A Gate at the StairsA Novel

Lorrie Moore's first novel in more than a decade finds her lacing her reliably quirky humor with an exploration of some Big Issues
Fans will be relieved to find that Lorrie Moore's third novel, set in the Midwest in 2001, has the same bantering, punning wordplay and jarringly dark sense of humor as her previous works (a roommate's vibrator is used to stir chocolate milk; a minced puree of Paperwhite bulbs accidentally poisons said roommate). And perhaps for a moment, this story of 20-year-old Tassie Keltjin, a sheltered farm girl-turned-earnestly intellectual college student gets a bit bogged down by all the hokey-jokey asides. But when Tassie starts working as a nanny for a middle-aged couple and falls in love, both with her charge, an adopted mixed-race baby named Mary-Emma, and a mysterious and exotic classmate named Reynaldo, Moore's story finally hits its stride. Tassie, eagerly soaking up their world of gourmet food and self-deprecating elitism, learns far more about her seemingly glamorous employers than she ever bargained for. Meanwhile, back at the farm, her brother is considering joining the military as the conflict in Afghanistan is ramping up — though all of this feels abstract from her day-to-day reality. Inevitably, Tassie, who is so immobilized by her relative inexperience, by her bewilderment at the silliness of the world, finds herself confronting the big issues head on: religion, race, marriage, loss and American indifference. A Gate at the Stairs is an odd but compelling book and Moore's writing brings as much joy to the dark proceedings as a writer could.