The Gate at the Stairs--what's the weather like?

What is it with the weather? The author must have a very good reason for long passages on the temperature, the season, the precipitation. "Classes began in a deep cold spell, a high of one-below for the week."

Now if I had written this book (oh that I could) I'd have left the weather right there. But Lorrie Moore went on (and on) about how really cold it was. I understand how cold weather can eat right through your gloves--it practically did while we skied in three-degree temperatures in Western Maryland this past New Years. In the book, we are shown frozen laundry, icicles, even boiling water thrown off a porch to see whether it would freeze right away. It did not.

When the book opened -- with the weather of course -- I thought it set a lyrical tone for the book which really is about a babysitter. But enough of the weather, already. It was winter on the first page and it's still winter on page 143.

The thing that bothers me is that this is a story about the babysitter and I've only had two or three wide-angle views of baby and babysitter. I have been told a bond is forming between them but I don't really see it. The problem, I think, is the details are left for other parts of the book. I don't really know what Emma looks like, though I know she's of mixed race. I don't know what the babysitter looks like, come to think of it--though first-person narratives usually don't include self-description, do they? We've had better descriptions of the missing roommate, the cute Brazilian guy in her Sufism class and even the creepy husband. Well, he seems creepy to me; I don't know how Tassie feels.

I came to this book looking for a study of baby and babysitter. I like Tassie and want to see her taking care of her charge. I am interested as a mother who hired plenty of babysitters and as the mother of daughters the same age as Tassie.

Themes of disconnection of post 9/11 America, the insidiousness of racism, recklessness in the name of love...these are supposed to be in here. I'll keep reading and maybe they'll appear. If scenes of Tassie and Emma develop I'll be happy with that. These two characters are why I'm still reading.