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Lamott's Griping Makes Grandparenting Memoir More Annoying Than Affecting
(Note: While it is certainly not necessary to read Operating Instructions before its sequel, Some Assembly Required, I recommend doing so in order to get a more panoramic view of the relationship between Anne Lamott and her son.)
When Anne Lamott's son (the one whose first year she chronicled in Operating Instructions) becomes a father at nineteen, she deals with it the same way she did her own surprise pregnancy twenty years ago - she journals.
Putting everything down on paper helps Lamott cope with all the anxiety, frustration and stress she feels while watching her only child, Sam, learn how to be a father. At the same time, it gives her a vehicle for expressing the intense love she has for her grandson, Jax ("This is the one fly in the grandma ointment—the total love addiction—the highest highs, and then withdrawal, craving, scheming to get another fix" (40-41). As with Operating Instructions, Lamott's unfailing honesty makes her story intimate, engrossing and illuminating.3 comments:
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I find myself in turmoil reading your review. I'm sure it's not easy being a grandmother, but it's also not easy being a mother with a disapproving mother/mother-in-law.
ReplyDeleteRita - My thoughts exactly!
ReplyDeleteA friend recommended Operating Instructions, but I found Lamott's non-stop whining and self-pity intensely annoying, especially since she was blessed with a herd of minions who bought her groceries, did her laundry, and tended her baby months after she recovered from giving birth. She's supremely comfortable with allowing people to do things for her that she's entirely capable of doing for herself. I don't find neurotic navel-gazing princesses entertaining, so I won't be reading any more of her work.
ReplyDelete