SOURCE: Malin, Irving. Review of Birds of America, by Lorrie Moore. Review of Contemporary Fiction 19, no. 1 (spring 1999): 196.

In the following review, Malin offers praise for Birds of America, complimenting the style and descriptions in the stories.

Perhaps the titles of Moore's first two books offer a clue to her surprising, wonderful fiction. Self-Help and Anagrams suggest that words are our salvation, that language, artfully (re)arranged, helps us to resist those forces which we feel every day. Her style delights us; it suggests that we can—if only briefly—dance. Moore's latest collection [Birds of America] is her best.

In “Willing” an aging actress finds that she has lost her place in Hollywood. She now lives in a plain place; she eats, drinks, loves without any sense of hope. Only her ability to describe her condition, only her creativity rescues her from total despair. Moore describes Walter, the...