Source Summaries:
Kimberly Arambul
Source #1. Lorrie Moore. <http://sound.media.mit.edu/~dpwe/lorrie.html> Lorrie
Moore is currently an English professor at the University of Wisconsin; she has become a
contemporary novelist who has published three collections of short stories, Self Help,
Like Life, and Birds of America, and two novels, Anagrams and Who
Will Run the Frog Hospital. It describes the power of her writing on certain
individuals and how it affects them on a personal level. This site tells how her style of
writing attracts people, by ways of the plot elements, personal and intimate
relationships, all the way to unbearable confessions. The site allows you to read pieces
of her work from different novels like the end of Self Help and the opening of Who
Will Run the Frog Hospital. It's a very good sight to look up and read.
Source #2. Lorrie Morre, Birds of America.
<http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.cgi?isbn=0679445978>. Birds of
America, by Lorrie Moore are the collection of 12 interesting and meaningful stories;
that entices people to read this emotional and powerful book. She has taken her writing to
a new level of language; speaking to all who want to listen. The web page has little
insights of a few of the stories in the book like "Willing"-that's about a
middle aged actress who falls off the deep end, "Which Is More Than I Can Say About
Some People"-It's about a mother and daughter, and the bondage in Ireland that they
find with each other, and "Charades"-Is about a family get-together, that not
all that together, and many more. The site also informs you about the awards Moore has won
over the years for her writing, and more related links.
Questions * How did she learn her style of writing? From School? From own thoughts and
creative writing? Does she have any new projects she is working on? If yes, what? Does
Lorrie Moore have any poetry projects?
Kristina Benefield
In an article from September 11, 1998's issue of The New York Times, Michiko
Kakutani, a journalist, gives his opinions and highlights of characters in Lorrie Moore's
book of short stories, Birds of America. He describes the characters as
"lost, lonely people fumbling their way through life, banging their heads against
walls, their hearts against old sorrows, as they migrate from relationship to
relationship, home to home" (1). Kakutani has a perfect way of describing Moore's
characters because that is exactly how they are in "Birds of America". Many of
her other novels consist of younger characters rather than middle-aged people in Birds
of America. Kakutani seems to focus on comparing Birds of America with past
books or novels Moore has published in the future. "As in Ms. Moore's earlier stories
and novels, many of the characters in this volume are women trapped in - or abruptly
ejected from -shopworn relationships" (2). This lets you now that in all of Moore's
work, she tends to use the same type of characters and their mishaps. Kakutani ends his
review with a few highlights from some of the stories in the book. He also tells about the
feelings Moore has in the stories and how her skill as a writer is "wise and
beguiling work" (3).
Lorrie Moore
In an article from September 20, 1998's issue of The San Francisco Chronicle,
Erika Milvy, a journalist, gives a full description and her thoughts of Lorrie Moore's
book of short stories Birds of America. Milvy tells you some issues from Moore's
earlier work in the beginning of the article about her characters and how they are
different from her new work. She states, "The tragedy of Moore's first novel, Anagrams,
was that a solitary woman's daughter turned out to be make-believe" (1). Therefore,
in her most recent book Birds of America, the characters are undergoing a more
real type of lifestyle. If the characters don't reflect on their emotions and real life
grief, it is somewhere nearby. Milvy also gives some examples of Moore's stories in Birds
of America, and how the stories are similar because they either deal with death, or
some type of crisis. She tells how Moore is able to make jokes in the stories to keep the
reader from becoming depressed while reading them. "Moore's fiction has always been
full of brain sex" (3). A quote from the first story "Willing" is given to
show an example. "It was like brains having sex. It was like every brain was a sex
maniac" (3). Milvy leaves you with concluding that "These are not people to
envy, not people one would want to be" (3). By reading this quote, I think that it
will make people want to read Moore's books and help with the understanding of each
character.
Alesya Oleynik
I. Phil Nel, a professor of English at The College of Charleston, wrote a great book
review of Birds of America by Lorrie Moore on Sunday, October 25, 1998. When referring to
her work, he wrote, "Moore's current collection of stories combines sharp wit and
gentle sadness, deep pain and wry humor in a manner more nuanced and fully realized that
anything she had written thus far. And he was correct in writing that about Moore, for she
has written each story with a unique twist, and her characters show very great emotional
depth. These stories don't just shift from being funny to touching but from being both
funny and touching at the same time. Phil Nel also wrote, "Her use of unusual
metaphors wrenches words form their expected meanings, finding something unique in
situations that, in lesser hands, would become clichés". He also mentions something
about Lorrie Moore, that is very different than most short stories, her endings. They
leave you pondering a thought, and trying to finish the story, the way we want it to end,
and not the way it should be.
II. Heather Lee Schroeder, a librarian for The Capital Times, wrote a review
on Birds of America on October 9, 1998, but with a different point of view. She
believes that this book is a very difficult collection of stories by Lorrie Moore.
Schroeder stated, "Moore's command of language and keen sense of observation cannot
fail her". This is quite true, for when reading Moore's stories, one will like some,
and greatly dislike others due to the way it was written and put together. Another
critique of Schroeder's was that Moore, " (has) taken the discussion outward, beyond
the fragile boundaries of the interior, and discovered that a whole other world exists-one
full of family, sick children and uncertain futures". When reading Moore's stories,
some of them one could greatly relate to because it involves people's daily lives, and
they are parallel to ours in one way or the other. Reading this book will greatly make one
think and ponder about the situations that some of the characters have to go through.
Reading about someone else's problems makes it easier to solve it when it's read and
thought about. Like Schroeder, I urge others to read Lorrie Moore's Birds of America and
see the great collection of stories put together.
Shawnee Pickerel
www.sound.media.mit.edu/`upwe/lorrie.html
This website is an opinion site of Lorrie Moore's earlier works. It tells a little bit
about each of her books and novels. It also tells slightly about her career and that she
teaches at University of Wisconsin. The writer of the site also explains his feelings on
the style of writing that Lorrie Moore projects in her writing. He put in two examples of
her works to try to better explain his ideas. His opinion is that she is powerful and
clever by saying "You go from this jovial banter with the author to this sudden,
unbearable deepest confession of dark and terrible truths." The sit is informational
and helps give a person a stronger sense and understanding on the style of Lorrie Moore's
writing.
www.januarymagazine.com/fiction/birdsof.html The articles on the website is a review
written by Holy Kulak. The article tells how talented and creative Lorrie Moore is in her
writing style. In the review Kulak explained the events of some of her favorite stories
out of Birds of America. Kulak also was very descriptive herself in her opinion
of Lorrie Moore. She stated that, "Lorrie Moore is an entertaining, imaginative
writer who probes universal preoccupations with insight, humor and inestimable wit."
This is the best description of Lorrie Moore's writing in my research. Kulak's whole point
of the article is to show how different and wonderful Lorrie Moore's style and techniques
of writing are. The article also gave a good summary of the story we are doing for our
presentation.
Links to other sites:
Moore, Lorrie. Birds of America.
<http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/ncw/lmoore.htm>. 20 Feb. 2001 Moore, Lorrie. Birds
of America. <http://www.emerson.edu/playshares/fall1998/moore_profile.html>. 20 Feb.
2001 Moore, Lorrie. Birds of America
<http://bookbrowse.com/dyn_/title/titleID/384.htm>. 20 Feb. 2001 Moore, Lorrie.
Birds of America <http://sound.media.mit.edu/~dpwe/lorrie.html>. 20 Feb. 2001 Moore,
Lorrie. Birds of America
<http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.cgi?isbn=0679445978>. 20 Feb.2001 Moore,
Lorrie. Birds of America http://alindsay. <www.media.mit.edu/~sjc15/lorriel.htm>. 20
Feb. 2001 . http://coolmemes.com/reader/lmoore.htm http://www.3w-thriller.de/MooreLorrie.htm
http://www.centralbooking.com/moore/links.htm http://www.babab.com/no03/lorrie_moore.htm (Spanish review)
www.januarymagazine.com/fiction/birdsof.html www.bookbrowser.com/review/MooreLorrie/birds.html.
www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1111/1791_229/55266676/p1/article.jhmtl
www.finarticles.com/cf_9/m1111/1791_299/55266675/p1/articlejhmtl?term=Lorrie+Mo-ore
www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.cgi?isbn=0679445978 www.dail.umn.edu/ae/print/1198/33/story/ww2.html
www.salonmagazine.com/book/int/1998/10/cov_27int.html
www.seattleweekly.com/features/9839/books-hall.shtml
<alindsay.www.media.mit.edu/~sjc15/loorie.html>
<alindsay.www.media.mit.edu/~sjc15/moorereview.html> http://soundmedia.mit.edu/NCW/lmoore.htm
http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/NCW/lmoore.htm http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/20/specials/moore.html
http://www.coolmemes.com/reader/lmoore.htm http://eurpoe.cnn.com/books/news/9812/07/birds.america.salon/index2.html http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/20/reviews/980920.20mcmanut.htm..
4 March 2001 http://loldsite.captimes.com/book_birds_of_america_100998.htm Moore,
Lorrie. Birds of America http://www.ksu.edu/english/nelp/revies/moore.html Moore, Lorrie.
Birds of America http://www.women.com/entertainment/books/reviews/d1016books2.html Moore,
Lorrie. Birds of America
<http://www.screamingreviews.com/books/1999/09/13/Uwire/harvest_Uwire9372769255765768.html
Moore, Lorrie. Who will run the Frog Hospital? http://www.nytimes.com/boods/98/09/20/specials/moore-frog.html
Moore, Lorrie. Who will run the Frog Hospital?
www.jenniferdavidson.com/bookreviews.htm#frog
Moore, Lorrie. Self Help.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/20/specials/moore-help.html
Moore, Lorrie. Anagrams.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/20/specials/moore-anagrams.html
Moore, Lorrie. Like Life.
<http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/20/spcials/moore-life.html>
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