SOURCE: Mead, Rebecca. “A Predilection for the Zinger.” London Review of Books (10 December 1998): 28.

In the following review, Mead examines the stories in Birds of America, commenting on Moore's ability to jolt readers with abrupt endings and weightier subjects framed within tales full of sarcasm, barbs, and lighthearted puns.

It is rare these days for a book or story to get talked about without the attendant behind-the-scenes efforts of publicists, and the notice of reviewers, and the author making appearances on breakfast television shows. But that is what happened in January 1997, when the New Yorker published Lorrie Moore's short story, ‘People like that Are the Only People Here’. What was so powerful about this story? The subject-matter, in the first place, was irresistibly painful. It concerns a mother, never named, who finds a blood clot while changing her baby: ‘what is this thing, startling against the white diaper, like...