So here's her latest: following a college girl, bass player, would-be childcare provider. Lorrie likes the guilt trips and the pity sinking in to her characterizations; it gives her humor bite. I love Tassie (the college girl) and her fumbling responses to Sarah, the adopting mother. I didn't feel like the breakup with the boyfriend was handled well. The flashback to Sarah's past was handled well. The novel was too divided - Moore should've done some smoothing. Her stream-of-consciousness relation of the racism-solidarity group's conversations were okay in places, but in others it seemed like stand-up comedy, not suited to the flow of the book. Perhaps I wanted a little too much Flannery O'Connor in this book. Lorrie Moore is slightly off-beat, but I think she was being too political in this book for that to be an asset. Quick read, and more enjoyable/engaging than others. Jonathan Lethem's review for the New York Times is excellent. I like how he categorizes her - says she's a rageful writer hiding under the veneer of an endearing one. I'm looking forward to reading Lowboy and Stephen King's Under the Dome. Lethem's newest: Chronic City, will have to wait.I'm currently watching Kieslowski's The Decalogue. Part One is my favorite (but I'm only halfway through 5). The watcher-character represents the gaze, is disapproving but distant. Christ-figure? Definitely in Decalogue 4. Cultured soap operas. Best taken with some stiff reading. Kierkegaard? Catallus? Eliot (recurs 2x)?
