A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

What an odd little read this was….I loved and hated parts of it in equal measures. Loaned to me by someone who warned me that the author was much better at short stories than the full length shebang, I embarked with few expectations (the freedom of being loaned a book as opposed to shelling out your own hard-earned cash and thinking ‘This thing better be good’).

Main character Tassie is awkward and unworldly, but not unintelligent, when she moves from her family’s potato farm in the Midwest to attend college. She rooms with a girl who’s never home in a rundown part of town, and finds a job as a nanny for a couple who are about to adopt a child.

Something is a bit off about this couple from the start; he’s a lawyer who doesn’t attend the adoption appointments while she’s a chef who is prone to uncomfortable outbursts. Sarah Brink makes some high demands of Tassie, and flies her out with her to meet their baby, an African-American girl called Mary.

The book wants to be many things, and in zooming off in a million tangents, manages to leave many of its ambitions unfulfilled. But it’s an intriguing read nonetheless, even though it doesn’t quite pull it off. There’s Tassie and the weird couple with something to hide (revealed in a massive anti-climax, which is hugely disappointing since we’ve invested so much in it), a Muslim wannabe terrorist for a boyfriend, some really annoying characters posturing over how good they are for adopting black babies and a family member’s death in Afghanistan – which is all jam packed into the last third of the book. This means none of these worthy plotlines are going to get the full attention they deserve.

I’d describe it as a better than average coming of age tale; what elevates this book is the beautiful writing and Moore’s accurate portrayal of Tassie – who is just trying to fit in and figure out what the fuck the world is all about, with the adults around her giving her no clues. I’d be curious to read Moore’s short stories after this full-length effort almost gets there.