The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 8 September 2000
by Anne Lamott
In the 1960s, in a small Northern California town (which certainly sounds like Tiburon), a girl is growing up in a community of families who are torn asunder by the changing times. These changing times aren't really immediate in the story, but from the girl's point of view look like mysterious outside forces working against the people around her. Nanny is a normal little girl, her brother is a nice guy who explores his hippie nature, her mother is depressed but full of faith, and her father is a controversial and unappreciated writer. But what we see are the many people and the many situations that evolve around Nanny's life. There are betrayals, deaths, and sadness. It is difficult to point to any one driving plot in this novel, which sounds so much like a memoir. Anne Lamott, though, has a gift for describing the beauty within the troubles of just living. The town changes, the trains vanish, the kids grow up, the adults move away or die (and there's a wedding in the little white church upon the hill, where my wife and I also got married). Such is life. Lamott tells it with a faithful sensitivity, and a vivid eye for detail.
[Other books that take place in California]
Also by Lamott: [Crooked Little Heart] [Bird by Bird]