A Gate at the Stairs

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (Knopf,2009, $25.95)

I've never read this author before though have heard much acclaim for her short stories, Birds of America, and her novel, Who Will Save the Frog Hospital.  She reminds me of Marilyn Robinson the way she writes so poetically.  Every paragraph includes a gem, an insight an allusion, or a total crack-up.  She's incredibly perceptive and one expects of book of poetry some day though it would be redundant really... Poetic novels are fine by me!  This story involves a young woman attending college who ends of learning WAY more through her part time job and her own life than college will ever teach her in that amount of time. 
Buffeted by events would be an understatement as we experience her life throughout this year (maybe a little more).  So many corners of my book are dog-eared that it now looks like a read only in very short spurts!!!! I'm going to randomly pick some:  "He (her brother) had gotten four F's, and a D this past semester..... his father, not always one for helpfully stern parenting, had stared at the repost card and said, "Well, Robert, what can I say.  Four F's and a D:  it looks like you're spending too much time on one course!", and "We loved our lives more than we ever knew, and at the end felt the bounty of them, as one would say in church, felt even the richness of their missed opportunities, or just understood that they were more than we had realized during the living of them and a lot to give up."  It's a heavy book, and well worth it.