The Collected Stories of Lorrie Moore: 'An unadulterated delight.' OBSERVER

'Although Kit and Rafe had met in the peace movement, marching, organizing, making no-nukes signs, now they wanted to kill each other.'The opening lines of the opening story remind us of some of Lorrie Moore's attributes; the ability to set a scene concisely and with wit and to explore how people and relationships change. She is right up there with the very best of short story writers such as Carver, Munro or Updike. Her dialogue is superb and spare. She writes about people and situations we instantly recognise with the impact of an observational stand up comic - but with compassion and humanity also. Superb.

The lady can certainly write, I'll give her that for sure, but the relentless themes of failing relationships, lack of communication, and futile, frustrated lives, make the collection a hard and repetitive slog. The unremitting greyness of the stories wore me down after a while, despite Lorrie Moore's talents in characterisation and concise language.

She's up there with Alice Munro as one of the great contemporary (indeed, all time) short story writers. Varied, piercingly observed and moving, these collected works are a treat and a bargain.

Brilliant collection of stories that linger. I found I loved the characters - really liked their quirky ways and I cared about them. I was sorry when I finished this book as I looked forward to opening it each night. I wish more of her work was on Kindle.

Some 660 pages of top quality short stories, compelling, dense, witty, in a unique style,Unbelievable that I only found out this author just recently, for some reason she isnot known where I live, the Netherlands