Patricia Kramer 2007-08-20

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

I have read three Lorrie Moore books, but missed this one so it was a treat to delve into her writing again. I enjoyed the story and laughed at the turns of phrase. It is fun to have a book that it is best to read slowly so you don't miss the unexpected anagram or wry comment about life.

Then there is the incredible loneliness and sadness threaded throughout the book. Very strong and so real. This book has a punch.

I am going to quote a paragraph that caught my attention as I read.
"You cannot be grateful without possessing a past. That is why children are incapable of gratitude and why night prayers and dinner graces are lost on them. "Gobbles Mommy, Gobbles Grandpa..." George races through it. She has no reference points. As I get older the past widens and accumulates, all sloppy landlessness like a river, and as a result I have more clearly demarcated areas of gratitude. Things like ice cream or scenery or one good kiss become objects of a huge soulful thanks. Nothing is gobbled. This is a sign of getting old."

Constant Weeder 2006-05-29

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Moore, Lorrie, Anagrams. 1986. New York: Time Warner Books, 1997.
Moore is a highly successful author and storyteller. Even so, it's the rare book that can get me chuckling, then laughing, then roaring, and then suddenly bring me to tears. This is that rare book. Benna is a teacher who used to dance at clubs. She is 33, divorced, and troubled by loneliness. She has a 6-year old daughter called Georgianne, and a large woman friend named Eleanor. She meets Gerard, a "large, green-eyed man" who loves classical music, sings tenor in opera, and plays guitar at clubs. Their relationship is the focus of the early chapters, but what strikes the reader is the play with words they engage in. Moore must be a poet! She invents words that fit: "the ruckle of the toilet paper," "oxpecker," "mingy philodendra," and she produces fantastic images: "pantcuffs misironed into Möbius strips," "reading Hart Crane in an inner tube..." There are many plays on words: "vulva or B.M., names that sounded like foreign cars." "Add a d to poor and you get droop. Add a chromosome, get a criminal. Subtract one, get an idiot or a chipmunk....'You are my honey bunch' was not usually interchangeable with 'You are my bunny hutch.'"
Benna tells us, "There was a period when I kept trying to make anagrams out of words that weren't anagrams: moonscape and menopause, gutless and guilts, lovesick and still louse...." she scrawls lovesick and evil sock on a table in a café, and then bedroom and boredom.
I could quote from almost every page of this wonderful book, but I'll finish with "'Why are we supposed to be with men, anyway? I feel like I used to know.'
'We need them for their Phillips-head screwdrivers,' I said.
Eleanor raised her eyebrows. 'That's right, she said, 'I keep forgetting that you only go out with circumcised men.'" Later, Eleanor says, "If they can send one man to the moon, why can't they send them all?"
But the novel has far deeper themes than the jokes and word play. All the characters have problems and nothing turns out the way we expect. In fact, it's a heartbreaker--a big surprise, and highly recommended by this fussy reader. Five stars plus.

Polly Amory 2004-06-12

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

I'm stunned that there are so many favorable reviews of Anagrams. I love wordplay and wit, and despite a few moderately amusing turns of phrase, this book doesn't cut it for me. Worse, corny "urban legends" are supposed to pass for cleverness, as with "Strings Too Short to Use." What is she going to write about next, the socks that get lost in the dryer? Ultimately, these characters are unattractive people who traipse along in a chronic low mood, holding out the no doubt false promise that if only there were SSRIs in the water supply, they might actually become active participants in life. Don't hold your breath!

2001-08-29

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

Like reviewer Chris Burkhalter, I don't think is Moore's best (Birds of America and Self Help are it, for me), but her second or third best surpasses so much other fiction out there it's not even funny. There is no one better at inventive descriptions of emotions, physical characteristics, smells, clothing, etc. It's miraculous really; her way with words boggles this aspiring writer's mind. And, as an aspiring writer, I have to say that it is Moore's writing I strive to emulate. I wasn't wild about the structure of Anagrams; as others have noted, three short story-esque pieces to start, followed by 'the novel.' But if you're a reader that reveres language, and if you often find yourself pausing to savor sentences and phrases in whatever it is you're reading, pick up this book (and anything else by Moore) and savor those moments, because I guarantee there will be many of them.

C. Burkhalter 2001-05-23

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

Don't get me wrong, it's great, yeah. A quick and engrossing read stuffed with humor and Lorrie Moore's trademarked sardonic and somehow self-effacing wit(TM). Yet this is by no means her best book or even (I think) among her better material. I read it and very much enjoyed it, but I find weaknesses in her handling of her own style. And the ending, though clever and pretty ambitious, just doesn't do it for me (takes it too far out of the close-to-home we enjoy up to that point). I guess I would say that this was maybe a transitional work(?). I saw Moore read at Elliott Bay here in Seattle and she said the book resulted in part from publishers nagging for a novel (they sell better than collections I imagine). You can see how she cleverly handles the transition (being a writer of short stories up to that point) by writing a novel that, at the beginning, comes off a bit like a collection of related shorts. It ends up being an interesting way to write, but a bit schizophrenic. She works this trick more effectively some years later in "Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?" where a short story of a trip to Paris is woven through a longer narrative. In short, readers already gripped in the throes of Moore's prose shouldn't hesitate to read this -- its good! But those looking to try her work for the first time would do well to hit "Frog Hospital" (an awesome starting place I think) or one of her too-fab collections of short stories.