Details
Rent Blue Shoe
Author:
Format: Paperback, Unabridged-CD
Publisher: Berkley Pub Group
Published: Sep 2003
Genre: Fiction - General
Retail Price: $16.00
Pages: 336
Synopsis
[T]his is a quiet book, preoccupied with family talk. Fortunately, Mattie's family talks well....The acceptance of one's imperfections is a pillar of wisdom in Lamott's New Age Christianity. Mattie is an embodiment of that philosophy, but she's better written than that makes her sound. She and her family are hilariously specific....[T]he problem is that Lamott mistakes her characters' affectations for virtues....Our curiosity about earnest, sad, funny Mattie makes it easy to accept her author's imperfections....If readers can understand that Lamott's conversation with Jesus is similar to an alert person's ongoing inner struggle toward self-knowledge and understanding others, toward real justice and compassion..., they will see the strength of BLUE SHOE....
Reviews
I had just read Anne Lamott's 'Bird by Bird,' her nonfiction guide on writing and fell in love with her wit, her style, her humor, her voice. 'Blue Shoe' was the first of her novels I've read and I couldn't help but be disappointed. The characters seemed flat and removed. The narrative is jumpy--sometimes dwelling on one incident for pages and pages and other times leaping through months in a paragraph. With much chagrin, I finally gave up on it...