Bark

Stories

By: Lorrie Moore

Narrated by: Lorrie Moore

Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

"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 to be alive in our time as that of Lorrie Moore" (Harper's).

A literary event - a new collection of stories by one of America's most beloved and admired short story writers, her first collection in fifteen years.

In these eight masterful stories, Lorrie Moore, in a perfect blend of craft and bewitched spirit, explores the passage of time and summons up its inevitable sorrows and hilarious pitfalls to reveal her own exquisite, singular wisdom.

In "Debarking," a newly divorced man tries to keep his wits about him as the United States prepares to invade Iraq, and against this ominous moment, we see - in all its irresistible hilarity and darkness - the perils of divorce and what can follow in its wake.
In "Foes," a political argument goes grotesquely awry as the events of 9/11 unexpectedly manifest at a fund-raising dinner in Georgetown.
In "The Juniper Tree," a teacher, visited by the ghost of her recently deceased friend, is forced to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in a kind of nightmare reunion.
In "Wings," we watch the unraveling of two once-hopeful musicians who neither held fast to their dreams nor struck out along other paths as Moore deftly depicts the intricacies of dead ends and the workings of regret.

Gimlet-eyed social observation, the public and private absurdities of American life, dramatic irony, and enduring half-cracked love wend their way through each of these narratives in a heartrending mash-up of the tragic and the laugh-out-loud - the hallmark of Lorrie Moore - land.

©2014 Lorrie Moore (P)2014 Blackstone Audiobooks

All the Moore so

Lorrie Moore's works are mined with so many moments of recognition that I find myself quite unproductive while listening. Wonderful when the author herself is narrating.

Bark

Lorrie Moore is such an intelligent writer. I have loved everything I have read of hers. Her work is insightful and funny.

Interesting short stories

Interesting stories. Some are better than others and some times I found myself thinking about other things. Maybe not the best book to listen to when you are driving or running. Almost meditative.

Brutal, funny and surprising

Interesting characters, rich language, and strangely brave plots. She really captures slices of life with intense emotional meaning, making humans seem both pathetic and beautiful. Loved the author’s own voice for these stories.

Kinda Depressing Stories

Interesting stories, but also depressing, except for one - which had as happy an ending as possible, considering the depressing story.

The author as narrator did a nice job, except the tone got rather monotonous after a while. Still, I admire her ability to write.

Odd stories

Was only affected by two of the 8 stories in this collection- wanted more, very slight- she is a wonderful narrator

Leave the reading to the professionals

What did you like best about Bark? What did you like least?

It is well written and touches on the complexities of human relationships

How could the performance have been better?

This is the third book I have listened to read by the author and other than Patti Smith who is a brillant performer and amazing to listen to, the other authors are really bad readers. Lorrie Moore's voice is monotone, she has strange phrasing and she does not distinguish different characters with different voices so I never knew who I was listening to. All in all it was frustrating listening to her read. I have a much richer listening experience when the book is read by seasoned professionals. Authors I think, are too personally attached to their material and cannot read it effectively.

Could you see Bark being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

no

Intelligent and Clever

Clever turns of phrase, imaginative treatment of the mundane. Now I have to find more books by this author.

When humor is more than endearing

Personally I find short stories quite hard to listen to... as writers put painstaking attention to each word, sentence and paragraph; my attention seems to bereaved me from their beauty. In the case of ‘Bark’, Moore’s words have such a rhythm and a contextual charm that I enjoyed the first time I listen to it as much as the second time where I minded her artful language choices with chuckles and admiration.

Lorrie Moore's Bark

The author did herself a disservice by reading this book herself. Her voice is full of ennui and not rarely seems unfamiliar with the material! Odd.... I liked the last story the best and also the one set in the Paris cafe. The others are at best semi-depressing and all the more for Moore's reading them.