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Michael Borum's avatar

This was lovely, and Moore remains one of our best writers. My husband teaches "Birds of America" regularly in his fiction workshops.

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Susan Tarrence's avatar

Imagine writing an entire book of take your breath away “frictionless” pages. Thank you for giving clarity to such flows of sublime writing.

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Arnold's avatar

"You can feel, reading it, the surrender of Moore’s self-consciousness..." Hardly. I see the author hard at work creating a mother like no mother on earth. She is obviously more concerned with sounding clever than with her child. The light switch flipping on and off was painful. Once or twice might have been okay. Poor author, just stick to the dialogue if nothing else comes to you. You can be "frictionless" anytime you want. Question is, will you be any good?

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Terry underwood's avatar

White Noise. My God. Yes, White Mule. White Noise is probably in my top ten of forever books. No babies in White Noise I can recall but plenty of adolescence.

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Terry underwood's avatar

Take a look at William Carlos Williams book White Noise for a baby named Flossie of Shakespearean stature. The first few paragraphs could be a free standing poem. Nonetheless, Williams captures Flossie’s infancy in subsequent poetry in motion with the competence available only to a practicing pediatrician who happens to be a poet with an urge to write novels.

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Ben Dolnick's avatar

Oh good! I just recently read my first bit of William Carlos Williams prose -- a great, brutal short story about trying to get a look inside a child patient's mouth -- and this reminds me to read more. White Mule is the one you're talking about, I assume?

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Terry underwood's avatar

Ah. She does keep her jaws clamped. Hell of a predicament.

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