Items related to See What Can Be Done: Essays, Criticism, and Commentary
A welcome surprise: more than fifty prose pieces, gathered together for the first time, by one of America's most revered and admired novelists and short-story writers, whose articles, essays and cultural commentary--
appearing in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harper's Magazine and elsewhere--have been parsing the political, artistic and media idiom for the last three decades.
From Lorrie Moore's earliest reviews of novels by Margaret Atwood and Nora Ephron, to an essay on Ezra Edelman's 2016 O.J. Simpson documentary, and everything in between: this book features Moore on the writing of fiction (the work of V. S. Pritchett, Don DeLillo, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Munro, Stanley Elkin, Dawn Powell, Nicholson Baker et al.) . . . on the continuing unequal state of race in America . . . on the shock of the shocking GOP . . . on the dangers (and cruel truths) of celebrity marriages and love affairs . . . on the wilds of television (The Wire, Friday Night Lights, Into the Abyss, Girls, Homeland, True Detective, Making a Murderer) . . . on the (d)evolving environment . . . on terrorism, the historical imagination and the world's newest form of novelist . . . on the lesser (and larger) lives of biography and the midwifery between art and life (Anaïs Nin, Marilyn Monroe, John Cheever, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Eudora Welty, Bernard Malamud, among others) . . . and on the high art of being Helen Gurley Brown . . . and much, much more.
"Fifty years from now, it may well turn out that the work of very few American writers has as much to say about what it means to be alive in our time as that of Lorrie Moore" (Harper's Magazine).
appearing in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harper's Magazine and elsewhere--have been parsing the political, artistic and media idiom for the last three decades.
From Lorrie Moore's earliest reviews of novels by Margaret Atwood and Nora Ephron, to an essay on Ezra Edelman's 2016 O.J. Simpson documentary, and everything in between: this book features Moore on the writing of fiction (the work of V. S. Pritchett, Don DeLillo, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Munro, Stanley Elkin, Dawn Powell, Nicholson Baker et al.) . . . on the continuing unequal state of race in America . . . on the shock of the shocking GOP . . . on the dangers (and cruel truths) of celebrity marriages and love affairs . . . on the wilds of television (The Wire, Friday Night Lights, Into the Abyss, Girls, Homeland, True Detective, Making a Murderer) . . . on the (d)evolving environment . . . on terrorism, the historical imagination and the world's newest form of novelist . . . on the lesser (and larger) lives of biography and the midwifery between art and life (Anaïs Nin, Marilyn Monroe, John Cheever, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Eudora Welty, Bernard Malamud, among others) . . . and on the high art of being Helen Gurley Brown . . . and much, much more.
"Fifty years from now, it may well turn out that the work of very few American writers has as much to say about what it means to be alive in our time as that of Lorrie Moore" (Harper's Magazine).
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
LORRIE MOORE is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She is the recipient of the Irish Times International Prize for Literature, a Lannan Foundation fellowship, as well as the PEN/Malamud Award and the Rea Award for her achievement in the short story. She is a board member for the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Review:
A New York Times Editors' Choice
"The book flooded my veins with pleasure. When writing teachers pass this book to their students, the title See What Can Be Done will be read as a simple command." —The New York Times
"A marvelous collection. . . . [Moore's] chief virtue as a critic is shown to be a sympathetic, generous eye, which enables Moore to reveal the unique appeal of any given work. . . . This book provides ample insight into Moore's inner life; it is certainly a boon to any lover of smart cultural criticism." —Publishers Weekly
"Moore is one of our best documentarians of everyday amazement." —The New Yorker
"This is a solid and welcome addition to a superb body of work." —Toronto Star
"[Moore is] an astute, sympathetic reader. . . . Deft, graceful essays from a sharply incisive writer." —Kirkus Reviews
"Whip-smart and thought-provoking." —Elle
"Lorrie Moore has, through sheer uniqueness of voice and unrivalled excellence, established herself as one of the most prominent and anticipated figures in American literature." —Winnipeg Free Press
"[Moore] proves herself such a delightful companion in every way—a smart, sardonic, world-weary sort of companion—and with such spot-on taste that by the end of the book you want her to be your BFF." —The Spectator (UK)
"Fascinating insights into one of America's finest short story writers and her ever-evolving understanding of her craft. . . . Her incisive readings are a must for budding authors. . . . This rewarding collection from a wonder of American letters provides a rich reading list, while Moore, cogent, distinctive and entertaining, reiterates what great art can do." —Booklist
"What is most impressive is her capacity to give the work under review a life of its own. She makes even those books I recall not much enjoying . . . sound fresh and remarkable. She can make books you admire seem even richer and more mysterious . . . and she can make writers you may never have read . . . a matter of sudden personal urgency." —Financial Times
"This is a delightfully indulgent collection, one worth savoring at one's leisure or consuming in huge gulps." —Shelf Awareness
"[An] incisive, wide-ranging and enjoyable collection of reviews, autobiographical pieces and cultural commentary. . . . Lorrie Moore is such a writer that you want to collect her words as a gardener would rain in a water-butt." —The Observer (UK)
"This collection of 60 lucid and erudite cultural essays by the award-winning fiction writer is a treasure." —BBC.com
"Lorrie Moore's writing and analysis, as with her fiction, is so consistently smart, funny and unexpected that the essays end up feeling far more compulsively readable than it seems essays have any right to be. It's like she's invented some sort of extremely healthy snack that possesses all the addictive qualities of junk food. It's not only an extremely good-looking book, it's also an extremely good book, period." —Scott Smith, author of A Simple Plan and The Ruins
"A fantastic collection. . . . The essay on writing alone is worth the price of admission. If Lorrie Moore is not the Miles Davis of cultural criticism, she is surely the Bill Evans; she's got those brilliant harmonies and that swinging incisive wit." —Ben Sidran
"The book flooded my veins with pleasure. When writing teachers pass this book to their students, the title See What Can Be Done will be read as a simple command." —The New York Times
"A marvelous collection. . . . [Moore's] chief virtue as a critic is shown to be a sympathetic, generous eye, which enables Moore to reveal the unique appeal of any given work. . . . This book provides ample insight into Moore's inner life; it is certainly a boon to any lover of smart cultural criticism." —Publishers Weekly
"Moore is one of our best documentarians of everyday amazement." —The New Yorker
"This is a solid and welcome addition to a superb body of work." —Toronto Star
"[Moore is] an astute, sympathetic reader. . . . Deft, graceful essays from a sharply incisive writer." —Kirkus Reviews
"Whip-smart and thought-provoking." —Elle
"Lorrie Moore has, through sheer uniqueness of voice and unrivalled excellence, established herself as one of the most prominent and anticipated figures in American literature." —Winnipeg Free Press
"[Moore] proves herself such a delightful companion in every way—a smart, sardonic, world-weary sort of companion—and with such spot-on taste that by the end of the book you want her to be your BFF." —The Spectator (UK)
"Fascinating insights into one of America's finest short story writers and her ever-evolving understanding of her craft. . . . Her incisive readings are a must for budding authors. . . . This rewarding collection from a wonder of American letters provides a rich reading list, while Moore, cogent, distinctive and entertaining, reiterates what great art can do." —Booklist
"What is most impressive is her capacity to give the work under review a life of its own. She makes even those books I recall not much enjoying . . . sound fresh and remarkable. She can make books you admire seem even richer and more mysterious . . . and she can make writers you may never have read . . . a matter of sudden personal urgency." —Financial Times
"This is a delightfully indulgent collection, one worth savoring at one's leisure or consuming in huge gulps." —Shelf Awareness
"[An] incisive, wide-ranging and enjoyable collection of reviews, autobiographical pieces and cultural commentary. . . . Lorrie Moore is such a writer that you want to collect her words as a gardener would rain in a water-butt." —The Observer (UK)
"This collection of 60 lucid and erudite cultural essays by the award-winning fiction writer is a treasure." —BBC.com
"Lorrie Moore's writing and analysis, as with her fiction, is so consistently smart, funny and unexpected that the essays end up feeling far more compulsively readable than it seems essays have any right to be. It's like she's invented some sort of extremely healthy snack that possesses all the addictive qualities of junk food. It's not only an extremely good-looking book, it's also an extremely good book, period." —Scott Smith, author of A Simple Plan and The Ruins
"A fantastic collection. . . . The essay on writing alone is worth the price of admission. If Lorrie Moore is not the Miles Davis of cultural criticism, she is surely the Bill Evans; she's got those brilliant harmonies and that swinging incisive wit." —Ben Sidran
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherBond Street Books
- Publication date2018
- ISBN 10 0385691319
- ISBN 13 9780385691314
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages432
- Rating
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See What Can Be Done: Essays, Criticism, and Commentary
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Bond Street Books
(2018)
ISBN 10: 0385691319
ISBN 13: 9780385691314
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