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
The book centers around the life of college student Tassie Keltjin as she navigates her way through the world in a Midwestern university town. She learns, like most of us, that becoming an adult doesn't suddenly give you poise & grace and the smarts to go with it. A lot of heartwrenching sadness in this book. What I took from it is that while all of us try to be "good" and do the right thing, things happen and we may end up failing ourselves, and the people who depend on us, in the worst of ways.
(I took away one star because I found parts of the story line a little implausible)
(I took away one star because I found parts of the story line a little implausible)
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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