Sunday, September 20, 2009

2009 book 199

Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs
I have been eagerly awaiting a new novel (or a new anything, really) by Moore for years and years and years. I think this one kind of blew away her earlier ones (though they are hazy in my mind)--it's certainly longer and more ambitious. It's about a college student who takes a job providing child care for a well-to-do couple and their adopted child, but of course things are never that simple. The student seems to float through her life in a dream-like way (or at least that's how it felt to me), and some of the most vivid scenes are discussions she overhears about multiracial families during a weekly group meeting (hilarious liberalism abounds). I did find parts of the story to be mildly unbelievable, but in general it was a good read. A-.

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