|
 
$7.95
Used Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionsHard Laughterby Anne Lamott
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Anne Lamott's poignant first novel, reissued in an attractive new edition.
A writer and sometime housecleaner, Jennifer is 23 when her beloved father, Wallace, is diagnosed with a brain tumor. This catastrophic discovery sets off Anne Lamott's unexpectedly sweet and funny first novel, which is made dramatic not so much by Wallace's illness as by the emotional wake it sweeps under Jen and her brothers, self-contained Ben and feckless, lovable Randy. With characteristic affection and accuracy, Lamott sketches this offbeat family and their nearest and dearest as they draw ever closer in the intimacy Jen prizes "among the other estimable things: good music, good hard laughter, good sex, good industry, and good books." Review:"In Hard Laughter, her first novel, Anne Lamott uses a brain tumor to glue together a wandering account of daily survival in a coastline town of northern California. The narrator and protagonist is Jennifer, a 24-year-old aspiring writer, and the tumor is in the brain of Wallace, her father. The setting is Clement, California, a town populated for the most part by a collection of characters as believable as those one might find in comic books. Lamott does well with Jennifer and a remarkable ten-year-old friend, but because many of the characters lack the depth that would bring them alive, the reader is left with a sense of having been only a spectator, of never having been involved in a crisis that demands extraordinary emotional resiliency of Jennifer and her family. The book's conclusion is an admirable exercise in restraint." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review) 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 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:"Anne Lamott is a novelist of genius." Los Angeles Times About the AuthorAnne Lamott is the author of five novels and two works of nonfiction, Operating Instructions and Bird by Bird. She lives in Northern California. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
Other books you might like
Related Subjects
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
|
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
Follow us on...
|
||||||||||
Don't Miss
