Welcome to Litsy!

Not all books are for everyone. This book was not for me. I don't even know what I read. I thought it was ridiculous and pretentious. All over the place and going nowhere at the same time. This is what passes for high brow literature? It makes a mockery of depression and death when I think it was aiming for allegory or something. But smart people think it's genius. Rant over!

I bet Lorrie Moore was the star student in her creative writing class 😄

This is a heavy story about someone dealing with tremendous grief.

It is told beautifully with lots of alliteration and metaphors. It's almost poetic at times. And there is even some humor.

Parts of the story are from a book the main character found. Those parts were confusing at first on audio, but I got it sorted out.

He took large swallows of coffee and tested his sanity every morning the same way he did when not on the road: he took out his laptop and replied to the online Times editorials, and waited to see if his reply was actually posted. In this manner he could tell, roughly, how deranged he was that day.

Lorrie Moore remains a wonder and a gift. She makes me want to write, as in, actually changes the way words form in my head. It's like she fires off all my neglected synapses. This amazing novel explores death and grieving and is primarily set in the upside-down year of 2016. All the trauma of 8 years seems somehow compacted down into a 193-page gut punch.

Lorrie Moore does magic with dialogue but unfortunately it didn‘t work for me in this novel. It‘s practically one long dialogue between a man and his dead lover and although it‘s funny at times and poignant at others I was hoping to get through it quick because it was foremost boring.

Some irony about book groups 😂 It would be funny if it wasn‘t so sad in the context of this book

In other news, the “talking corpse” in this novel should have a Netflix standup comedy special. Lorrie Moore is as insightful and moving as ever…and she writes great material for the dead.

#WeeklyForecast 27/23

I am reading The Birthday Party and enjoying it but it goes slow and it‘s a chunkster. If I have time I‘ll start the new Lorrie Moore. I have been looking forward to it!