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Birds of America: Stories (Vintage…
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Birds of America: Stories (Vintage Contemporaries) (original 1998; edition 2010)

by Lorrie Moore

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
2,447496,117 (3.96)83
Fiction. Literature. Short Stories. HTML:??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.

New York Times Book of the Year 
A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
Winner of the Salon Book Award
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 t
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Member:redtop
Title:Birds of America: Stories (Vintage Contemporaries)
Authors:Lorrie Moore
Info:Vintage (2010), Edition: 1, Paperback, 304 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:None

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Birds of America: Stories by Lorrie Moore (1998)

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» See also 83 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 49 (next | show all)
These are great stories, but I imagine I'd like them more if I were older. The humor, the settings, the characters, a lot of what was going on seemed dated to me. Beautiful writing, some great jokes, but not my favorite book of literary shorts ever. ( )
  LibrarianDest | Jan 3, 2024 |
Liked it very much, but it seemed a little less polished than “Bark” which I really loved. (A more recent collection of short stories.) Great stories and great characters, all a little weird but very human and I felt very sympathetic. ( )
  steve02476 | Jan 3, 2023 |
casual heartbreak ( )
  stravinsky | Aug 29, 2022 |
Only read 3 stories .. and yes, they were pretty great. but at the end of the day.... eh....? ( )
  apende | Jul 12, 2022 |
This collection was just okay. Pales in comparison to Moore’s earlier works. There was only one story that I thought was really good. ( )
  samanddiane1999 | Jun 22, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 49 (next | show all)
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Epigraph
Dedication
This book is for my sister and for my parents and for Benjamin
First words
In her last picture, the camera had lingered at the hip, the naked hip, and even though it wasn't her hip, she acquired a reputation for being willing.
Quotations
The stages of bereavement: anger, denial, bargaining, Haagen-Dazs, rage. (four calling birds, three french hens)
"Life is a long journey across a wide country," he said. "Sometimes the weather's good. Sometimes it's bad. Sometimes it's so bad, your car goes off the road." (four calling birds, three french hens)
"It's a myth, the high suicide rates around Christmas. It's the homicide rate that's high. Holiday homicide. All that time the family suddenly gets to spend together, and then bam, that eggnog." (four calling birds, three french hens)
"He had limited notes to communicate his needs," she said. "He had his 'food' mew, and I'd follow him to his dish. He had his 'out' mew, and I'd follow him to the door. He had his 'brush' mew, and I'd go with him to the cupboard where his brush was kept. And then he had his existential mew, where I'd follow him vaguely around the house as he wandered in and out of rooms, not knowing exactly what or why." (four calling birds, three french hens)
What was Christmas if not a giant mixed metaphor? What was it about if not the mysteries of interspecies love--God's for man! Love had sought a chasm to leap across and landed itself right here: the Holy Ghost among the barn animals, the teacher's pet sent to be adored and then to die. (four calling birds, three french hens)
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Fiction. Literature. Short Stories. HTML:??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.

New York Times Book of the Year 
A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
Winner of the Salon Book Award
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 t

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