First, prepare for gushing. Second, I am six and a half months pregnant (ok, six and a quarter--it's hot here and I need something to feel good about) so the timing of this book is apt. Third, you should know that Anne Lamott will be the first author I credit when I become a famous writer myself.
Now that you know those things, oh my goodness, I love this book. I love almost everything Annie writes (that's what she calls herself so I'm only taking small liberties). My favorites are her memoirs because they are refreshingly real and honest. This one, as the subtitle clearly explains, is on becoming a grandma. It's kind of a sequel to her book Operating Instructions in which she journals about becoming a mother when she was single, broke, and newly sober. I loved that one too. Now she's 55 and a her son, who is young, broke, and recently separated from his girlfriend, finds out he's going to be a father. They go through the year together, the four of them, Anne, Sam (the dad), Amy (the mom), and Jax (the baby), plus a rotating cast of hilarious and wonderful family and friends. They make my enormous extended family look small (and normal).
If you're thinking this has been done before, this blogging about baby thing, then you don't know Annie. She finds humor and irony and despair and joy all in the same poop anecdote. She turns diapers into major life lessons. She loves Jesus but says the f word. She's a hoot. Here's proof:
Top Five Quotes that Made Me Laugh or Cry or Say "Me Too!"
Amy and Sam despair at my underwear...they do not think I can ever get a boyfriend with underpants at like these.
The single most radical thing I know...is that I get to take care of myself. Of course, Sam and Amy get to take care of themselves, too; so this is not so great.
He seems to be in a workshop on the concepts of In and Out and Off. All the books on the shelves, Off. All the pony figurines in the box, Out. Then In.
Some people who shall remain nameless tricked me into loving them and ruined my life.
Sam called to say that Jax had held his bottle by himself for the first time. He's nearly ready for a paper route.
Does that not say it all? Anne Lamott is so wonderfully tongue in cheek, self deprecating, and reverently irreverent that she makes me want to stalk her.
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