“Basically, I realized I was living in that awful stage of life between twenty-six to and thirty-seven known as stupidity. It’s when you don’t know anything, not even as much as you did when you were younger, and you don’t even have a philosophy about all the things you don’t know, the way you did when you were twenty or would again when you were thirty-eight.” – Lorrie Moore, Anagrams
As I just turned 26 recently, I am really feeling that quote. If you haven’t read every single thing Lorrie Moore’s ever written, then I’m not sure what you’re doing on this blog. Go to the bookstore, go to the library, just do something so that you can read all of her books as soon as possible. I was once a 21 year old lady English major, so of course I not only loved but wanted to be Lorrie Moore. She’s obviously very well respected, but I still don’t understand why she isn’t as “famous” as, say, John Updike or Philip Roth. Oh, is it because she primarily writes about women’s lives? Well then.
Lorrie Moore’s prose is wryly funny like a Jack Handey one-liner, but it packs a serious emotional punch. I didn’t particularly like the last half of her most recent work, A Gate at the Stairs, but I can’t deny that it was powerful. There was one scene (no spoilers, guys, although if you’ve read it let’s talk about it!) that upset me on such a visceral level that I had to put the book down. I am not a squeamish person, but this book…
What’s your favorite Lorrie Moore book/story/quote? I could never choose, but I am partial to Anagrams because what is even going on there?
Image via NYT