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A review by panda_incognito
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
2.0
This book covers extremely basic writing advice with a side of vulgarity and constant foul language. When I was near the end of the book, I considered lowering my rating to one star, since Lamott makes THE SAME JOKE about male sexual anatomy THREE TIMES in as many pages, but this is a two-star book for me overall.
Lamott shares some great advice for beginning writers, but almost nothing that she said was new to me. Occasionally, she had just the right turn of phrase to express something familiar in an immediate, relatable, and funny way, but a lot of the time, she was just mouthing off about her quirky life and the quirky people in it, telling long-winded personal stories to illustrate very basic concepts like "write with passion" and "write regularly."
This is a self-indulgent memoir more often than not, and even though I can see why it would be useful and encouraging to a beginning writer, I got very tired of Lamott's vulgarity, her repeated mocking of people of committed faith, her constant portrayal of alcohol abuse as a cute, relatable trait, and her unending references to how jealous she is of other writers. Her declarations about disliking people who are successful grated on me, because even though it is important to be honest about our faults, Lamott was celebrating hers.
The first few times that she mentioned her jealousy and insecurity, I thought, "Oh, good, she's being vulnerable and honest, showing people that even published writers struggle in these ways." However, after she had said for the umpteenth time that she just HATES people who find their writing easy, and of course no one can STAND people who make a lot of money with their work, I was like, "Oh, I see. She thinks that jealousy is a charming vice to feed, pet, and show off at parties."
I was also extremely unimpressed with several of her stories about dealing with personal critique, rejection in the publishing world, and bad reviews. Her response to all of these things was to temporarily or permanently hate the people involved, even if they were her friends, drink, and wallow in misery. Again, she's being honest, but she keeps repeating all of this as if it is inevitable, insurmountable, and charming.
The only thing I learned from this book was how much I don't like Anne Lamott, wouldn't want to hang out with her, and wouldn't want to be friends with someone like her. I enjoyed some of her more moving and meaningful personal stories, and she occasionally expresses advice in creative ways, but this book is mostly just a celebration of how quirky, irresponsible, jealous, alcoholic, and did I mention QUIRKY?? she is.
However, my distaste for this book is ultimately a personality and belief system experience. Plenty of people will like this and find this helpful, and I wouldn't discourage someone from reading it if the things I described above wouldn't bother them. However, I still wouldn't recommend this, and I won't ever read it again.
Lamott shares some great advice for beginning writers, but almost nothing that she said was new to me. Occasionally, she had just the right turn of phrase to express something familiar in an immediate, relatable, and funny way, but a lot of the time, she was just mouthing off about her quirky life and the quirky people in it, telling long-winded personal stories to illustrate very basic concepts like "write with passion" and "write regularly."
This is a self-indulgent memoir more often than not, and even though I can see why it would be useful and encouraging to a beginning writer, I got very tired of Lamott's vulgarity, her repeated mocking of people of committed faith, her constant portrayal of alcohol abuse as a cute, relatable trait, and her unending references to how jealous she is of other writers. Her declarations about disliking people who are successful grated on me, because even though it is important to be honest about our faults, Lamott was celebrating hers.
The first few times that she mentioned her jealousy and insecurity, I thought, "Oh, good, she's being vulnerable and honest, showing people that even published writers struggle in these ways." However, after she had said for the umpteenth time that she just HATES people who find their writing easy, and of course no one can STAND people who make a lot of money with their work, I was like, "Oh, I see. She thinks that jealousy is a charming vice to feed, pet, and show off at parties."
I was also extremely unimpressed with several of her stories about dealing with personal critique, rejection in the publishing world, and bad reviews. Her response to all of these things was to temporarily or permanently hate the people involved, even if they were her friends, drink, and wallow in misery. Again, she's being honest, but she keeps repeating all of this as if it is inevitable, insurmountable, and charming.
The only thing I learned from this book was how much I don't like Anne Lamott, wouldn't want to hang out with her, and wouldn't want to be friends with someone like her. I enjoyed some of her more moving and meaningful personal stories, and she occasionally expresses advice in creative ways, but this book is mostly just a celebration of how quirky, irresponsible, jealous, alcoholic, and did I mention QUIRKY?? she is.
However, my distaste for this book is ultimately a personality and belief system experience. Plenty of people will like this and find this helpful, and I wouldn't discourage someone from reading it if the things I described above wouldn't bother them. However, I still wouldn't recommend this, and I won't ever read it again.