Literary Award Winners Fiction Book Club discussion
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I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home
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I am Homeless if if this is not my Home
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George
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rated it 3 stars
Feb 01, 2025 04:18AM
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Finished this one. I am glad it was short. It was a bit strange. I wonder if I would have appreciated it more if I were grieving. I suppose that Moore was trying to say that our relationship with the dead is complicated, but I don't know what was new in that. The road trip with the corpse or fantasy of a corpse was really strange. I guess I just don't appreciate magical realism. He left his dying brother so he could make this road trip with his dead X, but his brother had a family that was presumably with him. And the 19th century diary of letters to a dead sister and the murder of a man that was a sexual threat, not sure what that illuminated in the current story. The writing was excellent. I am just not sure I completely understood what the author was trying to do.
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An intriguing, well written novel about death and grief told in parallel stories with shared themes. The first story is set immediately following Abraham Lincoln’s death. The second story is set in the modern day concerning Finn, his brother Max and his ex girlfriend, Lily.
I particularly enjoyed Finn’s conversations with Max.
A disconcerting read with many beautifully written paragraphs.
Lorrie Moore books that I have read and would recommend include 'Self- Help',(1985), 'Like Life', (1990) and 'Anagrams' (1986).
I have not read Lorrie Moore before. I need to try another title by her. She does write well.
I'm about halfway through this book so far and struggling with it. I agree some of the passages are beautifully written, but I find this morbid, odd, and disconnected. I'm at the point where Max is speaking to his ex in the graveyard. I'm trying to decide if the author was attempting a gothic horror theme, but that doesn't connect with the theme of the rest of the book so far.
I did not get a gothic horror vibe. It felt like magical realism employed to explore grieving and the connection between the person griving and the one who has died.
I just finished this. Overall I felt the grief and symbolism of the book and felt it was beautifully written. I was uncomfortable with the necromancy and descriptions of decay that were overdone and morbid.
