Matt's review
Self-Help
by Lorrie Moore
Matt's review
Self-Help by Lorrie Moore
Matt's review
rating:
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 originally imagined for themselves. They use a kind of dark humor to keep the deeper terror at bay. Moore is at her best when dealing with romantic relationships - the first story, "How to be an Other Woman," following a woman trying to navigate being a mistress, is written with the best of Moore's wit.
When Moore deals with some heavier subjects, such as in the story of a woman diagnosed with terminal cancer and contemplating suicide, the humor drops away and melodrama begins to creep ...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 originally imagined for themselves. They use a kind of dark humor to keep the deeper terror at bay. Moore is at her best when dealing with romantic relationships - the first story, "How to be an Other Woman," following a woman trying to navigate being a mistress, is written with the best of Moore's wit.
When Moore deals with some heavier subjects, such as in the story of a woman diagnosed with terminal cancer and contemplating suicide, the humor drops away and melodrama begins to creep ...more
