wdyl:two boys.

so since i just want to return lorrie moore's like life to the library soon, i will be posting my notes of the stories online.


"two boys" is about a rather promiscuous woman named mary who is involved with two men at once (hence the title, "two boys") and her "nervous collapse" afterwards. mary eventually runs off to canada, comes back and realizes an important thing in her life, taught to her by a little girl. the realization: there is no perfect man. (this is addressed earlier in the story where mary invents "number three," a mix between the two men she is seeing.) all she really liked (and this is where i'm getting a bit shaky on my interpretation) was the sex. as pointed out to her by the little girl, who says that the sausages are their old boyfriends. i don't even.

stylistically, moore adheres to what she's done in the past--capitalizing on The Exception, biting accounts of The Ignorant, bringing back earlier details in a humorous fashion, and also using sometimes "longshot" metaphors/similes to describe what's going on exactly. if you don't understand that, see "thank god" by ms. rivers-moore--she does a great job of mimicking that style.

• "two boys" also showed me more things about moore (i didn't even see that pun, oops): she strays from the storyline if only for a moment to describe things, so that the reader has a better idea of what's going on. while this is helpful, it's also very disruptive (in my opinion) to what's really going on.
• there are so many contradictions--possibly showing how we are pretty inconsistent beings. thanks for that human news.
• unusual details are used to describe people's mannerisms, for instance: "Number One always ate at restaurants where the food...was all described as 'young and tender'...But Number Two went to coffee shops and ate things that...could cause you to grow weary and sad" (moore 6)."