Week 3

Class Ground Rules

Read all the assignments before class.
Keep yourself on mute unless called on.
Raise your hands electronically.
Focus your comments only on the question at hand rather than straying to other parts of the story.
Refrain from offering a review of the whole story or jumping to the end.
Try to support your comments by referring to details from the text.
Listen to and respond to others with respect.

"When you try to take apart a Lorrie Moore story, it's joke, joke, joke, joke, and then at the end, you're devastated. And you think—how did she do that?" —David Sedaris.

READ (at least twice): "Community Life," pp. 89-107. (Published in The New Yorker, September 30, 1991, and included in Birds of America, 1998; https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1991-09-30/flipbook/028/ - subscription required.)

Olena, a librarian and daughter of immigrants, struggles to find a place in her Midwestern community.

Think about:

The ways that Olena is an outsider and how she tries to find her way in.
The relationship between Olena and Nick.
Where has Olena found comfort in her life?
The communities of the political activists vs. the librarians.
The incident with the bat.
Her experiment wearing Nick's clothes.
Her visit to the doctor.

Optional Assignment - Bring your own Tom Swiftie to share with the group.

Roddy Doyle Reads Lorrie Moore | The New Yorker: Fiction | WNYCRoddy Doyle joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss "Community Life," by Lorrie Moore, from a 1991 issue of the magazine.

"Easy to Be Hard" - Song from Hair that Olena invokes when Nick reveals his affair as a "sixties thing."

Easy to be Hard Lyrics.pdf

READ (at least twice): "Thank You for Having Me, pp. 504-516. (Published in Bark, 2014).

A woman and her daughter attend the country wedding of the daughter's childhood babysitter.

Think about:

First person narration.
The narrator's humorous commentary throughout the story.
The interruption of the bikers.
The ending.

Purely Optional - Wedding Playlist

Michael Jackson - "Man in the Mirror" and "Ben"

Jackson Five - "I Want You Back"

Art Garfunkel - "Waters of March"

Whitney Houston - "I Will Always Love You"

Michael Jackson - "Shake Your Body"

Doobie Brothers - "Taking It to the Streets"

Lorrie Moore reads "Thank You for Having Me." Also includes discussion of story.

Week 3 Class Recording:

Google Sites

Report abuse