There has been much acclaim and chatter about Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs: it made the NYT Top 10 List of 2009, and all of my librarian friends rave about it. From the reviews, I’d been expecting something like Ann Patchett/Anne Tyler: meandering, lyrical, adult. And yes, Lorrie Moore’s writing is all of these things. But she has captured something that has become scarce in a market oversaturated with teen vampire novels – a true coming of age story.
Tassie Keltjin leaves her small farm town for college in the city, rising up into one new epiphany after another. She is smart, kind, and introspective, but mainly, she is an empath: her ability to love and feel for the people around her magnifies their lives and emotions, making them more complex and loveable than their experiences alone. When Tassie becomes a nanny, she is pulled into a dramatic and heartbreaking net of secrets and loss – both the family's and her own – and her empathy once again makes the entire situation both more and less bearable.
Though at times this book seems to focus on too many people’s emotions, as a coming of age novel, it’s perfect: micro-focused in short bursts on the person most in need at the time, creating an overall picture of what matters Tassie’s life. The haunting moments are subtle and sneaky, but they are there, and they are unforgettable.
In the end, Tassie is transformed, aware, broken-hearted – as will be anyone who reads this novel.
