Moore, Lorrie

(US, 1957– )

Moore is best known for her collections of short stories. In Self Help (1985) she emphasizes her characters’ neuroses and obsessions by playfully using the language of popular self-help philosophies in contemporary America. Her stories are finely crafted, using moments in ordinary lives to draw together whole lifetimes of disappointment and loss. Although her tone is wry, Moore's rendering of individual human dilemmas is extraordinarily sympathetic. Like Life (1990) explores the contradictions and silences within a series of relationships in a collection of moving stories which again highlight the tragedies and limitations of ordinary lives. The typical protagonist in the collection Birds of America (1999) is a woman in mid-life coming to terms with life's compromises.

Moore has published two novels, Anagrams (1986) and Who Will Run The Frog Hospital? (1994), in which Berie recalls the summer of 1972 when the bond between her and her best friend is shattered by the events of a restless summer.

Amy Bloom, Alice Munro, Anne Tyler.

See SHORT STORIES  DJ