|
A self-described “author, mom, nana, activist,” Lamott takes on subjects that make us squirm (God! Politics! Addiction!) and neutralizes them with humor and empathy. In her bestselling memoir Operating Instructions, she gives a mordant account of her life as a single mother trying to stay sober even as her newborn squalls and her best friend navigates a terminal diagnosis. Moving yet laugh-out-loud funny, it’s an antidote to sentimental books about parenting and is now considered a classic. The follow-up memoir, Some Assembly Required, chronicles her son’s journey as a teenage dad. Her message: Nothing happens the way we expect it to, so we might as well laugh and be grateful anyway. Cockeyed but not credulous optimism is a thread that runs through all of Lamott’s work, from beloved novels such as Crooked Little Heart and Blue Shoe to a particular favorite of ours, the essay collection Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. And as our world gets ever more confusing and off-kilter, her books on joy and spirituality, including Help, Thanks, Wow, Traveling Mercies, and the upcoming Somehow: Thoughts on Love, are exactly what we need right now. Keep an open heart, Lamott tells us, and you’ll find beauty in even the most unlikely circumstances. Spend time with an Anne Lamott book and you’ll understand why she’s our quintessential literary sweetheart.
|
