A Gate at the Stairs
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - From "one of the most acute and lasting writers of her generation" (The New York Times) comes a piercing novel of race, class, love, and war in America.
Twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, the daughter of a gentleman farmer, has come to a university town as a student. When she takes a job as a part-time nanny for a mysterious and glamorous family, she finds herself drawn deeper into their world and forever changed. "An indelible portrait of a young woman coming of age in the Midwest in the year after 9/11.... Moore has written her most powerful book yet." --The New York Times
Twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, the daughter of a gentleman farmer, has come to a university town as a student. When she takes a job as a part-time nanny for a mysterious and glamorous family, she finds herself drawn deeper into their world and forever changed. "An indelible portrait of a young woman coming of age in the Midwest in the year after 9/11.... Moore has written her most powerful book yet." --The New York Times
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Community Reviews
I like Lorrie Moore's short stories so I really wanted to like this novel, but no. The bones of the book is good. Her relationship with her employer is very realistic and the dynamics between the two of them and the baby are very realistic and interesting. The husband is an interesting villain but completely without any nuance. Her brother seems a little outside the story, but okay, whatever. But the worst part in the story the boyfriend. He would have been so much better without the (sort of a spoiler alert) dramatic twist. Totally over the top and not realistic at all. Finally, the ending where she addresses the reader directly is not sassy or cute, it's awful.
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