Lorrie Moore is best known for her short story collections (1985 – Self-Help; ISBN 0-446-67192-4, 1990 – Like Life; ISBN 0-375-71916-4, 1998 – Birds of America; ISBN 0-312-24122-4, and 2008 – The Collected Stories; ISBN 978-0-571-23934-4. 2014 – Bark; ISBN 0-307-59413-0). Lorrie Moore also wrote dozens of book reviews, essays, and articles over the past 30 years. See What Can Be Done collects much of this material and as you might expect there are some hits here–and some clunkers. My favorite essay was “Steven Stills” from 2017. I’ve been a Steven Stills fan since the Sixties, but Lorrie Moore told me a lot about the performer and song-writer that I didn’t know. Naturally, Moore’s reviews of short story collections–“V. S. Pritchett’s A Careless Widow,” “Ann Beattie’s New and Selected Stories,” “John Updike’s The Early Stories–provide key insights into the art of short story writing. I enjoyed Moore’s essay on The Wire. Many of Lorrie Moore’s notions of artistic creation show up in her essay “On Writing.” If you’re in the mood for some intelligent, insightful writing then give See What Can Be Done a try. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Publication Acknowledgments p. xi
Introduction p. xv
Nora Ephron’s Heartburn (1983) p. 3
Kurt Vonnegut’s Galápagos (1985) p. 6
Malcolm Bradbury’s Cuts (1987) p. 9
Anaïs Nin, Marilyn Monroe (1987) p. 13
John Cheever (1988) p. 18
Bobbie Ann Mason’s Love Life (1989) p. 24
V. S. Pritchett’s A Careless Widow (1989) p. 29
Stanley Elkin’s The MacGuffin (1991) p. 33
Don DeLillo’s Mao II (1991) p. 37
Election Day 1992: Voters in Wonderland (1992) p. 41
Charles Baxter’s Shadow Play (1993) p. 44
Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride (1993) p. 48
On Writing (1994) p. 54
Amos Oz (1996) p. 63
Christmas for Everyone (1997) p. 67
Starr-Clinton-Lewinsky (1998) p. 69
Ann Beattie’s New and Selected Stories (1998) p. 71
JonBenét Ramsey by Lawrence Schiller (1999) p. 77
Joyce Carol Oates’s Broke Heart Blues (1999) p. 82
Dawn Powell (1999) p. 89
Best Love Song of the Millennium (1999) p. 95
Titanic (2000) p. 98
Claudia Roth Pierpont’s Passionate Minds (2000) p. 102
Philip Roth’s The Human Stain (2000) p. 112
Matthew Klam’s Sam the Cat (2000) p. 118
Legal Aide: My First Job (2001) p. 126
Frederic Cassidy (2001) p. 129
Alice Munro’s Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (2002) p. 132
Edna St. Vincent Millay (2002) p. 139
Darryl Pinckney and Caryl Phillips (2002) p. 152
Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (2003) p. 161
John Updike’s The Early Stories (2003) p. 167
Nicholson Baker’s Checkpoint (2004) p. 179
Alice Munro’s Runaway (2004) p. 184
Joan Silber (2005) p. 190
Eudora Welty (2006) p. 199
Alice Munro’s The Moons of Jupiter (2006) p. 212
Shakespeare: The Modern Elizabethan (2006) p. 216
One Hot Summer, or a Brief History of Time (2006) p. 221
Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (2007) p. 228
Peter Cameron (2007) p. 234
Donald Barthelme (2009) p. 243
Clarice Lispector (2009) p. 252
Barack Obama (2009) p. 260
The Wire (2010) p. 262
Memoirs (2011) p. 273
Friday Night Lights (2011) p. 282
9/11/11 (291)
GOP Primary Debate (2011) p. 294
Werner Herzog’s Into the Abyss (2011) p. 297
Suzzy Roche’s Wayward Saints (2012) p. 301
Lena Dunham (2012) p. 305
Wisconsin Recall (2012) p. 309
Richard Ford’s Canada (2012) p. 314
Ethan Canin’s “The Palace Thief” (2012) p. 320
Homeland (2013) p. 322
Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake (2013) p. 329
Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) p. 335
Bernard Malamud (2014) p. 341
Miranda July (2014) p. 343
True Detective (2015) p. 350
Making a Murderer (2016) p. 361
Helen Gurley Brown (2016) p. 370
Ezra Edelman’s O.J.: Made in America (2016) p. 380
Thoughts on Hillary Clinton, December 2016 (2017) p. 393
Stephen Stills (2017) p. 398
Acknowledgments p. 409
OK, you know I am going to have to read this one. I’ve read and enjoyed all of Moore’s short story collections.
Jeff, you’ll find plenty of reviews and essays to enjoy in this collection. What do you think of THE BOOK OF MORMON?
We really enjoyed the show. I did keep looking around, hoping there were no kids in the audience (I didn’t see any in the orchestra, where we were seated), as it got pretty raunchy at times. I loved the end where the woman in the village tells him, “It’s a metaphor. You didn’t think Joseph Smith really f—ed a frog, do you?”
Jeff, you’re right about the raunchy moments in THE BOOK OF MORMON. But Diane and I consider it one of the best musical comedies we’ve seen in years.
Ditto with Jeff.
Patti, you’ll find interesting essays in this collection. Lorrie Moore is an excellent reviewer, too.
What a breadth of selection!
From German film maker Werner Herzog to Vonnegut – of course many of the other names mean nothing to me (yet).
Totally OT:
Allen Frances, famous psychiatrist from the USA was in my German hometown Tübingen at the university for a lecture on D Trump – I missed it but it was reported in our local newspaper. He has written a book:
Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Frances
Eighty years ago, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World predicted it would take 600 years to turn the American utopian dream into a nightmare of compulsive consumerism, bland uniformity, brain addling drugs, and subliminal thought control. In this provocative, timely book, internationally renowned psychiatrist Allen Frances argues that Huxley was wrong–it’s taken less than a century to reach this point of despair …
https://www.amazon.com/Twilight-American-Sanity-Psychiatrist-Analyzes/dp/1538456613
Wolf, there’s 30 years of reviews and essays in SEE WHAT CAN BE DONE. It provides a nice cross-section of the literary scene in the U.S. during those decades.
I remember reading her Stills essay (Stephen being one of Deb’s “secret husbands” back in the day) last year, iirc. Looks like a very interesting collection—will be adding to my tbr list right away.
Deb, I’ll have to find my BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD cd and listen to some early Stephen Stills. Stills is touring with Judy Collins this Summer.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention, and it’s hard to believe I was unaware of it. As a fan of Moore’s fiction it’s likely that I’ve read a goodly number of these pieces over the years, but the one on Stephen Stills is the only one I specifically remember. My library system has four copies, and one will soon be headed my way.
Michael, Lorrie Moore is a national treasure!
I didn’t like Birds of America at all, and didn’t finish it, so I’ll pass on this, thanks.
Rick, there’s no fiction in SEE WHAT CAN BE DONE. Excellent reviews, essays, and commentary instead.
Just got it from the library. It is the sort of book I skim through. Not every piece is of interest to me. I could care less about Helen Gurley Brown or Lena Dunham for two examples. Read the Stephen Stills piece. Good essay but Stills is not high in my pantheon. Love For What Its Worth and dislike Love the One You’re With. Waited on him once when I worked at the Birmingham Bookstore. A lot of musicians stayed at the nearby Townsend Hotel when performing in the Detroit area. He bought 7 or 8 hardcovers. A mixture of genre and literary fiction.
Steve, do you like Stephen Stills’s “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”?
I like Suite:Judy Blue Eyes.
The entire CSN album is tops.
Rick, you’re so right! Love the CSN cds!