Bark: Stories

Bark: Stories

By Lorrie Moore

Alfred A Knopf February 2014

192 pages

From the library

Highly acclaimed author Lorrie Moore has released a new collection of stories. The characters in these tales are dealing with the fallout of divorce, the devastation of losing a loved one, and the everyday pain of trying to connect with a child with disabilities. There are only eight stories in this collection, but their inhabitants try to put on a brave face and perhaps offer a wry quip or two as they stumble through the pain and uncertainty of life. 

I enjoyed Lorrie Moore's novels A Gate at the Stairs and Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and was looking forward to reading her short stories. But I found myself disappointed in this collection. When you are reading a novel, you get to see the writer do many things because there are hundreds of pages and many plot events to write. In a short story collection, readers want to see the depth and the width of a writer's ability. Some of my favorite collections make me cry and laugh, all within the same book. But Bark feels very monotone. Each of the stories seems to deal with characters who are dealing with long-term pain. Moore does not show us the moment when the pain starts or the moment when it seems they can't take it anymore. Instead, she focuses on the moment in the middle when it seems like it will never end and grief will just be a terrible and continual part of life. 

Moore seems to lose the essence of the stories in trying instead to be clever and political. There are many good lines in these stories that are funny but it feels very forced, as if Moore is asking us to realize just how clever she is. I also got tired of the political undertones in several of the stories. In the title story, Ira's despondency over his failed marriage and his new girlfriend's lack of interest is compacted by the war he can't stop watching on TV. In the story Foes, Bake gets into a heated disagreement at a benefit dinner with a woman who lobbies for the conservatives and was badly burned during the attack on the Pentagon. Instead of feeling sympathy or pity, we are left with a vague feeling of disgust, both for her politics and for her person.

I liked Lorrie Moore as a writer. She is incisive and can write the sort of phrases that punch you in the gut with their beauty and precision. I understand why she is revered by many in writing circles. Unfortunately, Bark didn't do it for me. I find that many of the stories that impact me the most are those that give thought to both light and dark, tragedy and joy. This collection of stories just left me feeling bleak. 

Review: Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?

Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?

By Lorrie Moore

Alfred A Knopf 1994

148 pages

From the library

Berie Carr is visiting Paris with her husband. The trip reminds her of a pivotal summer of her youth. Berie worked as a ticket collector at an amusement park called Storyland. The repetition of working at a cheesy summer attraction is tempered by working alongside her best friend Silsby. While Berie is the plain Jane, Sils is the beautiful girl who attracts all of the boys and portrays Cinderella at work. The events of this single summer will forever change the lives of both girls and their friendship.

Lorrie Moore is a beautiful writer. I read her novel A Gate At the Stairs a few years ago and thought it was lovely. She unfortunately became one of those writers you read once but forget to follow up on the backlist. I happened to glimpse Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? on a library shelf and decided to read it for the 24 Hour Readathon.

The framing of this story through the eyes of adult Berie didn't really work. It felt somewhat haphazard and I was never sure what in the present caused Berie to think back to her youth. But that aside, the story of Berie and Sils was engaging. It's a seemingly traditional tale of the summer when two friends grow up. Sils is the beautiful and popular one. She has a boyfriend with a motorcycle and when the two friends sneak out to bars, Sils is the recipient of drinks and dances while Berie sits and waits. Berie adores Sils though. When she has the chance to help her friend, she takes it without hesitation or thought for the consequences it will have on her own life.

This novel is a sort of quiet, sincere look at coming of age. Because Berie is looking back through the lens of time and perhaps wisdom, the story lacks an immediacy but gains a great deal of poignancy.There is no doubt  that Lorrie Moore knows how to write a gorgeous sentence:
"Were we just waiting to leave Horsehearts, our friends, enemies, our airless family lives? I often think that at the center of me is a voice that at last did split, a house in my heart so invaded with other people and their speech, friends I believed I was devoted to, people whose lives I can only guess at now, that it gives me the impression I am simply a collection of them, that they all existed for themselves, but had inadvertently formed me, then vanished. But, what: Should I have been expected to create my own self, out of nothing, out of thin, thin air and alone?"

Who Will Run The Frog Hospital? is a quiet story about growing up in a small town. While it is sometimes disconnected, Moore's exquisite voice and her understanding of the impact that our first and greatest friends have on our lives create a quick read that will resonate with readers.