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Original poster

A Gate at The Stairs...ahundredtimes, where are you??

50 replies

MayorNaze · 09/04/2010 22:13

i have had to get out of bed and go and find the laptop as i have just finished this book. i am also now disturbed...

but i think it was very good.

i really wasn't sure where it was going for a while, possibly some kind of eugenics kind of theme...but obv not. found the susan and john revelation hugely traumatic actually.

dammit someone come and talk to me - am all by myself as dh is away!!!

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Original poster
MayorNaze · 09/04/2010 22:14

oh yes and don't read this thread if you don't want to know what happens btw.

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Original poster
MayorNaze · 09/04/2010 22:18

do i want to read anything else by lorrie moore?

oh someone somewhere must be able to talk about this with me!!!

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SuSylvester · 09/04/2010 22:19

oh sshh
some fucker on here made me buy a crap book about ww1 and the Oirish and it was shit
so am cross

Original poster
MayorNaze · 09/04/2010 22:23

no, no shushing. i need to discuss literature. and it wasn't me who recommended ww1. i doubt i ever would tbh

now detraumatise me or go away...

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SuSylvester · 09/04/2010 22:26

it was the irish thing i hated
all in dialect
by that guy who wrote one abotu a mad woman ...sebasitan soemoen

Original poster
MayorNaze · 09/04/2010 22:28

oh they were 2 different books? did you not find after reading irish dialect you went round talking wth an irish accent for a bit?

or maybe just me.

anyway MY book. i am feeling all raw and my face looks like that though obv not yellow.

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Original poster
MayorNaze · 09/04/2010 22:29

do you mean the secret scripture guy? i read that. was ok. but bit predictable.

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Original poster
MayorNaze · 09/04/2010 22:39

right.

Tassie - in some ways a classic coming of age novel with naive eccentric heroine drifting...

Sarah - brittle

Ed - not sure for a while if he even existed.

first adoption meeting? did they reject because of the tag? did they not know about that?

spoilers alert left right and centre btw

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Original poster
MayorNaze · 09/04/2010 22:41

very odd wwit the staff suddenly appearing (Noel and Liza)- what was significance? did sarah not look after child because she couldn't bear to? or was she just normal WOHM? same with ed - passive on purpose? or just natural role?

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Original poster
MayorNaze · 09/04/2010 22:49

horrible, the part about gabriel. very vivid

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Original poster
MayorNaze · 09/04/2010 22:58

ok

that will do for tonight.

off to read something cheery.

but will be back...

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DecorHate · 10/04/2010 08:46

Oops sorry Su that was me I think! Shame you didn't like it (I don't remember the dialect thing but am from Ireland originally....)

SuSylvester · 10/04/2010 09:03

well tis not dialect but a bit " to be sure"
gah
halfway through i thought " id ont care " ( dditto that one abotu the worst husband in history - wedlock)

Original poster
MayorNaze · 11/04/2010 19:20

i have recovered somewhat...

but still up for discussion

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Original poster
MayorNaze · 12/04/2010 14:48

where are you ahundredtimes? i read it specially for you...

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SuSylvester · 12/04/2010 14:55

long time no see

Original poster
MayorNaze · 12/04/2010 14:59

afternoon susan

i have been hanging out in parks judging unsuitable footwear. and freezing my ass off. had to borrow ds's jumper today. an interesting look.

have you read this book yet?

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realitychick · 12/04/2010 17:53

Am about to read A Gate at the Stairs if that's any help. I love Lorrie Moore. Normally she's really funny. Anagrams is heartbreaking and funny. Wasn't so keen on Frog Hospital but her short story collections are fantastic.

Going to see her read and talk on Wednesday night. Can't wait.

Original poster
MayorNaze · 12/04/2010 21:21

ooh - report back realitychick pls

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ahundredtimes · 13/04/2010 17:45

Aha! Have found you.

Don't understand your questions. Will go and have another look, hang on

ahundredtimes · 13/04/2010 17:49

It's a shocking read.

I love Lorrie Moore, I think she's brilliant. She's funny and dark all at once - and she really understands language I think. How people use it, often in quite a brittle, witty way, to try and keep dreadful truths at bay.

What devastated me (I think) was how dangerous it made everything feel. Perilous. I thought the Gabriel bit was extraordinary - but also their attitude to the child was so ambivalent. And how dangerous that ambivalence is.

And then Tassie is slowly growing-up - but there's something disturbing about how the details slowly accumulate, how arbitrary and meandering it is in a way.

And the restaurant menus!

And the bit at the end where she's dressed as a bird, whizzing about on her bike. I was like this

ahundredtimes · 13/04/2010 17:56

I didn't find Ed passive, but I did find him absent. As indeed he becomes. He was all charm wasn't he? I liked that.

Her working was brilliant I thought - and all that care at the restaurant too. I loved it when Tassie went and ate there.

They were both so dangerous, weren't they?

ahundredtimes · 13/04/2010 18:02

And dangerous because of their self-interest I guess, in a way that felt plausible but was ultimately REALLY scary.

You're not here. I'm talking to myself. I'm frightening myself

Original poster
MayorNaze · 13/04/2010 19:38

i am here!!!

i thought ed hitting on tassie at the end kinda summed him up really.

you wonder why they stayed together and efectively punish themselves through losing another child - and then split up?? i mean you know, but why split up after that? aggghh - know what i want to commenton but cant word it properly...

yes, restaurant a good descriptive mean - the attention to detail with the menu yet no time to take care of the child?

aaaagghhhh!!!

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MrsShu · 13/04/2010 19:38

hahahah
i am going to see a hundred and KISS her on the chops

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