Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year by Anne LamottMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Most readers I know - and I'm including myself here - tend to classify writers and books, even if it's on a subconscious level: there are writers we absolutely love, those we can't stand, and those we're neutral about.
Since discovering Anne Lamott's books maybe ten years ago, I've absolutely loved her writing. There are one or two of her books I couldn't get into, but that's fine, since most of what she's written is wonderfully quirky. She has this really funny, left-wing way of looking at things, not unlike my point of view, not to mention a touch of drama-queen-ness that I love.
That said, I'd been meaning to read Operating Instructions: A journal of My Son's First Year, her book about her first year as a single mom, for a while. I'm not sure why I hadn't read it completely when I first heard of it. Maybe it was the fact that my kids are grown, so it's been forever since I've dealt with a baby. But considering her son Sam is now an adult, with a child of his own, that argument was a little weak. So, I broke down and decided to give it a go.
Wow, what a book. Operating Instructions moves with the speed of a small brook, meandering slowly along, rather than with white-water-rapids speed. It was taken from the journal Lamott wrote during Sam's first year. We learn that Sam spends some time being a little colicky, which works his mother's last frayed exhausted nerve and we feel her frustration. (Fortunately, she discovers how to help Sam through this.) We see him roll from front to back for the first time. We see everything Lamott goes through, her family and friends helping out, her wonderful sense of humor and irony, her love for Sam...everything.
All in all, Operating Instructions is a good book to read for anyone who's ever had children, thought about having children, knows children, and loves funny, left-wing liberal parents. I have a feeling I'll be reading Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son, the book she wrote with Sam about his son. I'm looking forward to it.
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