Lorrie Moore's "How"

Paper Summary:

The writer of the paper examines and reviews the short story, "How" by Lorrie Moore. The writer of the paper describes the method by which "How" weaves a predictive tale of the way a relationship between the audience and a man will play out. The writer contends that the style of the tale is that of an embittered lecture, filled with the kind of explanatory detail that makes the reader immediately understand that the You of the story is actually the Me of the author. The writer further contends that the pain of what has happened in the relationship(s), as related in the story, is too great to admit to, so the author distances herself from the story by creating a third person, in this case, the reader.

From the Paper:

"The agony of relationships weighs very heavy in "How". "You will fantasize about a funeral. At that you could cry. It would be a study in post-romantic excess, something vaguely Wagnerian." She believes herself to be trapped because he is little more than a man-sized puppy who doesn't understand why you have just slapped him for peeing on the carpet, "But I love you, he will say in his soft, bewildered way...that is always enough, why is that not always enough?". The intent of this story is to purge herself, or at least the narrator thinks this is a purge, of the history of such relationships that fizzle and fade by finally talking one through all the way to the end. This is her attempt to keep these kinds of relationships at bay, to talk herself out of the next guy (or this guy) before the inevitable end. But what this story says about the narrator is so much more than the words."

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