Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #175083 in Books
• Published on: 1979-04-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Review
"The appeal of this book is . . . that it has much to say about how a good family works . . . in times both hard and easy . . . It's a moving and strangely joyful book, a kind of celebration, and it's written with an assurance far beyond the reach of most first novelists."--Anne Tyler, The New York Times Book Review"If love is details, so is storytelling, and Anne Lamott excels at it. Her way with analogy, metaphor, and evocative detail is subtle; her ability to shift from the specific to the general to the specific again, superb."--Suzanne Mantell, The Nation

Review
"The appeal of this book is . . . that it has much to say about how a good family works . . . in times both hard and easy . . . It's a moving and strangely joyful book, a kind of celebration, and it's written with an assurance far beyond the reach of most first novelists."--Anne Tyler, The New York Times Book Review

"If love is details, so is storytelling, and Anne Lamott excels at it. Her way with analogy, metaphor, and evocative detail is subtle; her ability to shift from the specific to the general to the specific again, superb."--Suzanne Mantell, The Nation

About the Author
Anne Lamott is the author of five novels and two works of nonfiction, Operating Instructions and Bird by Bird. She lives in Northern California.

Customer Reviews

Real life just is what it is...
Ok...so Lamott's approach might be a little "random" here, but I value her candid honesty. Most of us would never get that transparent and reflective about our most important relationships and how what happens in them shapes our lives - not only because of them, but in spite of them. I appreciate how this author lets us see, through her gifted prose, how she thinks and evolves from this very first write to her very latest. She was a disaster waiting to happen, but has much to teach us (further evidenced in her subsequent books) about a God who is there, is not silent, and works with us right where we really live. Her wacky poignant out-of-the-box humor filters for us the tough stuff of real life so we too might look at it more thoughtfully - or so that we might be able to look at it at all."

Anne doesn't disappoint
I'll admit, I'm a huge Anne Lamott fan, but this was the only book of hers that I hadn't read until now (I know, I'm about 20 years late). But I wasn't let down, even though it was her first published novel.

I've had my share of family medical scares, including one of my own, and it was amazing at how dead-on Anne illustrates the emotions that people go through in times of crisis. My family is similar to the one in the book, in that we truly exercise the "laughter is the best medicine" mantra. But sometimes you just can't laugh at the face of a horrible disease like cancer ... and sometimes you have to just to survive. That's what this book is all about.

Some people might read this and think, "What was the point?" I read it and thought, "Wow. Anne just gets human emotion and writes about it superbly." This book is basically a commentary about life and death, why bad things happen to good people, etc., told through stories about the family in the book, and it's very autobiographical.

It's not my favorite Lamott book, but it's definitely at the top of the list.

She makes me laugh
I had missed reading this book by Lamott for some reason and when I saw it on the front cover of her new book ordered it to catch up. I am so glad I did as the insights are so fun and even though the material is heavy and my life is "heavy" right now...I find a smile on my face and some laugh outloud moments....I am so glad I ordered the book and dove right into it's story.