Bark: Stories - Softcover

Moore, Lorrie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385682360 ISBN 13: 9780385682367

Publisher: Anchor Canada, 2014

Synopsis

"The glory of Moore's writing isn't simply that it toys with our expectations; it is that--like life itself--it turns them on their heads and gives them a good hard shake. . . . A long time in coming, Bark is a reminder--if one was needed--that when it comes to writing stories, Moore is still ahead of the pack." Toronto Star
     In these eight masterful stories, Lorrie Moore, in a perfect blend of craft and bewitched spirit, explores the passage of time, and summons up its inevitable sorrows and hilarious pitfalls to reveal her own exquisite, singular wisdom.
     In "Debarking," a newly divorced man tries to keep his wits about him as the United States prepares to invade Iraq, and against this ominous moment, we see--in all its irresistible hilarity and darkness--the perils of divorce and what can follow in its wake. . . . In "Foes," a political argument goes grotesquely awry as the events of 9/11 unexpectedly manifest at a fund-raising dinner in Georgetown. . . . In "The Juniper Tree," a teacher, visited by the ghost of her recently deceased friend, is forced to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in a kind of nightmare reunion. . . . And in "Wings," we watch the unraveling of two once-hopeful musicians who neither held fast to their dreams nor struck out along other paths as Moore deftly depicts the intricacies of dead ends and the workings of regret.
     Gimlet-eyed social observation, the public and private absurdities of life, dramatic irony, and enduring half-cracked love wend their way through each of these narratives in a heartrending mash-up of the tragic and the laugh-out-loud--the hallmark of Lorrie Moore-land.

About this title

Review:

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, March 2014: Here’s a reason Lorrie Moore is so beloved by her baby boomer brethren: she’s smart, she’s funny, her eye is even sharper than her tongue. In Bark, her latest collection of stories, all those qualities are well on display. “He had never been involved with the mentally ill before,” she writes of her mid-life anti-hero in the (sort-of) title story, "Debarking." "[B]ut he now felt more than ever that there should be strong international laws against them being too good looking.” Acerbic? Check. Knowing? Check. Says out loud on the page what we less talented, less observant mere mortals wish we could form so well in thought? Check. Check. Check. The only reason not to read these seven stories is that, perhaps, they’re just too accurate and perceptive about the way we live now--but then, why would you ever want to read stories that were anything else? --Sara Nelson

About the Author:

LORRIE MOORE, after serving as the Delmore Schwartz Professor in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for almost three decades, has been named the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She has received numerous grants and awards, including: the Lannan Foundation, the National Books Critics Circle, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

About this edition

• Publisher: Anchor Canada
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0385682360
• ISBN 13: 9780385682367
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208