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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/90872.Self_Help?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Self-Help" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1193938034m/90872.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/90872.Self_Help?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Self-Help</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11746.Lorrie_Moore">Lorrie Moore</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20012445?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars 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) called "How to Become a Writer Or, Have You Earned This Cliché?" Another teacher I know (recommender of David Schickler from last week) does the same thing and it turned out to be a hit for us both. I picked up Self-Help after reading another flat-out amazing Moore story (this time in a Paris Review Collection) called "Terrific Mother," which so far ranks in my top ten short stories of all time. Self-Help turns out to contain some more definite Moore gems, though not quite so many as I was hoping for. In my Moore-zeal I also bought Anagrams (fine, I stole it from my fiance's parents) and Birds of America, which contains "Terrific Mother" as well. It also turns out that Moore may be best enjoyed in smaller doses - so it may take me a little while to get around to those other ones. The best stories in Self-Help follow the same model that "How to Become a Writer..." does, addressing the reader in short instructive sentences... the first story, "How to be an Other Woman," opens with the sage advice to, "Meet in expensive beige raincoats on a pea-soupy night..." The advice is always fun and specific, and as the piece progresses it becomes clear that this is not a general outline for readers hoping to sleep with married men, but really a story about the instructor's affair with one, particular man. Stories in similar form, like "A Kid's Guide to Divorce", "How", "Go Like This", and "How to Talk to Your Mother (Notes)" are all great. It made me wonder why she didn't stick with it throughout, because the random, more traditional stories like "What is Seized" end up feeling oddly lacking. Luckily, these are in the minority. Still, by the end of the collection I found I was laughing less, cringing more, and generally having had enough angst for one week. I attempted to segue right into Birds of America, thinking ambitiously that I'd do a double-post this time, but this was not to be. Self-Help was thoroughly enjoyable, very original, and often very poignant, but as I said earlier, I've hit my Moore-limit for the moment. To be fair, I don't know of any short story writers that could make me want to read two collections back-to-back... as I said last week, I hardly ever finish the ones I start. More next week... 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/191616?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Kris's review
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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) called "How to Become a Writer Or, Have You Earned This Cliché?" Another teacher I know (recommender of David Schickler from last week) does the same thing and it turned out to be a hit for us both.

I picked up Self-Help after reading another flat-out amazing Moore story (this time in a Paris Review Collection) called "Terrific Mother," which so far ranks in my top ten short stories of all time. Self-Help turns out to contain some more definite Moore gems, though not quit...more
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) called "How to Become a Writer Or, Have You Earned This Cliché?" Another teacher I know (recommender of David Schickler from last week) does the same thing and it turned out to be a hit for us both.

I picked up Self-Help after reading another flat-out amazing Moore story (this time in a Paris Review Collection) called "Terrific Mother," which so far ranks in my top ten short stories of all time. Self-Help turns out to contain some more definite Moore gems, though not quite so many as I was hoping for. In my Moore-zeal I also bought Anagrams (fine, I stole it from my fiance's parents) and Birds of America, which contains "Terrific Mother" as well. It also turns out that Moore may be best enjoyed in smaller doses - so it may take me a little while to get around to those other ones.

The best stories in Self-Help follow the same model that "How to Become a Writer..." does, addressing the reader in short instructive sentences... the first story, "How to be an Other Woman," opens with the sage advice to, "Meet in expensive beige raincoats on a pea-soupy night..." The advice is always fun and specific, and as the piece progresses it becomes clear that this is not a general outline for readers hoping to sleep with married men, but really a story about the instructor's affair with one, particular man.

Stories in similar form, like "A Kid's Guide to Divorce", "How", "Go Like This", and "How to Talk to Your Mother (Notes)" are all great. It made me wonder why she didn't stick with it throughout, because the random, more traditional stories like "What is Seized" end up feeling oddly lacking. Luckily, these are in the minority. Still, by the end of the collection I found I was laughing less, cringing more, and generally having had enough angst for one week. I attempted to segue right into Birds of America, thinking ambitiously that I'd do a double-post this time, but this was not to be. Self-Help was thoroughly enjoyable, very original, and often very poignant, but as I said earlier, I've hit my Moore-limit for the moment.

To be fair, I don't know of any short story writers that could make me want to read two collections back-to-back... as I said last week, I hardly ever finish the ones I start. More next week...
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