A review by optimaggie
Crooked Little Heart by Anne Lamott

4.0

Anne Lamott writes as though she has lived a hundred lives, as though she can feel what everyone around her is feeling, think what everyone else is thinking. She writes as though she is a psychotherapist, a preacher, a best friend, a spouse, a stranger, and a narrator for the world. The plot of this book is a weak one, but Lamott doesn't need a gripping plot to do what she does best. She draws you into an ordinary world, with ordinary lives. This book could be about any one of us. She could stop a person on the street and ask them to tell her their hopes, their fears, their dreams, their regular day-to-day lives and then she could write a book that any person with a beating heart would want to read. This book isn't as good as Joe Jones (which is just so, so good) but once again she writes about friends and family in such a real and beautiful way that it makes me want to nurture those relationships in my own life. And she made me miss my best friend. Wish desperately that she lived anywhere near me. That we could stop in to share a meal, a cozy reading night, to pick the other up when they are down. The other wonderful thing about this book is that she reminds you of what she wrote in the first book about the Ferguson's (which she wrote ages before this one) without it feeling like she is trying to remind you of what happened. I hate when books either leave you totally in the dark (seemingly expecting you to have just read the prior book) or bang you over the head with obvious reminders. She balanced this perfectly. Anne Lamott writes with humility and wisdom.