I became a big fan of Lorrie Moore after reading her book Birds of America. Soon after reading that book I ordered Self-Help from Amazon.com. Despite the fact that they claimed to have one in stock, it took them six months to finally give up trying to send it to me. Fortunately, Vintage just released a new edition though, as you can see from the post title, I ended up ordering the reprint edition of Like Life instead (based on preferable reviews). I did like Like Life, though it is not nearly as good as Birds of America. The stories don't have as much variety, and almost all of them seem to be about young, female artists who live in tiny, crappy apartments in bad NYC neighborhoods.
The title story, "Like Life," has some interesting sci-fi elements thrown into it, such as a city where no water is drinkable and televisions are manadatory, though these quirks don't seem to be essential to the story. I am pretty sure Moore is making a kind of pun. The story is not actually about life, it is LIKE life. Of course this reminds us that ALL fiction is not life but, rather, like life.
