The publication of "Self-Help" introduced readers to Lorrie Moore's
refined blend of humor and insight, and made her one of the best-loved
writers of her generation. These stories, told in a voice that is at
once witty, melancholy, and bravely honest, paint a tableau of lovers
and family, of loss and pleasure, desire and memory. From the young
secretary who by day hopes someone will notice her Phi Beta Kappa key
and by night makes love to a married man she met at a Florsheim shoe
store, to the shattering of a marriage by the shores of a tranquil lake,
"Self-Help" is a unique, enduring work of short fiction.