Bark: Stories

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2014A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2014A New York Times Notable Book“Lorrie Moore can surely now be called a doyenne of American literature. . . . what Moore offers is the artful emergence of small, quiet truths and for that we should be grateful.”—The Guardian (UK)“This wonderful collection of eight short stories achieves the rare feat of being both supremely literary and sweetly readable. The prose is elegant but quirky, full of arresting descriptions. . . . The dialogue is marvellously good . . . and my way through the book was punctuated by snorts of laughter.”—The Independent (UK)“[Moore’s] craft throughout Bark is impeccable. . . . she has a poet’s sense of brevity and music. Her stories are page-turners not because they are laden with suspense but because readers know each new sentence will be an unexpected little gem of humor or sadness, or both.”―Santa Barbara Independent“The uncrowded format of Moore’s first collection in 16 years allows each story the chance it deserves for leisurely appreciation, and lets the reader savor just what makes her work unique.”—The New York Times Book Review“[A] sly, sharp voice. . . . Authentic and wise. No one captures what it’s like to live in today’s world quite like Lorrie Moore.”—Publishers Weekly“No admirer of Moore’s will go away either overloaded or unsatisfied, and it lets us contemplate and savor just what makes her work unique. . . . A sense of dread both aesthetically satisfying, and deeply scary.”—The New York Times Book Review“Its stories tend to feel like easily consumed entertainments, with intimations at wisdom and meaning just compelling enough to keep us reading. . . . She can be a master of irony, using it to illuminate the vast gaps between people, between language and understanding, and what deep sadness persists in those spaces.”—The Globe and Mail“Her unerring ear for the way modern Americans speak, her uncanny ability to flip from belly laughs to deep unease and back again, often so fast that you have to stop and take stock of your reactions—carry the day.”—The Windsor Star “Few writers so adroitly expose the nuances and absurdities of modern life as Lorrie Moore. It’s a talent on full display in ‘Foes,’ one of eight tales in Moore’s much-anticipated new short-story collection.”—Maclean’s“Insightful snapshots exploring post-9/11 life in the U.S. Her tales are a pithy commentary on the more irrational elements of the American psyche as the country struggles to redefine itself after the attack. . . . Full of wanting, anxiety and regret—and that makes for the best kind of story.”—Chatelaine“Gaunt, splendid. . . . What an irresistible bunch of characters she conjures up. . . . We still need Lorrie Moore to work hard at making us laugh, to remind us that we’re frauds, we’re all just acting. To unzip words for us and let their sounds and meanings and pun potentialities jingle out like coins. To point out the silver linings. . . . She never lies to us. She never tells us the water’s fine. She says, Dive in anyway, ‘swim among the dying’ while you can. Learn how to suffer in style.”—Parul Seghal, Bookforum “The short form is her true forte. Her talent is best exhibited in the collection’s longest stories (each around 40 pages); her comfort with that length is indicated by her careful avoidance of overplotting, which, of course, dulls the effect of an expansive short story, and by not allowing the stories to seem like the outlines of novels that never got developed.”—Booklist (Starred Review) “One of the best short story writers in America resumes her remarkable balancing act, with a  collection that is both hilarious and heartbreaking, sometimes in the same paragraph. . . . In stories both dark and wry, Moore wields a scalpel with surgical precision.”—Kirkus (Starred Review) “These stories are laugh-out-loud funny, as well as full of pithy commentary on contemporary life and politics.”—Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)“The glory of Moore’s writing isn’t simply that it toys with our expectations; it is that—like life itself—it turns them on their heads and gives them a good hard shake. . . . A long time in coming, Bark is a reminder—if one was needed—that when it comes to writing stories, Moore is still ahead of the pack.”—Toronto Star“Untroubled, overlong, by tragedy or politics, the stories in Bark are given ample time to focus on the intriguing minutiae of fragmenting relationships . . . all couched in complex, carefully layered prose. Moore's latest cocktail is a stimulating, heady mix short-story lovers will want to get their hands on double-quick.”—Winnipeg Free Press“It’s Moore’s variations, some subtle, some pointed, that imbue [her stories] with intriguing layers of significance. . . . [A] powerful collection about the difficulty of letting go of love.”—The Seattle Times“Moore once again brings her acute intelligence and wit to play. . . . The language has a fizzy rhythm that will have the reader turning the pages. Smart, funny, and overlaid with surprising metaphor. . . . Highly recommended.”—Library Journal (Starred Review)“Moore is among the best chroniclers we have of a certain kind of doomed relationship, where grief and loneliness are inescapable. . . . A terrified laugh into the abyss.”—Georgia Straight“Like the characters it describes, Bark is uneven, hilarious, occasionally unaesthetic to the point of being disgusting and sometimes, in the midst of the human comedy, unexpectedly clever and moving.”—The New Zealand Herald