It is rare these days for a book or story to get talked about without the attendant behind-the-scenes efforts of publicists, and the notice of reviewers, and the author making appearances on breakfast television shows. But that is what happened in January 1997, when the New Yorker published Lorrie Moore's short story, 'People like that Are the Only People Here'. What was so powerful about this story? The subject-matter, in the first place, was irresistibly painful. It concerns a mother, never named, who finds a blood clot while changing her baby: 'what is this thing, startling against the white diaper, like a tiny mouse heart packed in snow?' The baby is rushed to the hospital ('Such pleasingly instant service! Just say "blood". Just say "diaper". Look what you get!'), where a scan reveals that he has a malignant tumour on his left kidney. The mother first tries to blame her own body for the ultrasound reading - 'I've never heard of a baby with a tumour, and frankly, I was standing very close' - then blames her bad parenting skills for the incomprehensible truth:

LRB 10 December 1998 | PDF Download