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Bark: Stories
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Bark: Stories
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Bark: Stories
Ebook200 pages2 hours

Bark: Stories

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this ebook

NATIONAL BESTSELLER •  A collection of stories by one of America’s most beloved and admired short-story writers that explores the passage of time and summons up its inevitable sorrows and hilarious pitfalls to reveal an exquisite, singular wisdom. •  “Uncanny.... Moving.... A powerful collection.” —The Washington Post

Here are people beset, burdened, buoyed; protected by raising teenage children; dating after divorce; facing the serious illness of a longtime friend; setting forth on a romantic assignation abroad, having it interrupted mid-trip, and coming to understand the larger ramifications and the impossibility of the connection ... stories that show people coping with large dislocation in their lives, with risking a new path to answer the desire to be in relation—to someone….
LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 25, 2014
ISBN9780385351713
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Bark: Stories
Author

Lorrie Moore

LORRIE MOORE is the author of the story collections Bark,Birds of America,Like Life, and Self-Help and the novels Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Anagrams. Her work has won honors from the Lannan Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the Irish Times International Prize for Fiction, the Rea Award for the Short Story, and the PEN/Malamud Award.

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Reviews for Bark

Rating: 3.543103475287356 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

174 ratings17 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Joy's review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book of short stories. Moore always picks just the right words to achieve a picture, meaning and understanding. The characters are all hapless and not anyone you can admire, but all people I felt I knew or could meet. Moore's wicked and dry sense of humor shines through in every story. A great glimpse into lives I could never imagine.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lorrie Moore is one of my favorite writers. No one captures the awkward things we wish we didn't say out loud quite like she does. There's plenty of every-day grotesque and doomed romance to please any fan. My only complaint was that the volume was short, and some of the stories forgettable or too rooted in current events of a year or two ago.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a terrific book. I loved every story in it. Great writer, very funny without any cruelty.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The trials of a new relationship, funerals and second weddings, the failings of commitment, awkward dinner conversations, and rat kings as metaphors-- Lorrie Moore's collection of stories were masterfully written, peppered with insights and descriptions that had me highlighting. From the NYT:"Certainly Moore’s characters’ lives are studies in disconnection. Their marriages and relationships fall apart, their loved ones die; aloneness is the cream in their coffee, the salt in their stew." I will look forward to exploring more work from this author.Some good lines included below:"Unless you have a life of great importance,” she said, “regrets are stupid, crumpled-up tickets to a circus that has already left town.”"With his birthday coming up, he went to the doctor for his triennial annual physical and, mentioning a short list of nebulous symptoms, he was given dismissive diagnoses of “benign vertigo,” “pseudo gout,” and perhaps “migraine aura,” the names, no doubt, of rock bands."Of course later she would understand that all this meant he was involved with another woman, but at the time, protecting her own vanity and sanity, she was working with two hypotheses only: brain tumor or space alien."Surely that was why faith had been invented: to raise teenagers without dying. Although of course it was also why death was invented: to escape teenagers altogether.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In a sea of mediocre as well as good offerings, sometimes a great one comes along that forces you to contemplate all of the emotions that stories can evoke. Lorrie Moore again has crafted powerful stories that are like woven objects, where the material is intricately connected.

    The stories run the gamut from dark to darkly humorous to sometimes even gruesome (one image pops quickly to mind). Perhaps only in one story in this set did I feel anything even remotely like being let down, but that was simply because it was not quite as stirring or thoughtful as the others in its midst. That said, that story is far superior to most other stories and novels on the market today.

    Another gem from Lorrie Moore.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I was pretty disappointed by Bark, mainly because of my colossal expectations. I loved Birds of America and A Gate at the Stairs and was looking forward to another burst of witty, sharp and engaging stories to blast through over the weekend. There was still plenty of wit there - lots of clever punchlines and sneaky wordplay - but something about the tone was off and left me grasping for meaning. The stories felt more like exercises - like the feeling had been sucked out of them leaving brittle, hollow constructions that gleam on the outside but have nothing beneath the surface. The writing is brilliant in bursts, but this is a definite step down from her previous work.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Lorrie Moore's Bark are urban short stories without any underlying theme. The writing is extremely good but does not always convey what the character needs to say. An average read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    For book snobs, this one is a winner. Uber-literary, at times over the top for my tastes, but several stories (including the title story, Bark) were *so* perfect. Moore, when she speaks to your personal situation, hits the nail on the head. Eerily so, but delightfully so as well. An insanely talented writer.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a fantastic book. To use one of her own words, Lorrie Moore is the master of the wry short story. She manages a balance that seems masterful yet fully contemporary, between humor and sadness, the humor always easy and jokey, but the sadness deep and underlying everything.Maybe one or two of these stories seems a little slight in comparison to the rest, but as a whole this is a marvelous book, and two or three of the stories are as good as I've ever read. This is wonderful work that is compulsively easy to read and yet rewards re-reading with marvels anew.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lorrie Moore is an excellent writer. I have read 4 previous books by her(one novel) and she seems to do most of her work with short stories. This collection is short(less than 200 pages) but writing is full of wit and interesting situations. I especially like the first story which was 45 pages and saw it as a possible novel. One good line she has the really sums her up is a quote by Robert Louis Stevenson "marriage one long conversation". Her character's comment is "Of course he died when he was 44,so he had no idea ow long the conversation could really get to be". There are lines like that throughout this collection. A good read
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    not sure how I haven't read any Lorrie Moore until now but will definitely be reading more.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    If the Nobel Prize committee had been sensible enough to ask for my opinion, the 2013 literature prize would have gone to Lorrie Moore rather than Alice Munro. Not to knock Munro, but in my estimation Moore's short stories are more real, more full of honesty and life, and more of a pleasure to read than those of Munro or any other writer.Moore has been criticized by some for being too jokey, for writing characters who are too smart-alecky. ("Do you ever think of Dad?" a girl asks her divorced mother. "Dad who?" the woman answers.) In the midst of all sorts of painful circumstances, her characters always seem to have a ready supply of witticisms and an entertainingly skewed perspective on their situation. To my mind, this is not a thing to be criticized, but rather is the very core of what makes Moore's stories both delightful and deeply moving. When life plays cruel jokes with us (as it inevitably does), some people fight back with jokes of their own. Humor is their way of standing up to life, their way of struggling on, even when the battle is unwinnable. And for me, these are the sorts of people whose travails and struggles and unhappinesses I want to read about. When I read a Lorrie Moore story, I feel that her characters -- even while they're making me laugh -- are teaching me how to live.Having said this, I should probably point out that not all of the stories in this collection follow the format of characters facing hardship with wit and humor. "The Juniper Tree" is about a woman dealing with the death of a friend, but it's lacking in the usual dosage of Moore jokiness (and is quite a beautiful story nevertheless). And in a couple of other stories the characters aren't suffering through any great hardship -- rather they're simply going through the ragged stuff of life, reflecting on what has brought them to where they are and what lies ahead.There are 8 short stories in this collection, and to my eye each one is a beautiful, flawless gem. Each one stands among the best short stories -- and the best fiction -- I've ever read. This book is Lorrie Moore's first new collection of short stories in fifteen years, and as such it is a thing to be treasured, to be handled with loving care and given a place of honor in your bookshelf. But most of all, it's a book that should be read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Let me say first that I am a big fan of short stories and of Lorrie Moore's earlier collections. This one, not so much. It left me feeling . . . well, nothing, or maybe a better word would be empty. The writing is fine enough, and the characters are all unique and well fleshed out, so my lack of engagement with this collection is due to taste or my current mood rather than to bad writing. I just didn't feel like interacting with this bunch of depressed, manipulative, angry, aimless, cheating, or soulless people. Overall, a disappointment.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A set of tightly written & observed stories on marriage & divorce. Wonderful writing but don’t expect any happy endings.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It seems that a lot of collections that get rave reviews from others do nothing for me. There's this dry, detached style that seems to be getting a lot of attention lately, and I don't see what all the fuss is about. I'm talking about stuff published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and literary publications like Tin House or One Story. Side note: I've found stories to love in all of the aforementioned publications, so please don't think I'm knocking them. It's just that sometimes I read something and think, You're a world-class journal and can choose from the best of the best, and this is what you chose to run this month?! And then I wonder if I'm missing something because it falls so terribly flat for me.This, sadly, is how I feel about Lorrie Moore. Is she a bad writer? Not in the least. But her writing makes me feel...well, nothing. Moore has a solid vocabulary, sure, and she tells stories about real things happening to real people, and her work isn't bad, per se. I just wouldn't recommend it. And I can't put my finger on why. I crave short fiction that just needs to be devoured and that, by the end, leaves me stunned by what I've just experienced. For me, with the exception of one story, this collection didn't come anywhere near my admittedly-high standards.A bit more (more/Moore! ha!) about the collection itself. The stories are mostly realistic ("The Juniper Tree" features a seance-y scene that's sort of dreamy and surreal) and focus on the personal aspects of the everyday: marriage, divorce, single parenting, mental illness. Basically, this is a collection of people surviving all the things life throws as them. Although the subject matter isn't bad, the characters aren't likable. And I'm not talking about that King Joffrey, love-to-hate-them kind of thing. I simply didn't care about any of them. (Maybe liking characters is too important to me. I'll have to examine this in a future blog post.)The one exception: "Wings," an excellent story about a struggling musician past her prime who gets close to an elderly neighbor in the hopes of being left an inheritance. It's full of people looking for something -- or someone -- to use, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's got the heart of a novel but the length of a short story, and it really stands out.All in all: If you've enjoyed Moore's other work, you'd probably enjoy this. (I read A Gate At the Stairs, and the style is the same.) Personally, though, I wouldn't recommend it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A wonderful grouping of eight short stories, the first by this author in many years. I liked all of them, I really do not have a favorite, don't think that has happened before. They are all such a mixture of social and political commentary, many with laugh out loud moments and others with pithy witticisms. She does a masterful job exposing the flaws I her characters and doing it in such a way that they find acceptance. The strange becomes the reality or the norm.Brilliant collection.Arc from publisher.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There are reasons to feel lucky to be alive. One of them is that Lorrie Moore is writing short stories. Amongst the eight stories collected here are enough masterpieces to make you believe all over again that Moore may be the reason that the short story was invented. And the others — well, I don’t know. It’s very possible that in a year I might come round to thinking those other stories are the real masterpieces. I’ll admit that Moore is often ahead of the curve.Some stories here have all the elements of classic Lorrie Moore. The long opening story, “Debarking”, is one of those. It is full of quirky observations, puns and half-puns and other word-play, excruciatingly poignant moments, and, well, exuberance, I guess. Even in the midst of what is really a sad or pathetic situation, there is exuberance. “Paper Losses” is another in this classic Lorrie Moore manner. Nearly priceless. Other stories, such as “Referential” show Moore in narrative dialogue with her peers, in this case Nabokov. In some stories, Moore seems frustrated, even angry, with the politics of America. There is a level of incredulousness that begins to creep in perhaps in stories such as “Foes” or “Subject to Search”. And there are yet other stories that don’t have any easy category. A story like “Wings” seems serious and anxious and possibly almost painful. It’s one of those ones that maybe, after a bit more thought, I’ll decide is actually a masterpiece. Moore’s writing is like that — it prompts more thought.Warmly recommended.