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See What Can Be Done
See What Can Be Done: Essays, Criticism, and Commentary | Lorrie Moore
5 posts | 3 read | 13 to read
A welcome surprise: more than fifty prose pieces, gathered together for the first time, by one of America's most revered and admired novelists and short-story writers, whose articles, essays, and cultural commentary--appearing in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harper's Magazine, and elsewhere--have been parsing the political, artistic, and media idiom for the last three decades. From Lorrie Moore's earliest reviews of novels by Margaret Atwood and Nora Ephron, to an essay on Ezra Edelman's 2016 O.J. Simpson documentary, and in between: Moore on the writing of fiction (the work of V. S. Pritchett, Don DeLillo, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Munro, Stanley Elkin, Dawn Powell, Nicholson Baker, et al.) . . . on the continuing unequal state of race in America . . . on the shock of the shocking GOP . . . on the dangers (and cruel truths) of celebrity marriages and love affairs . . . on the wilds of television (The Wire, Friday Night Lights, Into the Abyss, Girls, Homeland, True Detective, Making a Murderer) . . . on the (d)evolving environment . . . on terrorism, the historical imagination, and the world's newest form of novelist . . . on the lesser (and larger) lives of biography and the midwifery between art and life (Anas Nin, Marilyn Monroe, John Cheever, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Eudora Welty, Bernard Malamud, among others) . . . and on the high art of being Helen Gurley Brown . . . and much, much more. "Fifty years from now, it may well turn out that the work of very few American writers has as much to say about what it means to be alive in our time as that of Lorrie Moore" (Harper's Magazine).
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Graciouswarriorprincess
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I am starting this tonight. I can‘t wait to read her essays in this book about Obama and the ones about Margaret Atwood!

Nute I like her writing! 5y
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rachellayown
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I‘ve been the worst Litsy-ian ever and haven‘t checked in for over a month, but I wanted to see if any wise and well read soul might have some advice for me. I waited for these two books to come in at the library and I was so excited to get them, but they‘re long and I‘m not really grabbed by either and am thinking about abandoning them both. I know I can always pick them up again later, but any thoughts on either of these two?

LauraBeth Well since the Lorrie Moore book is essays, you can dip in and out of that without worrying about reading the entire thing. I‘m currently skipping around in it. I‘ve heard GREAT things about The Female Persuasion - I‘d read 5-10 pages and see if it hooks you. 6y
rachellayown Good point @LauraBeth. I thought I‘d skip around the Moore book before abandoning it and read anything that sounds good. As for the Wolitzer, I only read the first few pages but felt like it could go either way. 6y
RohitSawant Great to see you back! 6y
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BookishTrish I‘ve also heard amazing things about 6y
Reggie The protagonist, Greer, comes off sooooo whiny in the Wolitzer but if you can hang on until the 2nd half, the book becomes worth. 6y
rachellayown Thanks @rohit-sawant! 6y
rachellayown I have too @BookishTrish but my TBR is enormous!!! 6y
rachellayown Thanks for the insight @Reggie. I think I‘ll likely come back to it when I have more time! 6y
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LauraBeth
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I LOVE Lorrie Moore. I still remember sitting on the floor at the Astor Place Barnes & Noble in NYC (RIP) one winter night and reading Birds Of America in one sitting (it was 1998 and I was probably too poor to buy it at the time).

saresmoore ♥️ What a wonderful memory! 6y
Bette U have a giant dog lurking in your house. 😂 is that Bitsy? 6y
LauraBeth @saresmoore last week at church I asked a woman, “Have we met before - are you new?” And she was all: “I‘ve been coming since January! We‘ve met several times...”🤦‍♀️ But hey - I can vividly recall all of my bookish experiences from 20 years ago... 😂 6y
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LauraBeth @Bette the one and only! 6y
saresmoore @LauraBeth I can‘t tell you how much I relate to that! It‘s rough being memorable & personable with a bad memory for people. My husband remembers everyone, though, so I‘m usually his shadow at church. He briefs me in the car on the way home. 😆 6y
Lmstraubie That's a great picture 🐶 and a fantastic story 6y
Kappadeemom Bitsy has a doughnut around her neck 😜🐶 6y
RohitSawant Great story. 💜 I've been meaning to read Birds Of America for so long! And that picture! 😍 6y
LauraBeth @Lmstraubie thanks ☺️☺️ 6y
LauraBeth @Kappadeemom Bitsy got into an entire box of Little Debbie zebra cakes today - so...😂 6y
LauraBeth @thanks @rohit-sawant ☺️☺️ 6y
Kappadeemom Aw, bless! I hope she doesn‘t get sick. My dog just ate my Cool Ranch Doritos and my cat ate a chocolate doughnut today 😂😂 6y
ApoptyGina69 Love Lorrie Moore too! I heard an interview with Daniel Handler and he recommended 6y
LauraBeth @ApoptyGina69 I liked that one! I‘d like to re-read because it‘s been almost 25 years since I read it... 6y
DebinHawaii Oh Bitsy! 🐶❤️ 6y
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mrozzz
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Well that was a surprisingly lighthearted & fun conversation between author Lorrie Moore and NYT critic Wesley Morris! Absolutely a delight. The event ran long because they had so much to discuss! I‘m certainly looking forward to her new book... 😄👌🏻

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Allietaylor16
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Cue the squeals and happy dance! I love her!