The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 2 March 1998
by Anne Lamott
So, you want to be a writer? There are countless advice books out there, but one soon realizes something missing from their tone: Reality. In this engaging book, Anne Lamott gives us a compassionate description of the labor pains of a writer. This reader has seen this author speak a couple times, while attending broadcasts of the radio program West Coast Live and found her somewhat disturbed and angry, a person who made one uncomfortable. But her readings always had humanity and compassion. This book desribes the writing process and makes it sound like something you can do. Your little contribution to the world's mental health. Through her own experience, quotes from her work, as well as that of other authors, and through direct confrontation of common writers' ailments, Lamott tells it like it is. The pain, concentration and self abasement that come with birthing your own vision of truth. The book is funny, sad, and comforting.
Also by Lamott: [Crooked Little Heart] [All New People]