Synopses & Reviews
A tale of music and memory and the journey into adulthood. Berie Carr recalls for us the summer of 1972, when she and her best friend, Sills, were 15. Driven by their restlessness, and making their own loose rules, they embark on a summer that both shatters and intensifies the bond between them.
Review
"Lorrie Moore is best known for her cuttingly humorous short stories that feature quick witted, sharp tongued female characters. Like those stories, this novel is told by a female whose acerbic asides can make one laugh out loud. But, ultimately, it is the emotional depth of this story that holds one's attention. Berie Carr is an American visiting Paris with her husband, from whom she feels a growing estrangement. The central story revolves around Berie's recollection of her intense adolescent relationship with Sils, an attractive friend who played Cinderella in the theme park where they worked. As she tells of their experiences, and her alienation from her own family, Berie opens herself to the reader, and one feels Moore opening up in a similar manner. There is sentiment here, for this is a coming of age story, but Moore avoids becoming sentimental with her acutely observed detail and precise prose, even when dealing with the near-clichéd topic of abortion and the emotional toll it takes.Who Will Run the Frog Hospital is an intimate book that shows Lorrie Moore's artistic vision deepening." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
"Moore isn't prolific, but she is proficient, powerful, and, to those who treasure her irony and skittish tenderness, precious. In her first novel since Anagrams (1986), Moore has deepened her palette and increased her discernment into the complex states of loneliness and lovingness....a needlepoint narrative in which each protective word is a stitch made with precision and a flash of light." Donna Seaman, Booklist
Review
"Moore's account of a disillusioned American in Paris recounting a childhood friendship feels like rereading a diary entry about that first middle-school dance dreamy, tender, embarrassing, and endlessly enticing....Moore's voice sings and soars in this perfect little book too bad it ends so soon." Kirkus Reviews