The death knell for fiction.

And who sounded it for me? Lorrie Moore, that's who.

For various reasons I got on the hold list pretty early for her new novel, A Gate at the Stairs. And none of them were bad reasons. For one, if I can remember correctly, I actually kind of enjoyed her novel Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? For another, she works in the city where I live. Also? I write for a reader's advisory database (the fabulous Reader's Advisor Online--and yes, I'm completely unbiased*) and I thought this would be a big fiction title that I should know something about. The consequences of all of those reasons were that my Friday night reading was given over to this book, and what a waste of a night it was. Folks,** this novel is one hot mess.

Now, I'm actually getting weary of enumerating ways in which modern novels suck. (I'm not going to touch the new Dan Brown with a ten-foot pole, sorry, I actually read the Da Vinci Code all the way through and so have completed that homework.) But I think I can tackle this one in a short paragraph: there isn't any subject that Moore doesn't throw in to this novel for maximum effect. We have, just to name a few: 1. a young woman, Tassie Keltjin's, coming of age, in a college city and away from her rural Wisconsin farm upbringing; 2. her mother is a Jewish woman stuck on the farm who seems vaguely unhappy with her lot; 3. Tassie goes to work for an older woman in her college town as a nanny; 4. The child she's nannying is a biracial girl that the older woman has adopted; 5. She falls in love and has a tempestuous physical love affair with a man named Reynaldo; 6. Oh yeah, the events of 9/11; 7. She deals with racism on the street when people yell at her and the biracial child; 8. The marriage of the couple for whom she nannies is falling apart; 9. her younger brother signs up for the military and gets shipped out--guess what happens; and 10. the woman for whom she nannies has a secret past that means she can't handle life with her new adopted daughter.

And somehow? With all that? I was so bored I kept falling asleep, and I never could remember if the main character's name was Tessie or Tassie. Those don't seem like good signs.

Thank you, Lorrie Moore.*** I am officially off fiction until further notice.

*I went to journalism school, people, and if there's one thing you learn, it's that you must at all costs act like you are objective, even when we all know that's impossible.

**The second thing you learn in journalism school is to put a human face on your stories and never, never to sound too elite; hence, "folks." Don't knock it. It got George W. Bush elected twice, and he didn't even have to go to j-school to learn it.

***Moore also didn't have the balls just to set the book in Madison, Wisconsin, although there's some pretty clear references to the city. (Other reviewers have pointed out her "isn't it so cute?" attitude toward Madison in interviews like this one, as well.) Okay. The next time you have your characters visiting a sex supply store in a fictional city, Ms. Moore, at least don't give it the same name as the most well-known erotica shop in the city you're NOT setting your novel in.

This just in: It hurts me to disagree with Bookslut, but I don't think I can agree with Amy Hanridge's review of this book. At one point she even compares Moore to Carol Shields, which also hurts me. It's like comparing Jodi Picoult favorably with Anne Tyler. Yikes. Do yourself a favor; skip this book and read anything by Carol Shields instead.

Comments

[Tripp]

Why do authors choose to use a city as a model and then call it something else? Is it trying to avoid offending someone or the needs to portray it accurately? A desire to take license?

[Citizen Reader]

Tripp,
Normally I don't pay a whole lot of attention to this issue, but Moore has annoyed me by being a bit more dismissive of the question than she would need to be. My only thoughts on why an author wouldn't just use a real city as a setting are: 1. they just don't want to be bothered by questions about why they set it there; 2. they're too lazy to get the details right, or 3. they want to sell books in other parts of Wisconsin, and the rest of Wisconsin views Madison as Liberal Tree-Hugging High-Taxing Whinyville.

But I might just be overly cynical. It's even weaker when you consider that she has used other real cities in the book, including Green Bay. I think it also bothers me because it's distracting to pop from a real city, like GB, to a fictional city, like Moore's "Troy." And anything that distracts from the narrative, I rather thought, is usually considered a bad thing. But what do I know? I'm just a nonfiction reader, and most reviews have hailed Moore's novel as the Second Coming. Anyone seen a less than positive review of this book yet?

[Venta]

The review I read in the Seattle Times was lukewarm - or it at least has kept me from putting a hold on the book. I'm glad I read your review, CR, so I don't have to question myself.

Madison Rocks!!

Your putting a hold on it reminded me of when I put an early hold on The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. When I began reading it (at a restaurant, by myself and the only book with me), I wondered why I requested it, because it wasn't a book I would usually read. Sometimes I put a hold on everything and hope for the best.

I am in the middle of Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician. I am going along for the ride. I'm the kind of reader who can't go back to read what you and others said about it.

[Citizen Reader]

Venta,
Oh good, I'm off to look up the Seattle Times review now. Every review I read was like, "Well, there's this problem, and there's that problem, but it's Lorrie Moore, so, you know, it's great," which is NOT what I read reviews for.

Ah, the pleasures of putting holds on books willy-nilly. I do that all the time--I'm always the patron standing at the hold shelves, looking confused, and wondering why I ordered half of the books I'm picking up. So sad to have a sieve for a memory.

I do hope you like Mr. Sebastian, but it won't be for everyone. I think I was just in the right mood when I read it too. Promise me you'll just stop reading if you don't like it!

[Tripp]

I was trying to think of another case of an author renaming a city and the one that came to me was Kings of Infinite Space by James Hynes. I am pretty sure the city in which it is set is supposed to be Austin, but isnt't. Having no connection to the place, I didn't think much of it.

[Citizen Reader]

Tripp,
I just discussed this with my sister, and we wondered if another cynical reason that Moore didn't set the book in a real city was because she doesn't want to be known as, gasp, a regional writer. Like I said, normally this sort of thing doesn't bother me. But even without reading the reviews, I was discomfited by the real city/fake city mixing--although that is probably because I am from here; a non-Midwestern reader probably wouldn't wonder why Green Bay, a real city, was included, while the rest were faked.

Hm, "Kings of Infinite Space." I must admit that book was so weird I didn't understand most of the plot, much less where it was set. :) But Austin's a fair guess, from what I can remember of it...for "office stories" I much preferred Joshua Ferris's "Then We Came to the End." Have you read that one?

[Tripp]

I did read it Then We Came to the End, which I liked until we got to the end. That tale would be a hard one to close off, but it felt odd. I thought it was true in that when we later encounter people with whom we once spent so much time, it can come off as odd, but it felt limp.

Overall I prefer Kings of IS, but that is because I love tales of Lovecraftian monsters.

[Sarah]

I loved her first novel, SELF-HELP, pub. 1985, but it was perfect for my zeitgeist then (post-college). What did you think of the Madison depicted in A DIVE FROM CLAUSEN'S PIER?

[Citizen Reader]

Tripp,
Ah, there's the difference. I was so used to working for (and waiting on) human monsters that the thought of Lovecraftian monsters in the workplace was too much for me! :)

Sarah,
Yes, I've read short stories of hers that I liked too, although I must say I've never considered her a super-talent (unlike, say, Laurie Colwin). I don't remember anything about A Dive from Clausen's Pier except that I was totally bored by it, but I do remember not being distracted from the narrative by its setting or setting details, which is really all I ask.

[Citizen Reader]

Sarah-
Forgot to ask: What did you think about the Madison in Clausen's Pier?

[Brandon]

Did you know Jodi Picoult wrote a Wonder Woman comic? Good god, it's true: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1401214878/jodipicoult00

Jodi Picoult is insidious. And "The Pact" is utter garbage. Everyone whispers to one another. What the fuck. Do people really go around whispering? Or this just in bad Lifetime movies? And, how many times do you suppose Jodi has Wonder Woman whispering?

[Brandon]

Okay. Sorry 'bout that. I'm calm now.

Is it just me, or does the cover to the Moore novel look like something the "Left Behind" authors rejected?

[Citizen Reader]

Brandon!
I've created another anti-Jodi P crusader! YAY! And you're doing a better job of it than I do! All I can say about whispering is, NO--as far as I can tell, everyone is out there busily shouting at each other and into cell phones.

I don't even have the strength to go look at that Wonder Woman comic. Perhaps later...

Oh, my, your comment about the cover design for Moore's book being apropos for "Left Behind" is HI-larious. As Bert would say, you have won the Internets for the day with that one. I'm not sure what the cover signifies, but then, I'm a dumb Midwestern hick, so I'm sure it was meant to be over my head.