It is impossible to find a negative review, a sour or disparaging word, about Lorrie Moore's Birds of America. And justifiably so – this is how short stories should be written. Though she already had two other short story collections and two novels under her belt, the release of Birds of America was a turning point for Moore; she is now mentioned in the same breath as short story writing greats Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff and Alice Munro. Birds of America is at once wise, punchy, funny and sad?so sad. With language that is clever and crisp, Moore deftly strips the disguises and barriers we spend our whole lives building and exposes us for the quirky, vulnerable and often confused individuals we are. The characters that inhabit Birds of America are immediately and almost embarrassingly recognizable. Unlike Aimee Bender or Julia Slavin, Moore doesn't need to create absurdist situations or surreal character quirks to modernize her stories. The fully realized plots to all of these stories define contemporary people in contemporary America; every nuance and detail contributes to an emotional understanding of humankind. Not enough good can be said about this collection. It is a beautiful book and the world can only be better for having Lorrie Moore in it. Georgie, Powells.com

A remarkable series of portraits of the young, cool and lost in contemporary America. Moore's ability to combine dark humour with powerful, lyrical language makes for a stunning book full of universal and personal truths.

"[Lorrie Moore] is both funny and mean in 'Birds of America', her new collection of stories, 12 of them, and this is good....Resigned, heartbreaking, all that. Even so, while Moore's characters are beaten and weathered, cuckolded and tired..., these stories are, to the last, nothing if not affirming, nothing if not joyful." – Dave Eggers, Salon

"Lorrie Moore is writing in top form. She is up there with Tobias Wolff and Raymond Carver--and, within this substantial and generous collection, she gives us the strange and terrible sweep of America as fully as any of the major novelists." – Emily Perkins, Literary Review

"At once sad and funny, lyrical and prickly, Birds of America not only reaffirms Ms. Moore's virtuosic skills as a writer, but also attests to the deepening emotional chiaroscuro of her wise and beguiling work." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"A marvelous collection, deeper than anything Moore has written and yet underscored by that trademark humor in the face of familiar awfulness. Her stories are tough, lean, funny, and metaphysical....Birds of America has about it a wild beauty that simply makes one feel more connected to life." Gail Caldwell, The Boston Globe

"Birds of America, especially its three final stories, will stand by itself as one of our funniest, most telling anatomies of human love and vulnerability" James McManus, The New York Times Book Review

Moore's stories, in this third collection, are witty explorations of the subject of mortality and grief.

Beginning with a story about a second-rate film actress involved with a mechanic who has not the least idea who she was as an actress or is as a human being, this is a series of portraits of the young, the hip, the lost, the unsettled and the unhinged of modern-day America.