What do You think about Anagrams (1997)?
This is the Lorrie Moore I love. There is essentially nothing wrong with this book. You couldn't find a flaw if you tried.Anagrams follows the stories of Benna and Gerard, who, in a strange mash-up of scenarios, are poetry teachers, lounge singers, piano players, neighbors, parents, friends, lovers. In love and not in love. Together and then alone. The book plots the course of their relationship as it might take place if Gerard was in love with Benna, fully-clothed in his bathtub and listening for her to come home to her neighboring apartment; if Benna was in love with Gerard and Gerard left anyway, sold their belongings at a yard sale and then took the dog with him; if Benna was widowed and Gerard just a friend, the two of them meeting every morning for breakfast to discuss their most recent lovers. When Benna has a daughter, Moore tells us up front that the little girl is imaginary, just fiction. But ten pages later we're so wrapped up in the absolute devotion and devastation of the intertwined relationships of the novel that we don't even know what is real, what is love, what is loss. It's a gorgeous book. The entirety of it can be summed up in six words repeated throughout the novel: "Life is sad. Here is someone."
—Courtney Gustafson
Wanted More from MooreLorrie Moore’s short first novel feels more like an amusing, extended exercise – a gimmick – rather than a full novel. Like letters in an anagram, Moore switches characters, professions and relationships. In the first section, for instance, Benna is a lounge singer and Gerard teaches aerobics to children. In the second, Benna teaches aerobics to seniors, while Gerard is working on a rock version of a Baroque opera. In another, Gerard is a lounge singer who wants to become an opera singer, while Benna teaches at a community college.Get it?Their relationship also changes: they’re alternately lovers, FWBs, friends who used to date… A character named Eleanor also pops up in various incarnations, usually as Benna’s friend. And themes like illness and infidelity are thrown into the mix.In the long, novella-length final section, Moore frequently switches point of view, sometimes Benna’s first person POV, sometimes third. I imagine she’s trying to do something profound with this and all the scrambling of themes and characters, but it’s unclear, and at one point I gave up caring. The author’s mordant wit and use of wordplay are on full display here. On every page there’s a fun pun or two.But the result is like eating candy. At first it’s a riot (Yay! Candy for breakfast! Candy for lunch!), but soon the sugar high wears off and you realize you won’t get very far without something substantial in your stomach.I’ve now read all of Moore’s longer works. She’s a much better short story writer than novelist. I’m going to go back and finish her collections Self-Help and Birds Of America then report back. Some stories from Birds are among my all-time favourites.In the meantime, no literary candy – at least for a while.(This is more a 2.5 than a 2, but Moore can do so much better.)
—Glenn Sumi
Well. It was certainly better than recent Nick Hornby novels. But is that the best thing I can say about my first Laurie Moore experience?She writes beautiful things, possesses a wonderful turn of phrase, uses the English language to create incredible images BUT I just couldn't relate to this story, didn't find myself absorbed in the multiple potentialities posited by the coming together of these two soul mates and I was left underwhelmed by the narrative.Many questions have formed in my mind from reading the lives of Benna Carpenter, I am after all approaching that same point in my life, and these ideas have been floating around for a little while. This is definitely the sign of a talented writer but I was too aware of the tools of writing to be able to simply enjoy this journey.I recently saw the Miranda July movie The Future which seems to borrow heavily from the Laurie Moore school of contemporary thought/literature but was nowhere near as subtle as this novel. Interestingly the collection of short stories No One Belongs Here More Than You was pretty much a study of the same themes contained within Anagrams but more accessible and enjoyable. I've heard that Laurie Moore is a fantastic writer of short stories and perhaps when I get around to reading the collection I recently bought I may appreciate this novel a little more.
—Tfitoby
