Synopses & Reviews
With generosity, humor, and pathos, Anne Lamott takes on the barrage of dislocating changes that shook the Sixties. Leading us through the wake of these changes is Nanny Goodman, one small girl living in Marin County, California.
A half-adult child among often childish adults, Nanny grows up with two spectacularly odd parents a writer father and a mother who is "a constant source of material." As she moves into her adolescence, so, it seems, does America. While grappling with her own coming-of-age, Nanny witnesses an entire culture's descent into drugs, the mass exodus of fathers from her town, and rapid real-estate and technological development that foreshadow a drastically different future.
In All New People, Anne Lamott works a special magic, transforming failure into forgiveness and illuminating the power of love to redeem us.
Review
"Eloquent, detailed, emotionally honest...Lamott deserves praise for telling it like it is." People
Review
"Anne Lamott is the two-way mirror of our hopes, insecurities, and cheating hearts, an astute observer of human nature. She knows that what we don't know can hurt us. In true Lamott fashion, life doesn't stay neatly within boundaries, the best team doesn't always win, and only the voyeur knows who you really are. Fathers die, mothers drink, but there's also this: Love, redemption, and the certainty that life goes on." Amy Tan
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"Smart, funny, and comforting...Lamott has a conversational style that perfectly conveys her friendly self-deprecating humor." Los Angeles Times Book Review
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"Lamott here achieves her promising potential in a novel of rare sensitivity and evocative power....The emotional complexity of this understated tale makes it an absorbing read." Publishers Weekly
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"In spare prose Lamott creates endearing, quirky characters in scenes memorable for being so skillfully drawn and universally appealing. A heart-warmer, to be savored." Library Journal
Review
"Anne Lamott is a cause for celebrations. [Her] real genius lies in capturing the ineffable, describing not perfect moments, but imperfect ones...perfectly. She is nothing short of miraculous." The New Yorker
About the Author
Anne Lamott is the author of four other novels: Hard Laughter, Rosie, Joe Jones, and the recent Crooked Little Heart. Her non-fiction includes Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, and the best-selling Traveling Mercies. She lives in Northern California with her son, Sam.