Bark: Stories.
Lorrie Moore.
Faber. 2014. 192 pp.
ISBN 978 0 571 27390 4.
Ira, in the opening story, is a newly divorced Jew who begins a disturbed sort of relationship with another divorcee. His wry wit pervades his perceptions of life, but his meetings with Zora, always with her taciturn teenage son in tow, become decidedly odd.
Teenage Nickie's mum, on the other hand, is a wonderfully zany but normal, slightly puzzled, single parent. Her interaction with Nickie, she remarks at one point, "contained more sibling banter than it should have." Her response to Nicki's normal teenage outbursts is to disrobe, slowly, so that Nicky flees in disgust. And faith, she muses, was invented so that parents could "raise teenagers without dying." Moore has a sharp eye for the weirdness of society, and the country wedding Nickie and her mum attend is a rich source of humor. The gun-firing bikers who roar up in the middle of proceedings are just glorious icing on the comic cake.
Only one story left me baffled. It has a sort of existential madness and revolves around a weird visit by three women to the house of a newly dead friend, a ghostly re-appearance, and one woman's bizarre response to it all.
There are only eight stories in this book, but that is enough to show Moore's originality, her ability to see the absurdities beneath every-day situations, and her sharp skill at making us laugh in what is, too often, a frightening world.
Editor Note: Thinking about buying Bark or another book today? Please click the book cover link above. As an Amazon Associate, Eclectica Magazine earns a small percentage of qualifying purchases made after a reader clicks through to Amazon using any of our book cover links. It's a painless way to contribute to our growth and success. Thanks for the help!
