Truth & Beauty: A Friendship

by Ann Patchett
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship
book data
3240 ratings, 3.93 average rating, 619 reviews (more data...)
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published
April 1st 2005 (first published 2004) by Harper Perennial

binding
Paperback, 272 pages

isbn
0060572159   (isbn13: 9780060572150)

description
Ann Patchett and the late Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and, after enrolling in the Iowa Writer's Workshop, began a friendship that would be as ...more






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Grealy's book 6 23 07/30/2008 10:22AM  

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Barbara
Read in February, 2008
recommends it for: no one
I didn't care for it. One reason is I didn't find the writing to be very good--certainly nothing like Lucy Grealy's in her own memoir. Another reason is I found both women's behavior in the friendship really strange. Ann seems completely blank in the relationship, never asserting any real personality, and completely enabling Lucy's neediness and slefishness. Lucy just sounded like a black hole, sucking up every bit of attention, affection, needing more and more extravagant declarations of lo...more
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Khaya
11/07/07

bookshelves: goodmemoirs
Wow -- what a fascinating experience, to read "Truth and Beauty" after "Autobiography of a Face" and then to follow up with Suellen Grealy's angry article. I actually thought "Truth and Beauty" was the better book of the two, although perhaps it's not fair to say that because much of my fascination with "Truth and Beauty," at least initially, stemmed from having read "Autobiography of a Face" and the unique, stimulating opportunity to read one p...more
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Joyce
09/01/07

recommends it for: people with addict friends
The scene of Lucy sitting on Ann's knee, while at a restaurant ... Lucy forcing Ann to tell her "You love me the most"... while Ann feeds her ? rusks of bread ... almost made me throw-up!
I suppose I was disappointed with Ann Patchet's non-fictional character. The book was thought provoking, as you can see that Ann loves Lucy ... as a child.
But you cannot help but want to scream at Ann that she is not helping by enabling her personality disordered friend. Lucy comes by the disorder ...more
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Charlotte
Charlotte rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
10/31/07

Read in February, 2007
I learned how not to treat friends.

I couldn't believe that Ann didn't end her friendship with Lucy after so many irritating incidents on Lucy's part. I would have backed out of sharing an apartment with Lucy if she had jumped up on me when I first arrived at the apartment.

When Lucy demanded that Ann tell her that she (Ann) loved her most, why did Ann cater to her wishes?

The author did not explain to my satisfaction why Lucy continued to have friends. Apparen...more
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Carla
Carla rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
10/03/07

Read in January, 2007
recommends it for: girlfriends
My best friend Audrey gave me this book at the same time she gave me the book "Autobiography of a face". What a great present. I would read them in the order they are written (autobiography) first. The first book is just an interesting story which is well written. I really liked this book b/c it was mostly about the power of friendship. We all know the power of a good relationship with a significant other but rarely is the power of a female friendship written about. I can relate ...more
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Kellie
Kellie rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
09/24/08

bookshelves: 2007-reads, bookclub-books, non-fiction
This was an incredible book about friendship. Lucy Grealy had cancer when she was young, which resulted in several surgeries to remove parts of her jaw. These surgeries left her with a deformed face. Ann met Lucy in her early 20’s. She immediately befriended Lucy and “felt chosen by Lucy and was thrilled.” Lucy had a lot of friends. But it never seemed to be enough. Ann beautifully describes her friend in these words, …”Lucy’s loneliness was breathtaking in its enormity. If s...more
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Ginnie
Ginnie rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
05/28/08

bookshelves: memoirs, women
Truth & Beauty is a harrowing document, composed in a spare, forthright style very different from the elegant artifice of Patchett's novels. It can be no surprise that the memoir of a friendship that ends in the premature death of a gifted writer does not make for cheerful reading. And yet there is much in Truth & Beauty that is uplifting, a testament to the perennial idealism and optimism of the young.

The beauty of this book is in the details, and in the anecdotes so c...more
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Colleen
Colleen rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
02/10/08

Read in January, 2008
I picked up this book because I read "Bel Canto" and loved it, and loved Ann Patchett's writing style. I also think that, in general, friendship does not get enough respect in our society. There's a lot of attention payed to family and lovers, but not much to friends.
This is the story of a friendship between the author and a woman she went to college with. They both end up at the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop at the same time, and a beautiful, life-long friendship ensues. I...more
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Kim
Kim rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
09/22/07

Read in September, 2007
recommends it for: Ann Patchett fans
I have just read two books about female friendship back to back--one was the annotated letters of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok and the other was this one, novelist Ann Patchett's memoir of her all-encompassing and troubled friendship with poet Lucy Grealy, who is insecure, needy, and self-destructive, but also incredibly gifted. It is no spoiler to say that Lucy dies at the end, which is given away on the dust jacket and dedication page.

Both books were similar in that one party to th...more
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Kate
Kate rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
05/11/08

Read in May, 2008
The friendship of Lucy Grealy and Ann Patchett was extraordinary and excruciating. I’ve had some remarkable friendships in my life, but this book forced serious introspection. I identify with Ann, and wonder: could I love someone as broken or needy as Lucy? Would I have the courage to stand up to a self-destructing friend? Do I have the fortitude to stick by a friend through gruesome surgeries/recoveries? Or maybe I am more of Lucy--searching for Perfect Love, drawing others in for my ow...more
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Kang
Kang rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
03/24/08

Couldn't get into this book because there was no real character development. The book is not so much a narrative as a portrait, a portrait both of Lucy Grealy and of the friendship between Ann Patchett and Grealy. But Lucy at the end of the book is pretty much Lucy at the beginning of the book--with more success and a drug addiction. And Ann doesn't really change either, though she arguably matures and is more comfortable in her own skin by the end. The friendship, to be sure, undergoes some...more
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Erin
Erin rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
03/10/08

bookshelves: nonfiction
Read in March, 2008
recommended to Erin by: Wendy?
recommends it for: memoir enthusiasts
I had a tough time deciding how many stars to give this book. On the one hand, after a false start, I read Truth and Beauty very quickly - so it must have been of some kind of interest to me. But when I try to remember what was compelling about it, I have to it admit that it's not much, really. Perhaps the larger-than-life personality of tiny Lucy Grealy? Surely it wasn't the dull reportage of events; the book travels in a fairly linear fashion from first meeting until Grealy's death. Patch...more
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Jhoanna
Jhoanna rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
10/30/07

I didn't know much about Patchett or Grealy before reading this memoir and I still don't, but I love how Patchett details this intense friendship between two writers and gives you a close look at the writing process, how people develop and why we keep writing. Here's what Patchett has to say of Grealy:

"What the story doesn't tell you is that the ant relented at the eleventh hour and took in the grasshopper when the weather was hard, fed him on his tenderest store of grass all winter. ...more
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Laurel
Laurel rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
11/15/07

bookshelves: collection
Has a copy to sell/swap
recommends it for: women
Even though I had never read any of Patchett's novels, I read this when it first came out and was incredibly moved by it...the story of Ann and Lucy's friendship simply resonated with me. I think it would resonate with anyone who has had that one friendship that leaves a lasting imprint on one's life. The title says it all...truth and beauty. No sugar coating of character...no rose colored glasses...people are messy and sometimes we love them all the more for it. I would also recommend readi...more
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Bonnie G
Bonnie G rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
02/26/08

Read in February, 2008
I really liked the descriptions of the writing processes of these two fine minds. I wanted to like the friendship, but it was just too one-sided for me. I love my friends and would do a lot for them, but I am not sure I could have been Lucy's friend. She asked a lot and Ann always gave it. Did Ann get a true friend or someone who desperately needed her?
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Catherine
Catherine rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
08/29/08

Read in April, 2008
Learned ins and outs of an Iowa-type path to writing fiction/poetry/nonfiction. Inspired by parts, repulsed by others (including my voyeuristic interest in the friendship and the jaw). Some nice moments.
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Alix
Alix rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
08/04/08

I'm a huge fan of Patchett's and in this memoir she continues to impress and captivate me. Here she explores her very troubling friendship with a very troubled woman.
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Jody
Jody rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
03/30/08

This one made me crave more by Ann Patchett. I'm a sucker for stories on friendships. This one is right up there with the best.
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Anna
Anna rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
11/28/07

Read in August, 2005
again, great book, esp. when read in conjunction with Autobiography of a Face.
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KMB
KMB added it
11/05/08

Read in October, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Truth and Beauty: A Friendship (Hardcover)
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship (Hardcover)
Truth and Beauty (Paperback)
Truth & Beauty CD: A Friendship (Audio CD)
Truth and Beauty a Friendship (Hardcover)






quotes from this book

"Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon." More quotes...


groups with this book

The Rory Gilmore Book Club
First Novels & Memoirs
University of Iowa Readers
Bound By Brookline