord, her short stories (especially this one--published around her late 20s) are something else.
God bless you, Lorrie, for showing readers why life and humans really suck.
God bless you, Lorrie, for showing readers why life and humans really suck.
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The first short story I read by Moore, "Amahl and the Night Visitors: A Guide to the Tenor of Love" made me so jealous. I wanted to write that story, damn it! I guess it might be better to say it inspired me to want to write - and write well. I occasionally go back and read this story and it's good every time. I'm looking forward to the rest of the stories. Thanks for letting me borrow this, Jenny!
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.24 (803 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.23 (661 ratings) number of reviews: 95popular shelves
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quote
"Begin to wonder what you do write about. Or if you have anything to say. Or even if there is such a thing as a thing to say. Limit these thoughts to no more than ten minutes a day; like sit-ups, they can make you thin"
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