Synopses & Reviews
Mattie Ryder is a marvelously funny, well-intentioned, religious, sarcastic, tender, angry, and broke recently divorced mother of two young children. Then she finds a small rubber blue shoe-the kind you might get from a gumball machine-and a few other trifles that were left years ago in her deceased father's car. They seem to hold the secrets to her messy upbringing, and as she and her brother follow these clues to uncover the mystery of their past, she begins to open her heart to her difficult, brittle mother and the father she thought she knew. And with that acceptance comes an opening up to the possibilities of romantic love.
In a disarming blend of everyday life and the sublime, of reverence and irreverence, and of humor and grace, Anne Lamott speaks directly to our most closely held concerns, bringing comfort to anyone -all of us-whose family life can feel overwhelming and uncontainable.
Lamott's formidable storytelling gifts have gained her a large and passionate following, and anybody who has experienced the delightful humor and the canny understanding of her previous work will be similarly charmed by Blue Shoe.
Review
"Moving and funny, fetchingly irreverent and soulful, Blue Shoe is an absolute joy." Chicago Sun-Times
Review
"Lamott continually displays her gift for finding the right combination of humor and small but significant revelations in ordinary moments....Lamott has explored similar terrain in her earlier works, but the scope and freshness of this novel could make it a breakout work for her." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Lamott infuses this peripatetic story of a womans struggles after a divorce with the same quirky brand of Christianity she explored in her wildly popular memoir, Traveling Mercies....Lots of charm in the details, not much for momentum." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Anxiety and infidelity, rejection and betrayal substantial subjects all, and ones that Lamott treats with boundless grace and compassion but with precious little of the luminous lyricism or wry wisdom for which she is known and loved." Carol Haggas, Booklist
Review
"Lamott's use of language allows us to see the smallest details from a fresh perspective, and her stories of motherhood and faith never fail to entertain and move us, all within the tightly wound ball of a good literary yarn....Lamott uses offbeat, descriptive language...and her story is as good as her funky turn of a phrase." Library Journal
Synopsis
The
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER from the beloved author of
Bird by Bird and
Traveling Mercies.
A funny, warm, and wise novel about family and forgiveness from an author acclaimed as "nothing short of miraculous" (The New Yorker).
Synopsis
The New York Times Bestseller from the beloved author of Bird by Bird and Traveling Mercies.
Mattie Ryder is marvelously neurotic, well-intentioned, funny, religious, sarcastic, tender, angry, and broke. Her life at the moment is a wreck: her marriage has failed, her mother is failing, her house is rotting, her waist is expanding, her children are misbehaving, and she has a crush on a married man. Then she finds a small rubber blue shoenothing more than a gumball trinketleft behind by her father. For Mattie, it becomes a talismana chance to recognize the past for what it was, to see the future as she always hoped it could be, and to finally understand her family, herself, and the ever-unfolding mystery of her sweet, sad, and sometimes surprising life.
About the Author
Anne Lamott is the author of the national bestsellers Traveling Mercies, Bird by Bird, and Operating Instructions, as well as five novels, including Crooked Little Heart and Rosie. Her column in Salon magazine was voted the Best of the Web by Newsweek magazine, and she is a past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.