Bark

Bark
by Lorrie Moore
Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. 192 pages. Fiction.

Bark is a much anticipated second collection of short stories by Lorrie Moore, heralded as one of America's premier short fiction writers. In these eight stories Moore plumbs a host of heartbreaking situations and the raw emotions of her characters as they navigate divorce, disappointment, mental illness, loss and even a ghost.  Her writing is poetic and in some places almost stream of consciousness, which results in the reader feeling as though they are right in the room/place with the characters. The heavy themes are broken up with strange absurd hilarity and dark humor that sheds life on the idiosyncrasy of American life today.

As you can imagine from that description, this is not a sit down and enjoy it all in one session. These stories are heavy and sometimes painful to read, but Moore is a master of exploring complex dynamics and keeping the reader engage to mostly empathetic characters. That being said it took me awhile to get through this collection, while I enjoyed the writing, I was not excited each night to grab my book and read the next story. ZB