I am still reading Moore's A Gate at the Stairs, and find it an interesting portrait of a sensitive woman's loss of innocence. Although some of the narrative threads seem forced, I find Moore's realist study of mores refreshing and complicated. The narrator seem too knowing at times, but increasingly that seems appropriate: she's a smart but naive young woman, observant but oblivious in some ways. Also, she's telling a story from her past--she's lived to tell the tales. Through Tassie Moore demonstrates how vision and understanding are shaped by expectation and past experience. The novel places Tassie in situations that are hard to maneuver emotionally and makes her responses ripe for interpretation.