Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People by Lorrie Moore, 1993
The magic trick:
Perfectly maintaining two characters even as the story’s events change their moods and feelings about each other
We’ve got a Lorrie Moore weekend double for you, starting with this, arguably the story in her career that, in my opinion, strikes the best balance between humor and genuine emotion.
It’s a mother-daughter road trip story; the daughter recently separated from her husband; the road trip a car journey across Ireland.
There is a very clear plot point that changes the relationship between the mother and the daughter; or at least it changes the way they are interacting with each other on this trip. Remarkably, the two characters retain their essence on the page even as they clearly make a dramatic change in how they talk and feel.
There’s such a high degree of difficulty here writing wise. You have something that happens in the plot that generates a very obvious change. That doesn’t really happen all that often, or all that cleanly in real life. So it really is amazing how the characters still feel like realistically drawn people on both sides of the event.
And that’s quite a trick on Moore’s part.
The selection:
Mrs. Mallon veered the car over to the left and slammed on the brakes. There were some black-faced sheep haunch-marked in bright blue and munching grass near the road.
“Here?” asked Abby.
“I don’t want to waste time stopping somewhere else and having to buy something. You can go behind that wall.”
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