Birds of America: Stories (Vintage Contemporaries)

**“Fluid, cracked, mordant, colloquial.... Stand[s] by itself as one of our funniest, most telling anatomies of human love and vulnerability.” —__The New York Times Book Review__** The celebrated collection of twelve stories from one of the finest authors at work today.A __New York Times__ Book of the Year A National Book Critics Circle Award FinalistWinner of the __Salon__Book AwardA __Village Voice__Book of the Year“A marvelous collection.... Her stories are tough, lean, funny, and metaphysical.... **Birds of America** has about it a wild beauty that simply makes one feel more connected to life.” —__The Boston Globe__“At once sad, funny, lyrical and prickly, **Birds of America** attests to the deepening emotional chiaroscuro of her wise and beguiling work.” —__The New York Times__ “Stunning.... There’s really no one like Moore; in a perfect marriage of art form and mind, she has made the short story her own.” —__Milwaukee Journal Sentinel__ “**Birds of America** stands as a major work of American short fiction.... Absolutely mastered.” —__Elle__ “Wonderful.... These stories impart such terrifying truths.” —__Philadelphia Inquirer__ “Lorrie Moore soars with **Birds of America**.... A marvelous, fiercely funny book.” —__Newsweek__“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__ NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the bestselling author of A Gate at the Stairs: A collection of twelve stories that's “one of our funniest, most telling anatomies of human love and vulnerability'(The New York Times Book Review).A volume by one of the most exciting writers at work today, the acclaimed author of Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Self-Help. Stories remarkable in their range, emotional force, and dark laughter, and in the sheer beauty and power of their language.From the opening story,'Willing'—about a second-rate movie actress in her thirties who has moved back to Chicago, where she makes a seedy motel room her home and becomes involved with a mechanic who has not the least idea of who she is as a human being—Birds of America unfolds a startlingly brilliant series of portraits of the unhinged, the lost, the unsettled of our America.In the story'Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People'('There is nothing as complex in the world—no flower or stone—as a single hello from a human being'), a woman newly separated from her husband is on a long-planned trip through Ireland with her mother. When they set out on an expedition to kiss the Blarney Stone, the image of wisdom and success that her mother has always put forth slips away to reveal the panicky woman she really is.In'Charades,'a family game at Christmas is transformed into a hilarious and insightful (and fundamentally upsetting) revelation of crumbling family ties.In'Community Life,'a shy, almost reclusive, librarian, Transylvania-born and Vermont-bred, moves in with her boyfriend, the local anarchist in a small university town, and all hell breaks loose. And in'Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens,'a woman who goes through the stages of grief as she mourns the death of her cat (Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Häagen Dazs, Rage) is seen by her friends as really mourning other issues: the impending death of her parents, the son she never had, Bosnia. It's fitting that Christmas should degenerate to this, its barest bones. The family has begun to seem to Therese like a pack of thespians anyway; everyone arrives, performs for one another, catches early flights out, to Logan or O'Hare. Probably it's appropriate that a party game should literally appear and insert itself in the guise of a holiday tradition (which it isn't). Usually, no one in Therese's family expresses much genuine feeling anyway; everyone aims instead--though gamely!--for enactments. -- Each year now, the stage is a new one--their aging parents, in their restless old age, buying and selling town houses, moving steadily southward from Maine. The real estate is Therese's mother's idea. Since he's retired, Therese's father has focused more on bird feeders; he is learning how to build them. "Who knows what he'll do next?" Her mother sighs. "He'll probably start carving designs into the side of the house." -- This year, they are in Bethesda, Maryland, near where Andrew, Therese's brother, lives. Andrew works as an electrical engineer and is married to a sweet, pretty, part-time private detective named Pam. Pam is pixie-haired and smiley. Who would ever suspect her of discreetly gathering confidences and facts for one's adversaries? She freezes hams. She makes Jell-O salad days in advance. She and Andrew are the parents of a one-and-a-half-year-old named Winnie, who already reads. -- Reads the reading videos on TV, but reads. -- Everyone has divided into teams, four and four, and written the names of famous people, songs, films, plays, books on scraps of wrapping paper torn off the gifts hours earlier. It is another few hours until Therese and her husband Ray's flight, at 4:30, from National Airport. "Yes," says Therese, "I guess we'll have to forgo the 'Averell Harriman: Statesman for All Seasons' exhibit." -- "I don't know why you couldn't catch a later flight," says T .. A New York Times Book of the Year A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist Winner of the Salon Book Award A Village Voice Book of the Year

Birds of America is the celebrated collection of twelve stories from Lorrie Moore, one of the finest authors at work today.
 
“Fluid, cracked, mordant, colloquial.... Stand[s] by itself as one of our funniest, most telling anatomies of human love and vulnerability.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A marvelous collection.... Her stories are tough, lean, funny, and metaphysical.... Birds of America has about it a wild beauty that simply makes one feel more connected to life.” —The Boston Globe
 
“At once sad, funny, lyrical and prickly, Birds of America attests to the deepening emotional chiaroscuro of her wise and beguiling work.” —The New York Times
 
“Stunning.... There’s really no one like Moore; in a perfect marriage of art form and mind, she has made the short story her own.” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
 
“Birds of America stands as a major work of American short fiction.... Absolutely mastered.” —Elle
 
“Wonderful.... These stories impart such terrifying truths.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
 
“Lorrie Moore soars with Birds of America.... A marvelous, fiercely funny book.” —Newsweek
 
“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

“Fluid, cracked, mordant, colloquial.... Stand[s] by itself as one of our funniest, most telling anatomies of human love and vulnerability.” — The New York Times Book Review The celebrated collection of twelve stories from one of the finest authors at work today. A New York Times Book of the Year A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist Winner of the Salon Book Award A Village Voice Book of the Year “A marvelous collection.... Her stories are tough, lean, funny, and metaphysical.... Birds of America has about it a wild beauty that simply makes one feel more connected to life.” — The Boston Globe “At once sad, funny, lyrical and prickly, Birds of America attests to the deepening emotional chiaroscuro of her wise and beguiling work.” — The New York Times “Stunning.... There’s really no one like Moore; in a perfect marriage of art form and mind, she has made the short story her own.” — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “ Birds of America stands as a major work of American short fiction.... Absolutely mastered.” — Elle “Wonderful.... These stories impart such terrifying truths.” — Philadelphia Inquirer “Lorrie Moore soars with Birds of America .... A marvelous, fiercely funny book.” — Newsweek “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 Twelve stories on human relations. In Charades, a traditional family game on Christmas turns sour when the charades hit too close to home, while in Agnes of Iowa, a woman's ambition to be worldly remains unfulfilled by an encounter with a poet from Africa. Description: 291 p. ; 22 cm. Contents: Willing -- Which is more than I can say about some people -- Dance in America -- Community life -- Agnes of Iowa -- Charades -- Four calling birds, three French hens -- Beautiful grade -- What you want to do fine -- Real estate -- People like that are the only people here: canonical babbling in peed onk -- Terrific mother. Responsibility: by Lorrie Moore. More information: Contributor biographical information Sample text Publisher description