About this title: Set just after the events of September 2001, Moore's deft, lyrical novel brings readers up against the heart of racism, the shock of war, and the carelessness perpetrated against others in the name of love.
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Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf
Date Published: 2009-09-01
ISBN-13:9780375409288ISBN:0375409289
Description: New in New jacket. New hardback book. Jacket has been price clipped. We ship 6 days a week, generally within 24 hours; single CDs and DVDs upgraded to 1st class! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780375409288ISBN:0375409289
Description: New. Items ship once payments have cleared. Media mail 5-8 days Priority 2-3 days and international orders may be subject to customs clearance procedures which can cause delays. Seasonal delays can occur in postal system. International Orders which cannot ship first class or in priority flat rate will be charged additional postage. All items ship within 24 hours of receiving payment. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780375409288ISBN:0375409289
Description: New. Items ship once payments have cleared. Media mail 5-8 days Priority 2-3 days and international orders may be subject to customs clearance procedures which can cause delays. Seasonal delays can occur in postal system. International Orders which cannot ship first class or in priority flat rate will be charged additional postage. All items ship within 24 hours of receiving payment. read more
Binding: Audio CD
Publisher: BBC Audio
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781602837164ISBN:1602837163
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780375409288ISBN:0375409289
Description: New in new dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 321 p. Audience: General/trade. COLLECTIBLE. FIRST EDITION 2009. Brand New hardcover with dust jacket. Excellent condition. No remainder marks. Packaged carefully and sent promptly with free tracking number in US. read more
Edition: 1st Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf, NY
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780375409288ISBN:0375409289
Description: As New in As New Unclipped jacket. Signed by Author A bright, tight edition legibly signed by the author on the title page. DJ uncut; clean & colorful. Text firmly bound w/unmarked pages throughout. read more
Binding: Hardback
Publisher: FABER AND FABER Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780571195305ISBN:057119530X
Description: BRAND NEW HARDBACK. 336 pages. With america quietly gearing up for war in the middle east, tassie keltjin has come to university-to encounter the complex world of politics. when she takes a job as a part-time nanny to a couple who seem at once mysterious and glamorous, tassie is drawn into the life of their newly-adopted child and increasingly complicated household. (Hardback) read more
Edition: First edition. First Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780375409288ISBN:0375409289
Description: New in new dust jacket. Signed by author. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 321 p. Audience: General/trade. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. First Edition/First Printing. New book, opened only for signing. Brodart protected, ships in a box. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, NY
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780375409288ISBN:0375409289
Description: Signed by Author. Hardcover. First Edition. First Printing. 322 pages. As New in As New Dust Jacket. The author's third novel. One of the most important literary events of the year 2009. Lorrie Moore's much-awaited novel took more than a decade to conceive and write. Advance Signed Copy. Removable "Autographed Copy" metallic-silver sticker pasted on the front DJ cover. The publisher issued a very small and limited number of pre-signed copies to the trade, most of which are no longer available ... read more
Edition: First edition. First Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780375409288ISBN:0375409289
Description: Fine in fine jacket. A Novel. 322 pp. Stated First Edition. Signed by author on tipped-in sheet. "Autographed Copy" sticker on right side of dust jacket front. In her first novel in more than a decade, Moore "turns her eye on the anxiety and disconnection of post-9/11 America, on the insidiousness of racism, the blind-sidedness of war, and the recklessness thrust on others in the name of love. " (Dust jacket blurb. ) read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780375409288ISBN:0375409289
Description: New in new dust jacket. Signed by author. Brand new book, opened just for signing. First edition/first printing. Book covered and protected with a Brodart mylar cover. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 321 p. Audience: General/trade. Will ship in a box, insurance and tracking included. Please email me with any questions. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, NY
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780375409288ISBN:0375409289
Description: Signed by Author. Hardcover. First Edition. First Printing. 322 pages. As New in As New Dust Jacket. The author's third novel. One of the most important literary events of the year 2009. Lorrie Moore's much-awaited novel took more than a decade to conceive and write. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Presents Lorrie Moore's triumphant return to the novel form after a hiatus of almost fifteen years (her last book, "Birds of ... read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A Knopf
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780375409288ISBN:0375409289
Description: Fine in Fine jacket. Signed by Author Full cloth binding in cream, gilt titles. Flatsigned on title page. College town drama by the author of Birds of America. Unread as new in like DJ in Mylar.321 pp. read more
Edition: First Edition, 1st Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York, New York
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780375409288ISBN:0375409289
Description: As New in As New jacket. Signed by Author Fine. DJ in plastic cover. read more
"Some of the reviews for this book are spot-on. I really liked and read it in 2-3 days. However, to me, there were some flaws. For one, I agree with the reviewer that said all the characters have the same voice. They do. It's witty, sometimes tender, sometimes random but they're all the same. Maybe the protagonist, Tessie, attracts similar people in to her life but it would have been more real & interesting for the characters to have different personalities, rather than one witty/random comment playing off someone else's witty/random comment.
Another reviewer commented that 2 major stories are brought up in the last quarter of the book. I agree. A lot more time could have been devoted to the bombs that were dropped. Also, different storylines could have been separate books themselves. ie, the boyfriend could have been one novel all to itself. The couple Tessie works for could have been another novel.
The story has a depressing tone to it. It's set in the Midwest & a lot during winter so I'm sure that contributed (for me). And Tessie has only 1 friend who we really don't get to meet until 3/4 of the way in. And even then it's only for a brief while.
I did like the book. I liked Tessie and her wit. Some of the authors sentences made me yearn to be a writer for they were so clever and captured something perfectly.
"I think Lorrie Moore's story collection Birds of America is one of the best American short story collections of whichever century it was published in. So after waiting for years for her to write another book, I bought this one immediately. By the time I reached the last quarter of the book, I wished she had sent out a draft to her readers for our advice before publishing it!
I disagree with other writers here who feel that Tassie is a believable character, because for me, she was part of the problem with the book. Every single character (well, except maybe some of the women who work for the adoption agencies) speak in the same exact voice. I wish Moore had saved the wittiness for just a handful of characters, but instead I felt that 20-year-old Tassie and (40-something?) Sarah spoke exactly the same (not to mention Tassie's dad, brother, boyfriend, roommate, Sarah's husband and housecleaner...). This doesn't help to define Tassie as an individual, especially when she sometimes comments that her own behavior or speech is typical of young women her age. Also, did anyone else find it distractingly implausible that a college student would have only one friend (who's mostly absent)?
As a 40-something mother, I kept expecting that there would be more conflict in the relationship between Tassie and Sarah, especially given Tassie's identification with the birth mothers before the adoption and her insistence on using Emma's real name. Instead, it seemed that Tassie admired Sarah, whereas Edward is entirely one-dimensional. Just think how much weight the last two lines would have had if Tassie had really had reason to struggle with how to respond to him!
Without being able to see Tassie as a rounded, believable character, I felt that Sarah and Edward's adoption of Mary-Emma and their backstory seem to be one book, while the story of Tassie and her boyfriend and brother seems to be part of another. Maybe I need to reread to see how the two comment on each other, and why Moore has chosen to intertwine them? But from other readers' comments, I don't seem to be alone in feeling this way. In an ideal world, Lorrie Moore would make some revisions and reissue this book, because it could be absolutely brilliant."
"Laurie Moore is a highly intelligent writer with a broad command of culture and history. She imbues some of her characters with these qualities, and in A Gate at the Stairs she successfully inhabits the mind of her narrator -- Tassie Keltjin, a young college student. During a semester break, Tassie finds employment as a nanny with a couple on the verge of adopting a child. After one ill-fated attempt, the couple (Sarah and Edward Brink) receive a biracial baby who enchants Tassie even more than she enchants the Brinks.
About two-thirds of the way through this novel, the story's unfolding grinds to a halt, interrupted by about thirty pages of "clever" dialogue between (1) Tassie and her boyfriend; (2) the Brinks and their weekly multi-racial support group; (3) Tassie and her college roommate. Although this gives Moore an opportunity to toss off lots of puns, allusions, and demonstrations of cultural literacy, the conversations, which seem much more interesting to the participants than to the reader, do very little to advance the story. This gratuitous section, I think, constitutes the novel's principal weakness -- one that could have destroyed the whole work. Fortunately, Moore regains her footing with a startling revelation by Sarah to Tassie; at that point the the plot regains a momentum that carries through to the end, abetted by an improbable but memorable final chapter."
"Recently finished reading Lorrie Moore's new novel and in many ways, I liked it. The main character, Tassie, is really well written and fleshed out, and her emotional depth and her questioning and insecurities and her struggling to be an adult in the world felt great and often real. In some ways, this a story of a 20 yr. old college student that becomes a care-taker for this 2 yr. old adopted girl. She doesn't actually get adopted until say, 110 pages into the book, and in a way, I like all the build. And I like the way this story progressed and the surprises. Those Wednesday night support groups for white parents of half-black children was really funny and strange and brilliant!
But some questions. Uh, why did Moore make Tassie a 20 yr old, where many 20 yr olds do not talk and ask questions and have conversations like this. I have met many smart, well-read, self -aware, mature 20 yr olds, but there were a few moments, where it did not feel realistic for a character to behave in all these ways. It just feels intuitive. Also, why oh why was all the suspense about Edward the father? She didn't meet him upon getting hired and there was all this mystery, and then Edward is actually not a fleshed out character at all! Why is this?!
Okay, so maybe I had expectations this would be an amazing book. And it's good, but certainly not amazing. Last month, I read her stunning novel, Who Will Run The Frog Hospital? and I recommend it to everyone reading this review. Her other novel, Anagrams, is beautiful, and so different and it's full of poetry. I think Anagrams, the more I think about it, is one of my favorite novels. Haven't read Lorrie Moore? You need to put down that Harry Potter and pick up some damn gold. Read this woman."
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