A Gate at the Stairs

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

Wow, wow, wow. I could not put this book down! Moore's prose is absolutely beautiful and the stories in this novel are as familiar as they are devastating. The protagonist, Tassie Keltjin, is a college student when 9/11 occurs and the country goes to war with Afghanistan. Although the specifics of the event are not mentioned, the time period serves as an important piece in the stories that all fall together in Tassie's life as a farmer's daughter, a nanny for a rich and mysterious couple, the sister of a confused teenaged boy who decides to join the war, and a lover of a foreign man. Tassie's voice is incredibly interesting because we get two voices--the present Tassie, one who is presumably grown up and perhaps middle-aged and has a new perspective on this time period, and the Tassie from 2001-2002 when life became much more complicated and tragic.

Many of Moore's passages were so powerful, I had to re-read them. And each chapter left me wanting to know more, more, more. One of the best novels I've ever read.