Birds of America
Lorrie Moore · 1998
Moore's most celebrated collection. "People Like That Are the Only People Here," about a mother whose baby has cancer, is one of the most emotionally devastating stories written in the last 50 years.
The case against
Moore's characters all share one brain: wry, pun-addicted, terminally ironic, whether they are professors, mothers, or actresses. The jokes work as armor, and after twelve stories the armor is all you can see. When she drops it, in the story about the baby with cancer, the book becomes devastating; that story also tells you what the others are avoiding.
Short Stories · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
