Lorrie Moore

The way a story is told can vary from person to person. It is subjective. The way the characters come alive depends solely on the author’s writing. Lorrie Moore has a magical way of storytelling. This became apparent during her reading at Tulane on monday, March 2nd. Moore shared her piece “Thank You For Having Me”, a story found in her upcoming novel. This was the first time I had ever attended a reading, and I found it interesting how subjective tone and flow are to the reader. She uses her airy, dry tone to flutter above her words, which is not the way I had imagined the flow to be when I first read a short story by Moore. I imagined the writer’s voice to be gritty, and forceful, with a fast-paced undertone to it. However, once hearing Lorrie Moore read her own work, I understood why it was better to read her piece in a slower pace. It almost seemed like Moore was indifferent to what was going on around her, which brought an interesting contrast. Obviously Moore had felt passionate enough about the event of her child’s former babysitter’s second wedding taking place during the weekend of Michael Jackson’s death enough to write a story about it and include it in her book, however you would never know when you heard her read the story. It gave the punchlines more importance and set the time frame, meaning that it expressed the fact that the story was occurring over a day, and not just a few fast moments. 

I also enjoyed how Lorrie Moore discussed incorporating her political opinions into her work. She often brings her thoughts on current events into her work. I found this incredibly valuable. Not only does it teach young writers that a news story is not the only way to express opinion on a political subject or  tell a historical story, but it also teaches young female writers that their political opinions are not to be hushed and can be published and acclaimed just as much as the next guy’s.