Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs

Still on the theme of St Annes and spontaneous purchases from the blog on Agatha Christie and Miss Jane Marple, I also bought this book by Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs, with this opening:

'THe cold came late that fall and the songbirds were caught off guard.'

I wonder how much more perfect an opening could aspire to be? Lorrie Moore is a very successful writer of short stories and here we can immediately identify her consummate craftedness!

It has a cleverness of course and a device or conceit, but it still works despite its self conscious intelligence. For the tone, wistful, lonely and even elegaic carries me through the sentence and creates curiousity and wonder. The world inside and out is mourning something, somewhere. Our preparations for self defence and preservation are as natural as the birds...yet they fall short of our hopes...

And why 'songbirds'? Because they inspire greater pathos and lament. They, like us, YEARN! We can almost hear their solitary songs.

In the Midwest in September 2001, twenty years old Tassie Keltjin, daughter of a gentleman potato farmer, is at college looking forward to the greats of literature. In between her semesters, she takes a position as a nanny to restaurateur Sarah Brink, who has no children yet but is considering adoption.

Sarah begins her search for a suitable pregnant woman who does not want to raise a child or have an abortion. She has a choice between a girl without a brain or a white female whose African-American boyfriend dumped her when she mentioned the "P" word. Meanwhile Tassie receives an education on social class and race relationships while finding a lover Reynaldo, who conceals from her elements of his life.

This is a terrific character study of a a young woman just after 9/11 trying to make sense of a world that seems out of control from her relative understanding. Tassie makes the story line as the center holding it together with her wonderful mix of gentle naivety and Midwestern potato wisdom. Fans will enjoy her escapades with 9/11 in the backdrop as Lorrie Moore explores the issues that split society through her intelligent yet bewildered protagonist coming of age.

Harriet Klausner