“For decades I’ve been following the travails of Anne Lamott, starting in 1993 with her memoir Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year. It’s here that we meet son Sam, and the slightly neurotic and crazed mom, Anne. Since then she’s published in more genres than imaginable: fiction, biography, writing, and faith/religion. And I must confess, I’ve read them all. So Lamott can write about tomato soup and I’ll most likely read it. Some Assembly Required returns to the journal format, this time a co-journal written with her son Sam, now an adult (well kinda) with a son of his own, Jax. This is Anne’s send-up to grandparenthood, and Sam’s attempt to give his son what Anne gave him—a book all about his childhood. For her part, this new memoir reveals a grown-up Anne Lamott with more self-knowledge and life wisdom than her earlier journal. ‘I’d always looked forward with enthusiasm to becoming a grandmother someday, in, say, ten years from now, perhaps after he had graduated from the art academy . . . and when I was old enough to be a grandmother.’ Sam struggles with his marriage, his studies, and life with a newborn. There’s nothing profound here. But that’s where Anne shines; she is able to describe the most mundane circumstances with insight, candor, humor and a completely self-deprecating sense of her own messed-up self. The thing is, I love her writing. In this new memoir, she captures some truths about life that any of us might discover, but she describes them in wickedly funny ways and with acid-tongued honesty. If the actual material here is a little lean, the writing is perfectly-pitched Lamott. I loved it.”—Wendee, Queen Anne Books, Seattle. Buy Some Assembly Required from Queen Anne Books.
Face Out
Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son by Anne Lamott, Sam Lamott
April 11, 2012