Salon critic Stephanie Zacharek calls “A Gate at the Stairs” exhausting and unsatisfying in a review posted today. Her theory: Author Lorrie Morre’s aggressive cleverness works better “when diced into smallish bits.”
In other words, there’s a reason why she’s so acclaimed as a short story writer, less accomplished as a novelist.
Which isn’t to say Zacharek doesn’t like parts of “A Gate at the Stairs.” Like me, she has a mixed view, although her criticism takes a different form. In a nutshell:
“Moore isn’t lazy,” Zacharek writes. “She has the exact opposite problem: This is a case of a writer’s working too hard. She doesn’t allow enough air around her sentences — there’s no space for the gags to breathe, and her brainy contemplations continue to stack up until they resemble piles of clutter.”
The critic doesn’t address Moore’s awkward plotting, which actually speaks to the same problem. Another reminder that novels are a different beast than short stories.
Read the review. Earlier: ‘A Gate at the Stairs’ is good, but is it great?
It’s been a while since Jane Campion’s last movie, so I’d almost forgotten what a stunning visual stylist she is. All that rushed back when I saw “Bright Star” last night. From the moment Abbie Cornish strode across the English countryside in her bright red getup, topped by an extravagant chapeau, I knew we were in for a visual treat. The movie is very painterly, with beautiful shot after beautiful shot. But that’s not the only way “Bright Star” appeals to the senses: the movie also served up aural delights, playing off the stillness and repressed desires with ambient noise. Rarely have rustling reeds been so evocative.
Who would you have guessed was the first Congressman to have a website? Al Gore, right? Nope, it was actually fellow Harvard alum, and decidedly old school pol Teddy Kennedy. This is my favorite factoid yet to surface in the wake of Kennedy’s death late last night.
Wrote a few words about the growing studio battle against Redbox for Thompson on Hollywood, riffing on the notion that Redbox is a 
Am back from muggyville, Virginia, where I caught a pesky summer cold while visiting my mother, who is recovering quite nicely from surgery on her ticker. Happily, the weather is much nicer here near the beach. And my review of “Born Round” popped up in today’s LA Times.
Many a foodie would kill for the job that Frank Bruni is leaving voluntarily. But how many of them have as complicated a relationship with eating as the outgoing NYT restaurant critic? In “Born Round,” Bruni chronicles his love for food, and battle to control his appetite, which he had finally gotten under control by the time he took the job. Few writers would be able to pull off these stories the way Bruni did. 
And now, for a reminder that middle-age need not mean sitting around whinging, I bring you Dara Torres. The Olympian who mounted an improbable comeback at age 41 is still competing one year later despite pesky knee problems and a rambunctious toddler at home.
Diane Garrett 