A Gate at the Stairs

A Gate at the Stairs
By Lorrie Moore (322 pages)
Published by Knopf
Bookish rating: 4.25

Other reviews of A Gate at the Stairs have blasted it for its plotting, mostly pointing to lack of a clear destination. To them, I say this: [Lorelei's raspberry-blowing sound].

I can't discuss much of the plot without spoilers, but a central aspect concerns Tassie, a college student who nannies for a family who adopted a mixed-race toddler. We see the adoptive mother, Sarah, through Tassie's eyes, and she is fabulously capable yet insecure yet crazy yet likable. She's utterly believable and unlike any other character I've read before. I loved her, though most readers probably couldn't stand her.

The prose is incredibly, understatedly witty. Tassie has the endearing voice of an over-eager college student. She's sincere and naive while also a smidge too smart for her own good. I loved her, too.

Now, the book contains A LOT, and the lit student in me feels compelled to write papers on it, so you all can see how very good this book is. One hilarious subplot involves neighborhood meetings for parents of "children of color," which are done entirely through dialogue (with no identifiers of who is speaking), and it's so brilliantly done, I could hardly stand it. These folks expound, self-consicously, on post-racism and politics while their spouses take jabs here and there. It's just so human.

Which leads me to why I think this novel really, really works: Moore's depiction of events--which are, sure, a little jumbled--all have Tassie in common, but she's not really the central character of any of them, though she is affected. Moore conveys a startlingly poignant sense of how lived experience cobbles together who you are and why you see the world a certain way.

Recommended, if you can handle reading a book that's not constructed like a supermarket paperback.