This group of stories brings to mind that country song "Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places"; the song could summarize the theme of this group of stories. In the "Proper Library" by Carolyn Farrell the main character in this story is a young gay black man living in a the inner cities, he is torn by his love for Rakeem and his mother's desire for him to "be someone". This story is written first person point of view, so we only know what Lorrie is telling us. The second story "You're Ugly Too" by Lorrie Moore, is the story of Zoe, a college professor, that has difficulties with relationships, she is more at ease communicating with her mailman and cab driver than her students or men. This story is written in third person limited point of view. The last story, my favorite of this group, was "The Best Girlfriend You Never Had" by Pam Houston, the main character of this story is Lucille who is looking for approval from her father and dating men that are not good for her. This story is written in the first person point of view, with the information we have about our author it is art imitating life.
Our first story "Proper Library" our main character Lorrie was trying to deal with his own sexuality while being tormented by the community around him His story is still relevant today to many young men who could relate to Lorrie. All one has to do is turn on the tv or computer to hear about the young men who ended their lives because they could no longer handle the torment. Lorrie is trying to be the good son to his mother by going to school everyday even though he was abused by the other students even one of the teachers. For his mother it was important that her son gets an education and passes the city wide tests, but she also saw the outside forces pulling at him. The children are the positive love that Lorrie feels because they love Lorrie for who he is, it is an unconditional love. He is someone who loves and pays attention to them when they otherwise might be neglected by the adults in their world. Rakeem was the bad boy in this story who keeps pulling Lorrie away from school and his family. He understood Lorrie's sexual orientation because of his own, but he was not strong enough to endure what Lorrie was at school so he kept trying to pull Lorrie away from school.
The second story "You're Ugly Too" is an awkward story about a college professor, Zoe, who was so out of sync with the rest of the world. She was bright enough to be a college professor but she lacked the social skills needed to relate to her students, colleagues, and others. The story spoke of awkward moments between her and her students, where one moment she was singing and offering her beverage to another where she was ridiculing a student. Her closest friends were the mailman and the cab driver, because they expected nothing from her whereas others thought she should conform to a "normal" set of standards. Her sister tried to set her up with someone she knew, and the encounter is awkward and painful. All I could say was OMG when Zoe gave this poor man a shove almost catapulting him over the balcony. The story reminds me of the current tv show "Big Bang Theory", the four nerdy guys who are extremely intelligent but have trouble relating to simple everyday relationships. I feel sad for Zoe because of her inability to socialize in a manner that is considered the norm for her colleagues and others, because of her problem she was unable to develop relationships. She becomes so paralyzed that she was unable to even decide on furniture for her home, she would pick pieces and then return them because they did not feel right.
The last story "The Best Girlfriend You Never Had" is the story of two friends, Lucille and Lee, who should be together but they are each in love with someone else. Lucille tells us she loves Lee, everyone loves Lee but he loves Quinevere, and Quinevere loves someone else who doesn't return her love in the same way either. Gordon loves Lucille, in an obssesive way that becomes oppressive to Lucille. Both Gordon and Lucille have issues with their parents, Gordon having run away from home at young age with the desire to be more than his immigrant parents this has caused a rift between him and his family. His mother came when he won his first teaching award, she was in the audience but did not stay to see him face to face. Lucille's issues with her family are not of her doing, but those of her alcoholic parents. They were so dysfunctional when on a family trip, Lucille was stopped by a cop for numerous traffic violations. The cop felt so sorry for Lucille he let her off with a warning because he could not punish her anymore that she was already being punished.
Lucille was so desperate for the acceptance she was not getting from her father, because of those emotion she allowed Gordon to become very controlling in her life. They had been asked to leave places because of his behaviour and jealousy. What I thought was incredible was that Lucille had been in some real dangerous positions but she was more afraid of not being loved than being mugged. My favorite part of the story was the homeless man that she stepped over while fighting with Gordon, he told her he did not want her money he only wanted to see her smile. She gave him all the money in her wallet. The irony of all the misplaced love in this story is Lee's mugger who makes Lee swear to God that he will call his girlfriend and tell her he is ok.
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