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Self-Help by Lorrie Moore
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Self-Help (original 1985; edition 2007)

by Lorrie Moore (Author)

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1,2452316,772 (4)33
In these tales of loss and pleasure, lovers and family, a woman learns to conduct an affair, a child of divorce dances with her mother, and a woman with a terminal illness contemplates her exit. Filled with the sharp humor, emotional acuity, and joyful language Moore has become famous for, these nine glittering tales marked the introduction of an extravagantly gifted writer.… (more)
Member:laciemoran
Title:Self-Help
Authors:Lorrie Moore (Author)
Info:Vintage (2007), Edition: Reprint, 163 pages
Collections:Your library
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Self-Help by Lorrie Moore (1985)

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» See also 33 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 23 (next | show all)
This book was both devastatingly incredible. I read it in no more than 2 sittings. As far as I'm concerned Lorrie Moore is a master of the short story based purely on this book and I can't wait to read the rest of her work. ( )
  Amateria66 | May 24, 2024 |
I read this around the time it came out, I was in my 20's and I liked it quite a bit. I realize now that I was not at a point in my life where I was really ready for this. I hadn't seen the end of enough things to be ready for this book, which is very much a book about endings (or at least monumental transitions.) I am not a fan of the self-help genre, so I love what Moore does here in approaching many of the types of relationships and skills/abilities gaps covered in those books and showing us that things can't be fixed, that the very idea of a one-size-fits-all solution requires that we strip away everything but the problem, ignore everything the people have the problem cam in with and ignore all the non-problematic elements at play. In self-help there are no intersectional issues or psychological comorbidities, just people those books tell you should behave in a certain way and then you will get the desired result. But in life everyone comes in with a pile of preexisting experiences that make it implausible to expect they will act in one specific way to a situation. Self-help guides work if everyone involved is a replicant. These stories are so rich and complicated and heartbreaking and funny and very very human. They are so good!

I started reading this a few months back at the urging of my wise and well-read GR friend Robin. I was reading a story here and there, but after the book came up in conversation a few days ago I read the last three stories in rapid succession, and that totally worked for me. Just this past Saturday I told a friend of mine that I generally had no interest in reading about characters' whining about their relationships with their mothers, and I stand by that, but the issue is the whining, not the relationships with mothers angle. Moore gets this right all the way through. This was a necessary and treasured reread for me. ( )
  Narshkite | May 1, 2024 |
[Being] a mistress.
It is like having a book out from the library.
It is like constantly having a book out from the library

Limits of the pun.

As though all juvenilia from the 1980's is trying at not trying at being Raymond Carver, a response to his presence or absence as if one were to contemplate America without Reagan. Though written with skill such that it remains amusing even at its most obnoxious.

[What does a systems analyst do.] Oh … they get married a lot. They’re usually always married.

He seems to be investing something in all of this (bankers)

and suddenly I woke up with a jerk

parasites, pair of sights, parricides
( )
  Joe.Olipo | Sep 19, 2023 |
Short stories by a young Lorrie Moore. Funny in parts, wonderful puns and wordplay, but some very serious topics explored.

1985 NYT review by Jay McInerny of all people:

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/20/specials/moore-help.h... ( )
  steve02476 | Jan 3, 2023 |
DNF @~50%
None of the stories I read would I have rated more than two stars.

"What is beautiful is seized."
A line from one of the stories; it's true. Seized, and ruined. ( )
  burritapal | Oct 23, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 23 (next | show all)
Like her characters, Miss Moore possesses a wry, crackly voice, an askew sense of humor and a certain reticence about emotions - qualities that lend her fiction a dry, almost alkaline flavor.
 

» Add other authors (6 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Lorrie Mooreprimary authorall editionscalculated
Oppenheimer, JaneNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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In these tales of loss and pleasure, lovers and family, a woman learns to conduct an affair, a child of divorce dances with her mother, and a woman with a terminal illness contemplates her exit. Filled with the sharp humor, emotional acuity, and joyful language Moore has become famous for, these nine glittering tales marked the introduction of an extravagantly gifted writer.

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