Self-Help – Reviewed by Hannah Burns

Before summer vacation started, after my freshman year in high school, my beloved English teacher handed me a copy of “Self- Help” (1985) by Lorrie Moore. The book is a collection of nine short stories with women as the central figures.
Moore’s writing is playful, quirky, and often tongue-in-cheek. The stories are relevant even today. While reading, I identified with the different characters – a young woman, a naive woman, and a woman confronted by her own misery and feeling entrapped in her life. But, as emotional as these stories are, reading from one line to the next can bring tears followed by laughter.
An omnipresent narrator tells the stories of the women and comes to realize that life weaves the stories, and the female protagonists are simply the ones who live their lives. The book is one of my favorites. I have read it over and over. My copy is now dog-eared, underlined,
and tabbed. I am prone to losing things but not this book! Its wisdom will remain a part of who I am, and I find much inspiration in the pages. I return to this book, gain and again, particularly the chapter, “How To Become A Writer.” It provided a most helpful lesson during the time one particular semester I wasn’t chosen to participate in the school’s newspaper. It helped me understand in the very real world of writers, it is okay to fail. Moore pulled back the curtains, stripped the walls of elaborate décor, and showed me the flesh and bones of a writer’s world. It was a relief to me to learn being a good writer takes much, much more than using the correct verb tense or proper voice.