A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
11/04/10 19:04 Filed in: Fiction
336 Pages, Knopf. $25.95
Reviewed by Stephanie Attebery
I picked up "A Gate at the Stairs" after reading a short blurb that lead me to believe the book was about a young person getting involved with a married couple. Hmmm… Menage a tois? Who wouldn’t be intrigued? Well, I’m sorry to inform prospective readers that it doesn't tell that particular story at all, but it's still a must-read, one that touched me more than any book in recent memory.
That being said, I nearly dismissed it after the first twenty pages (Again, this was not due to the lack of scandalous hedonism as formerly mentioned). The heroine is Tassie, a college student recruited by Sarah, a successful, middle-aged chef, to be a nanny for her not yet adopted child. Once in the employ of this strange woman, Tassie is whisked from place to place to interview the down-and-out mothers of the potential adoptees, even though she hardly knows her new boss or her aloof husband, Edward, who remains absent at these interviews. The early problem with this tale was that the characters behaved strangely in the openings scenes: Tassie makes references that are just a little too high brow or off the wall; Sarah decides to climb the down escalator “for exercise” in a seemingly random instance that I thought told little about the character. But then again, these characters were acting under very nerve-racking conditions, so I allowed myself to ignore these curious events and keep reading and was relieved that Moore’s dialogue and characters do indeed become much more real as events progress.
Tassie develops a quick bond with Mary-Emma, the biracial baby for whom she becomes a nanny. An early scene has Tassie leading the young girl through the upper levels of Sarah’s house, navigating to avoid precarious baby gates and coming upon multiple stairways in order to get down to the safety of the kitchen. Many symbolic moments such as this occur, as these two girls must both find a way in their young lives.
There is a side-story of Tassie’s budding relationship with a mysterious Argentinian, who turns out to not be who she thinks. This story line might be a bit far fetched, but the portrait of young infatuation and the heartbreak that follows will make the reader flinch with recognition.
Of particular interest were the Wednesday night bi-racial families group meetings at Sarah’s house as overheard by Tassie through a wall vent as she baby-sits the children upstairs. Moore details their blathering, ultra-liberal, intellectual remarks in mind-numbing depth. This is made bearable and interesting through Moore’s artful way of interjecting time and action into the scene. The reader gets a real feeling for what it would be like to be Tassie, half-bored sitting next to the heating vent, catching muffled snippets and absorbing the ensuing laughter or angry pauses that intrigue a quiet and curious observer of adult life.
This book is about many things: loss, racism, war, corruption. There are agonizing moments that are too real to be read without absorbing the emotions lying between the lines of text.
Though book was not what I was expecting, yet I was touched by Moore’s tender and forgiving portrayal of young American womanhood through the insecure and tentative eyes of Tassie. Though Tassie surely does not see her own potential, Moore provides the reader with a beautiful window to observe her growth, something that is often momentary in our own lives.
Recommended.