Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year
1 journaler for this copy...
Pre-numbered label used for registration.
Lamott's interesting to read - wickedly funny, sporadically spiritual, and given to wild swings of mood from euphoria to black depression and back again. As a survivor of long-term alcohol and drug abuse, she's not what comes to mind as the ideal mother, and yet her "operating instructions" journal of the first year of her son's life is really wonderful - she covers the sublime, the incredibly difficult, and the ridiculous aspects of child-rearing, along with forays into the meaning of faith and the value of friendship. Funny and heartbreaking by turns... I'm not a "baby" person at all, but I really enjoyed this book [all the while being profoundly thankful that it wasn't happening to me!].
Samples:
Lamott's interesting to read - wickedly funny, sporadically spiritual, and given to wild swings of mood from euphoria to black depression and back again. As a survivor of long-term alcohol and drug abuse, she's not what comes to mind as the ideal mother, and yet her "operating instructions" journal of the first year of her son's life is really wonderful - she covers the sublime, the incredibly difficult, and the ridiculous aspects of child-rearing, along with forays into the meaning of faith and the value of friendship. Funny and heartbreaking by turns... I'm not a "baby" person at all, but I really enjoyed this book [all the while being profoundly thankful that it wasn't happening to me!].
Samples:
Sam is two weeks old today. His umbilical cord fell off. I'm probably supposed to feel like the cord is very lovely and natural, but I must say I'm going to be able to live without it somehow. It's like something a long-haired cat would get stuck in her tail.And this one, which pretty much typefies her world view, I think:
Now there is something that could happen that I could not survive: I could lose Sam. I look down into his staggeringly lovely little face, and I can hardly breathe sometimes. He is all I have ever wanted, and my heart is so huge with love that I feel like it is about to go off. At the same time I feel that he has completely ruined my life, because I just didn't used to care all that much.I should perhaps caution potential readers that Lamott's language tends towards the, um, colorful. OK, crude, with side trips into the obscene. But if you like a little vinegar with your lyricism, give her a try.
God, they sure shit a lot, don't they?
Controlled release:
I'm sending this to my sister in New York; she has three kids and will undoubtedly empathize more with some aspects of this book than I could, especially the sleep deprivation {wry grin}.
I'm sending this to my sister in New York; she has three kids and will undoubtedly empathize more with some aspects of this book than I could, especially the sleep deprivation {wry grin}.