By Ghina El Darazi | Staff Writer
Lorrie Moore’s “Self-Help” is a parody of the traditional self-help book genre which tells captivating short stories with distraught characters at their center.
I picked up Lorrie Moore’s “Self-Help”, while secretly (and a little foolishly) hoping it wasn’t an actual self-help book. Self-help books tend to order their readers around, and at this point in the semester, I am in minus need of instructions. Not to say that I have anything against this book genre, but I find that steps or rules are easier to follow when you’re cooking or drawing rather than living. What writers can do instead, instructional writers in particular, is tell a story and hope that it will change their readers’ views on life. Moore does this exceptionally well, which differentiates her from traditional writers of the genre, as will be demonstrated in my review.
To my greatest delight, “Self-Help” turned out to be a collection of short fictional stories. Moore parodies the traditional self-help books by using their instructional style; instead of walking her readers through a list of steps, she takes them on her characters’ journeys and exposes them to multiple alternatives for what these characters could do. This sounds like a messy recipe, but these alternatives – combined with the writing style and choice of characters – always ended up fitting the story’s purpose. Such purposes include empathizing with a daughter of divorced parents, a woman who falls for a married man, or one who can’t seem to find the right time to leave her partner.
On another note, quoting Jay McInerney, Moore’s writing is “fine, funny writing, and anyone who doesn’t like it should consult a doctor” (1). I don’t necessarily disagree with McInerney, but inspired by the book’s style, I’ll give those readers who didn’t like the writing an alternative option: since a doctor’s consult seems like a bit too much, just consider that this was Moore’s debut. She deserves the praises she received on how clear, distinct, and effective her voice is throughout the stories. Not many authors are able to claim this praise on the long run, let alone from their start.
To sum up, I have been taken over by an instructional spirit and I ask you to read “Self-Help” if you are looking for captivating bursts of fiction that engage you in distraught characters’ experiences of love, loss of love, and torn families.