Blue Shoe

by Anne Lamott, Laural Merlington (Reader)

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 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.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Novels, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Adult, Family

Audio Cassette

First published September 30, 2002

About the author

Anne Lamott is an author of several novels and works of non-fiction. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, her non-fiction works are largely autobiographical, with strong doses of self-deprecating humor and covering such subjects as alcoholism, single motherhood, and Christianity. She appeals to her fans because of her sense of humor, her deeply felt insights, and her outspoken views on topics such as her left-of-center politics and her unconventional Christian faith. She is a graduate of Drew College Preparatory School in San Francisco, California. Her father, Kenneth Lamott, was also a writer and was the basis of her first novel Hard Laughter.

Lamott's life is documented in Freida Lee Mock's 1999 documentary Bird by Bird: A Film Portrait of Writer Anne Lamott.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh my, oh my, oh my! I really don't know what to say about this book except ... oh my, oh my, oh my!

Anne Lamott is such an incredibly talented and honest writer, but this is a big unwieldy mess of a book. There are little gems in the writing, in the characterizations, and in the telling of this novel, which saves it, for me, from an "I hated it" rating. The problem is that it tackles too many storylines and ultimately doesn't do any of them justice. In the laundry list of conflicting narratives, the novel grapples with faith, divorce, aging parents, hidden pasts, parenthood, sexual abuse, infidelity, and statutory rape. A few of these issue in one narrative would be a lot; all of them together read like twelve hours of Lifetime made-for-TV movies.

[Barb · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. It seems as though the author didn't herself have kids or else just didn't get it, because every part that had to do with the woman and her children seemed so off the reservation for me it just made the whole story completely unbelievable and contrived. Also the whole religion thing was not entirely consistent either with the woman's behavior or attitudes towards others, like she went to church with earphones on.

[Julia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book will not be taking space on my book shelves! I have heard good reviews on Anne Lamott's "Traveling Mercies" which is about her faith. So maybe she writes good non-fiction. This book is a novel and I don't think it is written very well. It just seems like a lot of drival to me. None of the characters are likeable. The main character, Mattie, is a recently divorced woman with 2 children. But she herself is extremely immature and not too bright. But I don't think this is the intent of the author.
Mattie feels it is important to go to church every Sunday, but there is no connection between church and her life. However, the author throws in religious phrases and thoughts now and again to make the reader think the characters have a faith. As an example: Mattie asks God, "is it O.K. if I keep having sex with my ex-husband who is now remarried with a pregnant wife while I am having sex with my new boyfriend?" I just found this whole book rather stupid. I see it has gotten alot of 5 star ratings, but that just means we are all different in our interests, right?

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a devoted reader of Lamott’s autobiographical essays about faith against the odds, but have been wary of trying her fiction, suspecting I wouldn’t enjoy it as much. Well, it’s true that I prefer her nonfiction on the whole, but this was an enjoyably offbeat novel featuring the kind of frazzled antiheroine who wouldn’t be out of place in Anne Tyler’s work.

Mattie Ryder has left her husband and returned to her Bay Area family home with her young son and daughter. She promptly falls for Daniel, the handyman she hires to exterminate the rats, but he’s married, so she keeps falling into bed with her ex, Nicky, even after he acquires a new wife and baby. Her mother, Isa, is drifting ever further into dementia. A blue rubber shoe that Mattie finds serves as a totem of her late father – and his secret life. She takes a gamble that telling the truth, no matter what the circumstances, will see her right.

I found the protagonist relatable and the ensemble cast of supporting characters amusing. Lamott crafts some memorable potted descriptions: “She was Jewish, expansive and yeasty and uncontained, as if she had a birthright for outrageousness” and “He seemed so constrained, so neatly trimmed, someone who’d been doing topiary with his soul all his life.” She turns a good phrase, and adopts the same self-deprecating attitude towards Mattie that she has towards herself in her memoirs: “She usually hoped to look more like Myrna Loy than an organ grinder’s monkey when a man finally proclaimed his adoration.”

At a certain point – maybe two-thirds of the way through – my inward reply to a lot of the novel’s threads was “okay, I get it; can we move on?” Yes, the situation with Isa is awful; yes, something’s gotta give with Daniel and his wife; yes, the revelations about her father seem unbearable. But with a four-year time span, it felt like Mattie was stuck in the middle for far too long. It’s also curious that Mittie doesn’t apply her zany faith (a replica of Lamott’s) to questions of sexual morality – though that’s true of more liberal Christian approaches. All in all, I had some trouble valuing this as a novel because of how much I know about Lamott’s life and how closely I saw the storyline replicating her family dynamic.

(Secondhand purchase, c. 2006 – I found a signed hardback in a library book sale back in my U.S. hometown for $1.)

[Kathleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, "didn't like it" is as bad as Goodreads gets, but believe me, I looked for a "hated it" button. I really HATED it! Mattie, the main character, is awful - self obsessed, but lacking any self awareness. A terrible friend, an awful mother, a lousy daughter - Mattie runs the gamut. Constantly praying (but virtually always just for herself - please, please, God, let my friend's husband leave her for me, etc.) and nearly constantly whining, Mattie is the most selfish character I have seen in quite a long time. I got the impression the author didn't see her in that way, but rather as an endearing figure - trying to forgive her parents and her ex-husband and make her way in the world. She isn't though - she is just bitter, selfish and generally awful. Idly fantasizing about your mother dropping dead, killing your kids or drowning their beloved iguana in drano is not cute, really it is not.

I have heard raves about Anne Lamott's nonfiction and will try it at some point (it may take a while for the memory of this horror to fade). As a lover of novels, I am also a lover of characters, and the ones here are just not compelling in any fashion. The only time I related to anyone in this book was when Mattie's young son, Harry, locked himself in the bathroom and refused to let Mattie in, screaming "You will just talk about God!" Scoot over, Harry, I feel you!

[Jon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in this novel, since I thoroughly enjoyed the author's Traveling Mercies and had been looking forward to this. Lamott has created a character essentially like herself only more neurotic and less funny. She then provided her with enough of a story for 40 or 50 pages and stretched it to a 320 page novel. It went on and on, circling the same old problems, only inching forward occasionally. The heroine made incredibly stupid choices and whined when the results were not happy for her. She seemed manic-depressive, was in favor of therapy or drugs or both for her friends and relatives, but somehow the possibility never came up for her. In the last pages of the book she was still able to revel in the joy of her close family frolicking in the Pacific surf, and then a few paragraphs later imagine herself pulling a Virginia Woolf by loading her pockets with rocks and walking into the ocean. She thought to herself: "She must have a screw loose somewhere. Oh, well." Oh well indeed. The blue shoe of the title is a little rubber sneaker she has found in her late father's effects and which she takes as a talisman. She loans it out to friends who are in desperate situations, and gets it back when times are particularly bad for her. In the last pages it is lost irretrievably. I can think of a dozen things it might have symbolized, none of them very helpful. There are many attempts at evocative metaphors that don't work. "Some mornings the sun hauled itself up reluctantly, rolling like a slow bowling ball across the sky." What can one say to this except: No, it didn't. The religious insight I was hoping for never rose much above the level of a bumper sticker. A big disappointment.

[Sylvia Valevicius · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read some reviews that were barely one star for this book. I am giving this book five stars because the writing craft is extraordinary! Period.

This is my first Anne Lamott book. I had heard of her but had never read anything of hers. After finding it at Goodwill, where many gems are donated by others and discovered and cherished by me, I read it in about a week, taking my time. Half way through the book, I stopped and ordered her 'Bird by Bird' from Amazon - a non-fiction about writing, itself.

I loved the imperfect characters; they seemed to express reality. I did not judge them as evil, but as flawed human beings. There are so many confused people in real life that get stuck in situations against their own better judgement. I did not approve of a lot of the behaviours but I enjoyed seeing what they would do with their lives, how they would solve their problems. I found a certain character, Abby, in the adult of her life a bit extreme. But you never know - given her experiences...I liked many of the surprises which I guessed at, and had the satisfaction of being right.(SMILE.) I also wanted more from the ending. But then again, that's the reader's version. And I AM glad that certain things did not happen (hint: Isa)

Here are some examples of beautiful writing:

'It was not facing what life dealt that made you crazy, but rather trying to set life straight where it was unstraightenable.'

'When she sat down, she curled around herself, wrapping one leg around the other as if she were made out of pipe cleaners.'

'One rainy morning in mid-March, Ella sat at the window staring like a cat at the snakes of water that raced down the pane.'

Enviable talent. Can't wait for my writing book to arrive in the mail!

[Christopher Hicks · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a weird book! I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it either. I found it interesting at times but mostly the main characters were just so blah!! I was lost on the time period of this story. None of what the author wrote lined up. I could never figure out entire sequences of the book and that’s irritating to me. There were also storylines and characters that just disappeared and I’m still not sure of the great significance of the”blue shoe” other than something to use to give a title. I was gonna give it three stars but the horrible nonsensical ending (probably one of the worst endings I’ve ever read in any book! I still don’t get it😐) caused it to lose a star. Despite the bad it did have good detail and I found a lot of things in it that I was personally emotionally connected to. The whole storyline between Mattie and her mother Isa was at times eerily familiar to things I personally dealt with with my own mother. A better ending could have really saved this book.

[Jennifer Lane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book club selection but I found it too depressing and boring to finish. Here are a few comments from what I did read.

Mattie Ryder is recently divorced with two young children. Somehow she makes a living from modeling size 12 clothing for Sears? She's depressed from her divorce, and ruminates about her family, her children, and her friends. She sleepwalks through life, and the story plods along without much happening. When she finds a little blue shoe her father owned, the object becomes a small symbol of hope for her, bringing her comfort in her down time.

I did enjoy the symbolism of the shoe. Here Maddie reflects:

She'd read somewhere that after World War II ended in Europe, lost children wandered around until they were gathered in campus run by the Allies. There they were fed and cared for while relatives were located or new families found who could take them in. In one camp it was discovered that none of the children was sleeping well. Their nerves were shot, the memories fresh and haunting. Then a social worker determined that if the children were each given a piece of bread to hold at night, they could fall asleep. This was not bread to eat--there was plenty of that when the children were hungry. No, this piece of bread was just to hold on to, to reassure the children through the night that they were safe now, that there would be bread to eat in the morning.

That is a precious story backed by object relations theory. As a psychologist, I sometimes give my clients stuffed animals or other objects to hang onto and to remember our work together, to help remind them of coping skills.

I also liked Angela, Mattie's blunt friend:

"Honey," Angela replied, "you don't know yourself well enough right now to commit suicide. So it would be considered a homicide."

But overall I didn't care much for the plot or the characters. Mattie isn't very likable, nor is her attraction to a married man named Lewis. The physical description of Lewis was hardly appealing to me. Too bad this one wasn't for me!

[Sharlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many times while reading this book I asked myself why I didn't just stop and start something I might like better. As it was recommended by a friend, I remained hopeful that there would be some redeeming value to the story. Please--at least give me protagonist that exemplifies some values and good judgment or at least learns something in the end. Lamott's lead character of choice starts right off with sleeping back and forth with her ex-husband (who is in a relationship with a pregnant girlfriend), and a grocer she grew up with, while lusting after her handyman (who is also married). The main storyline dealt with her trying to learn more about her now-deceased father, triggered by coming across the contents (including a small blue shoe) of the glove box of a car her father used to own. Come to find out--surprise, surprise--more dysfunction. I felt I was being drug through a woman's trailer-trashy life, complete with equally dysfunctional family members. There wasn't a single character in the book I could feel any sympathy with or relate to in any way.

[Ginger Bensman · Rating 3 out of 5]

No one is a bigger fan of Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, than me. It’s gentle and funny and full of smart advice about writing, so when my book club selected Blue Shoe I was right on board. But Blue Shoe turned out to be a schizophrenic read for me. Her depiction of children was spot-on perfect. I could relate to the adult characters, and there were many of them. They were consistent and believable, but most of them were wallowing in emotional wreckage, and I just didn’t like them very much, not even the protagonist, Mattie. At the beginning of the book, Mattie is devastated and reeling when her husband leaves her for another woman, then, not only does she continue to share a sporadic sexual relationship with her ex but she sets her sights on an innocent likeable man who is happily married (this from a character who is always asking God for advice).
Lamott is a master of description and the original phrase, and much of the language is beyond beautiful. Take for example, “Isa’s voice often sounded flimsy these days, as if it might tear, like old rice paper,” but many of her metaphors felt so self conscious, I thought they distracted from the story.
Some reviewers have said they like Lamott’s earlier novels better. In a few months, maybe I’ll try one of those.

[Susanchitter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I pretty much trudged through the book waiting for it to get interesting. It felt like I was sleep walking through someone's dysfunctional life, someone who I had little interest in. I kept waiting for the "blue shoe" to become significant and revealing. I could see potential in the story but it just never seemed to come together so that the reader cared about the story.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Hurt people hurt other people. That's the way it works."
- Blue Shoe

Anne Lamott is one of my favorite writers, but until this book I had never read any of her fiction. I first discovered Anne Lamott when my first daughter was born. Operating Instructions is a fabulous book. It is her funny, honest, sad, and optimistic account of her first year as a mother. She is a single mother, but her experiences of being totally in love and totally in over her head are universal.

A few years later, I read Traveling Mercies, a collection of essays in which Lamott shares her trek out of alcoholism and into Jesus. Again, she keeps it real, irreverent and funny even as she describes hitting bottom. To label Lamott a Christian writer would be to miss the mark (and probably disappoint or irritate a few Christian readers) because she doesn't have a Christian agenda, she simply shares her experiences and her faith. I loved it.

Last year, I read Bird by Bird, which is a book about writing. Again, her wonderfully funny self just shines through in this great book. It's a worthwhile book whether or not you are an inspiring writer.

So, The Blue Shoe. It is a wonderfully funny and believable book. It chronicles the years following Mattie Ryder's divorce. You see Mattie struggling to juggle her children, her rapidly aging mother, her ex-husband, her relationships, and her father's secrets. Her children are damaged by the breakup of their home, and so is Mattie, but she does the best she can.

Having read Lamott's non-fiction, there is much of Anne herself in this book. It was refreshing to see Mattie rely on her faith and her church. She prays to Jesus to help her daughter who is slowly gnawing away her fingers (through the nails), to give her patience when her son acts up, when she falls in love with the wrong man. And, it doesn't come off as preachy, just real.

"The crying will wash it out," she said, pulling him into her lap. He tore at his eye, rubbed hard, whimpered, and she cooed and patted him with mounting hostility... What would Jesus do? Roll his eyes and growl softly, as she was doing? She pictured Jesus and the men He lived with, whiny bachelors all - "Can I be first?" "What about me, Lord" - and saw Him sigh and head back up the mountain. Where could she go?

Her child sobbed in her arms, and she held him. Boy, she thought, when Jesus said we must become as little children to enter the kingdom of heaven, He was definitely not referring to Harry. Maybe He had been misquoted. Maybe he did not say you must be like little children, but that you should eat the little children - with a little butter and garlic.
-The Blue Shoe

At the beginning of the book, Mattie keeps thinking of her father, wishing he were still alive. If she could lean on him, she knows it would give her the strength she needs to keep things together. As the book progresses, she and her brother start a little detective work to figure out some questions about her father, and the answers are not what she expected.

[Alissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes I love Anne Lamott more than others. I gotta testify that I'm uneasy with religion in general, and my uneasiness with Lamott's writing is directly in proportion to her ease with Christianity, which seems to be increasing over the years.

However. When I first read this book--about a woman raising her two kids and her mom, who has dementia (which is what Lamott's mother had)--I kinda hated the characters. The kids are especially galling. But I've been kind of stressed out, and when I'm stressed out and am tired of eating junk food, I turn to books I've read before, and this was certainly the case with this one.

To my surprise, on this reading, I ended up loving Lamott's writing. The writing is beautiful and succinct: "He seemed so constrained, so neatly trimmed, someone who'd been doing topiary with his soul all his life." On describing an iguana the main character hates: "He's like an elegant and vaguely hostile scrap of leather."

It's also very funny, like, make you laugh out loud. The characters are wholly imperfect people, which is very soothing.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read other books by Lamott, I picked this one off the library shelves. It's sort of an odd book - one of the reader comments was "kind of slow", and it is in a way. But it's all about families and the struggles that they endure. Mattie Ryder is the focal point of the book. She has an ex-husband, two young children, a dead father, a brother, a mother who's aging "badly", a lover or two (not simultaneous), a best friend who moved away, and some low paying jobs. She also has spiritual struggles and a lot of disturbing discoveries in store for her.

It's a pretty nifty book, worth your time. Not much of a review, I realize - but I have a cold ;-)

[Tracy M · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Anne Lamott's earlier books: Rosie, Hard Laughter, and Crooked Little Heart, but it became clear to me within about 20 pages of starting this book that she can only write one story, and I expect that it's also her life story. This book was the same as Hard Laughter, except the main character is 20 years older. There was also no real plot - you're at around page 250 before anything actually happens. I do find it amusing how every single one of her characters (in every book, not just this one) manages to survive and support themselves in Marin or Monterey by merely working odd jobs here and there. Who are these people who can do that?

[Jinni Pike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blue Shoe was exactly OK. While there are some very lovely passages and I occasionally found myself pulled in to the plot, on the whole the book failed to capture my interest or elicit sympathy from me. The lead character Mattie changes moods so often it's hard to follow or relate to her. One second she's praying to Jesus and the next thinking about pouring Drano on top of her son's iguana. I understand this is a story about a woman in the midst of a crisis (or many, though each very "first world") but it spans a 4 year time and she never seems to grow or claw her way up higher. The book ends with her exactly as desperate and confused as at when it started. Things happen around her but never seem to really affect her besides giving her more reasons to justify the way she's always felt: sad, lonely, unable to enjoy her life.
The issue of religion seems to only be thrown into the mix because the author herself is a believer. Though Mattie attempts to gain clarity and comfort from God she uses church as an excuse to get close to her married best friend or escape her problems without really taking to heart the things she says she believes. And it was hard to get more than a foggy image in my mind on any of the supporting characters.
The most interesting part of the book for me was the decline of her mother's health and the difficulty Mattie and her brother have to deal with to assure their mother is cared for.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I moved through it, riding the emotional ebbs & tides it's characters created, filled with sorrow & erupting with laughter. It was hauntingly familiar. As I read it kept bringing back moments of Anne Lamott's own life as if excerpts from her memoirs in new flesh. As with Anne's writing the truth comes to you frankly and you take it as it is. That's how these character's lives are laid bare, in all their shame & all their joy, they are made awkwardly & endearingly real. I was brokenhearted for their brokenness.

There are passages of sexuality that are a bit raw for my own senses. I could have done without those images flickering in my head. They don't magnify the desperation the characters feel nor illustrate the commonness of their need as I believe they were intended to do. That said, I appreciate how simply put those passages were. They were not sensationalized or mist filled encounters. That, in itself, is a rare thing.

Altogether this was a sad & moving story about broken people trying to make a life among their bits & pieces. There are moments of hope along the way & promises of more to come.

Enjoy the read.

[Jolie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the kind of book that makes you think the publisher's assistant mistakenly sent a draft to the printer rather than the final manuscript. The characters are boring, the story just trundles along, there are random religious references, descriptions of some characters are clear, others not so, and the 'blue shoe' that the title refers to is a benign child's toy which plays an inexplicable role in the main character's psyche. The book reminded me of a writing assignment that someone would blithely add sections to between doing the day's errands and watching TV.

I was so tired of the book that by the end when the characters are celebrating an event I couldn't remember if it was a wedding or some family party, and didn't give enough of a damn to flip back a few pages to remind myself. UGH.

PS: Liked Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird. Hunh.

[Amy Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn. Anne can keep a story moving -- start reading and WHOOSH I'm caught up in it. Many of her characters are Christians and my problem isn't that they aren't the "right kind" of Christian (as if such a thing exists!) but that there is such a blatant disregard for some of the core beliefs. A little struggle with it, that's all I'm asking. Instead part of it has such a "I'm so cool, look at me, don't you want to be a Christian like me and not have those stuffy beliefs interfer with areas I don't want touched. I can do whatever I want because I am WAY cooler than God." As if we could ever be cooler, smarter, funnier, more hip than God. Good grief, we are arrogant. :)

[Janeen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in 2 days on vacation...but I was not as impressed with this as I have been been with her nonfiction. This felt strangely like an excuse to write in the third person about her life. I adore her honesty and the way she can make me laugh but this was not her best.

[Donna Callejon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book. LOVE. In fact, I loved it so much I'm going to read it again. And again.
Powerful character development and emotion. Sometimes painful, sometimes joyful. And I love the vehicle of the blue shoe. Doubly love it because I had one of those shoes.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Anne Lamott writes sympathetically about a character who's been dealt a difficult hand in life and does her best with them but still makes some bad decisions. Basically she deals out the same bad hand to her own children. That seems to be the way family dynamics usually work and I found the book really insightful in this way, if not particularly satisfying.

It was interesting reading this in conjunction with _Bird by Bird_ by the same author. In BbB Lamott instructs fiction writers to pinpoint what matters most to their characters and let the story flow from there. I can see how she does that in Blue Shoe--what the protagonist, Mattie, most wants is her late father's love and approval, and for him to be someone to look up to. At the same time she wants to know the truth about him, and her two wants are not compatible.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am downgrading my review of this book. I had originally given it three stars, but I realize that was only because I didn't want to admit that Anne Lamott wrote something horrible. I do love her essays, and they are so personal that I feel she's practically let me into her family. To top it off, you can see some parallels to her real life in this novel. So I hated to say, "Wow, Annie, I had to force myself to finish this."

Here's what I wrote the first time, with a few, more honest, changes:
This was the first Anne Lamott fiction I read, after reading several of her essay/memoir books. I am sad to say that Blue Shoe dragged, because I do love Lamott. I found the characters realistic. I appreciated this realism; nothing was airbrushed or Hollywood-esque. However, the passage of time was strange, quick, with too-frequent descriptions of the seasons/weather changing. While time flew by, the book dragged along, with long chapters that made the short book seem interminable. Like my own life, nothing really happens on a day-to-day basis. Mattie, the main character, is, like me, a mother of young children. Her life is mundane and depressing through much of the book; after she leaves her cheating husband, her mother's health and mind begin to decline, then Mattie and her brother discover ugly secrets about their deceased father. Lamott depicts the mundane and sad tone of Mattie's life very well, but without enough (in my opinion) of the small joys that make life tolerable through difficulty. Small children bring laughter to even the hardest days, and I longed for some little rays of sunlight for Mattie. I felt depressed reading this book. I am sure that was the point, but it was tiring.

A major theme of the novel is care and protection of our loved ones, particularly parent-child. I believe Mattie is caring well for her own children (mainly because of how Lamott writes about parenting her son), but I would have appreciated reading more about this, as explicitly as we read about Mattie's struggles to care for her mother. I realize that my own stage in life affects my reading of this book, but I imagine women are a large portion of Lamott's audience.

I don't even know how to describe my reaction to the revelations about Mattie's father. Turns out he was not just a creep, but really over-the-top unethical in his personal life. I'm certain there are fathers like him. Maybe there are children of such fathers who never suspected anything, like Mattie. But this just didn't work for me as a major plot-line in this novel. Perhaps the fact that he's already dead makes it less compelling to read about.

I'm not even sure that I am happy for Mattie in her "happy" ending... I am just relieved I never have to read this book again.

[As a side note, this book was published in 2002 and seems to take place in the 1990s. Reading in 2011, not 10 years after its publication, I was astonished at how dated it seemed. No characters had cell phones or used computers. The reliance on landlines made the book feel like another era, already.]

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Her nonfiction is better.

Summary
Single mom Mattie has moved into her family’s old home with her kids Ella and Harry. She grew up here with father Alfred, now dead; mother Isa; and brother Al, now married to Katherine. She makes improvements on the house and property which bring her into contact with Daniel, who worked one day for a pest control company. Mattie and Daniel become best friends, attending church together, to the dismay of Daniel’s beautiful wife, Pauline. Mattie is secretly in love with Daniel all along.

Nickie is Mattie’s ex-husband. He remarries the fake, but beautiful Lee. They have two children together, which continually hurts Mattie. Mattie continues to sleep with Nickie now and then, an old habit for them both.

Mattie’s closest girlfriend, Angela, moved away to live with her partner, Julie. Mattie misses her terribly.

Isa was once a well-known social activist; now, she’s aging. In agonizing stages, Isa is moved into a nursing home. First, she lives in a retirement community, then gains a nurse who stops by. Next door is Lewis, a man who becomes Isa’s best friend. Lewis watches Isa gradually lose the ability to care for herself. Isa, in her frail, but honest state, begins to say bad things about Alfred. Mattie vacillates between utter frustration and compassion for Isa.

Then, Mattie finds mysterious artifacts in the glove compartment of her dad’s old car, a blue shoe and a tool with blue paint. The shoe becomes an amulet that is passed between herself and Daniel when times are rough.

Mattie is plunged into panic about her father and begins to poke around. She learns that her father, as a child, was sexually abused by a neighbour. Then, while married, he had an affair with a (then) young girl, Abby Gran. They conceived a son, Noah.. Mattie tries to resolve the difficult history by meeting Abby, a present-day recluse, living in poverty.

Much about her father is learned by contacts made through William Allen, a man she begins to date. William’s father, Ned, owns an old store and remembers the old days. She learns that Noah still lives in the town, as the librarian. She and her brother make contact. The little shoe ends up being one of Noah’s childhood treasures.

Mattie and William break it off. Daniel and Pauline have troubles, and Daniel comes to stay with Mattie. Mattie and Daniel end up easing gently into a relationship.

[J.I. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ask yourself a question. When you watch reruns of old SNL sketches, do you think that the churchlady bit isn't funny, and that the church lady just makes sense? Do you, further, judge people who make any mistake or are ever inconsistent? If so, you will not like this book, because you are a horrible person incapable of real human emotions.

For the rest of us, however, Anne Lamott has made a marvelous, charming novel about life, death, acceptance and family, with plenty of other things handled along the way. Mattie, the main character of this novel, has recently divorced and doesn't really get her way, and even when she does, things don't work out like how she would hope. This is a simply characterization, sure, but it is painfully and wonderfully human to see how she can delight in her children and be completely sick of them, how she can see the angel in her young son as well as the sociopath, and worry and wonder about which one of them will win. She struggles with vanity and hatred and cruelty, even as she goes to church and strives, always, for kindness and understanding.

This is a good novel because of the sparkling writing and insightful comments and understanding of human nature, but it is a great one because it shows us the nuances that make up good people who suffer and impart suffering, who fail many times a day, but who strive, always, not only to NOT fail, but to improve the lot of those around them. It is a novel that is, largely, happy, but is full so much heartbreak and sorry on nearly every page that it will crack open your heart to see these good people suffer so, even if, really, it is the kind of suffering we have all gone through, or must all go through someday.

[Hawley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is book was exactly what I was hoping for and more. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read - utterly lifelike in its peculiarities, and diverse, believable characters. It endears you to the main character and is full of unexpected turns. I found that I wasn't thinking or predicting what would come up - and even if I had, I would have been off - because it flows so easily.

Lamott writes with such a great humor - a blend of frankness, sincerity and realism. You can really believe the characters and yet you can't - the story builds upon itself with twists and turns and wonderful moments. She is a GREAT writer and has the most unique and impressive way of describing things precisely so you can understand. One of my favorite lines was:

"It was cold but the water felt good, like punctuation."

I mean, how delightful and witty - how vibrant an image, is that statement?! Who would have thought.

Anyways, I really recommend it as a pleasurable and easy read - but not so easy that you put it down and never return. I read it in 3 days because it was so enchanting that I wanted to continue the adventure!

[Jan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the book we read for one of my book groups a few months ago. I tried (miserably) for a week to get into it, but ended up skimming the last half just so I could have something to say when the book club met. I didn't have much to say except that I was bored silly with all the characters and had no interest in any of them or what happened to them. Nothing of interest really happened, just mundane daily life stuff. Life really boring mundane daily life stuff. All of those things were wrapped around some serious subjects like religion and infidelity, but not in a way that made me care one bit. And the main character, Mattie, Could. Not. Stand. Her. She goes to church every Sunday but nothing she learns there seems to rub off on her since she's still having sex with her ex husband who is now married with a new baby. I really could not tolerate the woman. Reading the book was like watching someone do their laundry. A real snooze fest. I wouldn't recommend it unless you have insomnia and need to read something that will make you fall asleep quickly.

[Andria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I just like Lamott's nonfiction better than her fiction. Maybe I had to pick it up and put it down too many times without enough long stretches of time to "get into it." My two complaints: disjointed narrative and more of a focus on turning pretty phrases than moving the plot forward. Once I DID get to sit down with it for longer stretches of time and the plot seemed to move forward more toward the end, I ended up liking it better. I'm having trouble with these "weak" women I read about--here Mattie "can't help herself" and keeps sleeping with her ex-husband. There are definitely storylines of interest--her relationship with Daniel, her discoveries about her father, her mother's spiral into dementia.

[Kristen Rudd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always enjoy Anne Lamott's writing. I feel like it's impossible not to enjoy her writing. That said, I found this book slow-going. I think her strengths lie, not only in her way with words, but with her ability to write people honestly, to say what we all really feel. I found her characters in this book drove me bat-shit crazy, due to their piss-poor decision making, but I keep reading because they're written so honestly - such raw, broken, imperfect people like the rest of us. And THAT is what Anne Lamott does well.