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A review by starfleeting
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
3.0
The advice given in this book is, for the most part, good, practical advice. Especially for people starting out or people that need a good push to keep going when they get discouraged. There are also some truly funny passages.
However, there are times when the book feels like a genuine slog to get through. Not just because of what feels like endless run-on sentences that can make a person feel breathless as they read it but the own writer's tendency to be a little too open with everything. Most writers - and artists in general - can have self-confidence issues or neuroses of their own to varying degrees (I say this as a writer myself) but Lamott seems to let hers bleed too much into the writing and examples to where one wonders if she actually enjoys writing. And while there are some parts of the book that come off encouraging, other parts seem to sound incredibly discouraging. Or even downright 'eh, you won't really be happy even if you do get published' which... leaves a lot to be desired to say the least.
I don't doubt Lamott has good intentions in everything she's written in this book. But there are times when emotional whiplash can occur and mixed signals keep popping up.
However, there are times when the book feels like a genuine slog to get through. Not just because of what feels like endless run-on sentences that can make a person feel breathless as they read it but the own writer's tendency to be a little too open with everything. Most writers - and artists in general - can have self-confidence issues or neuroses of their own to varying degrees (I say this as a writer myself) but Lamott seems to let hers bleed too much into the writing and examples to where one wonders if she actually enjoys writing. And while there are some parts of the book that come off encouraging, other parts seem to sound incredibly discouraging. Or even downright 'eh, you won't really be happy even if you do get published' which... leaves a lot to be desired to say the least.
I don't doubt Lamott has good intentions in everything she's written in this book. But there are times when emotional whiplash can occur and mixed signals keep popping up.