Thoughts Upon Reading Operating Instructions, A Journal of My Son’s First Year by Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott is like your first cup of coffee in the morning. Eye opening, uplifting, and like the power of that wonderful plant, Coffea, bringing out a much better side of me.
Operating Instructions, written upon the advent of and journey through her son’s first year and her best friend Pammy’s last, is a memoir full of unabashed honesty, blatant humility, triumphs and failures, joy and pain, and the bittersweet rendering, the writing of which, I hope proved cathartic.
If you have yet to read Anne Lamott, add her to the top of your list, then promptly put the book in your purse, your car, upon your nightstand, anywhere where you will reach for it on a daily basis. Any one of her books will do. Operating Instructions is best read in snippets, a small dose every day, spread out over the course of a few months or even a year, to get the full effect over time, for what is a journey without time?
For a mother of three, now adults, I found her account of her son’s first year endearing and refreshing. Anne’s writing holds no pretense, nor does she color in hues to subdue, an in-your-face honesty many find unsettling, but I find refreshing. And although I can’t say I identify will all of her ideologies, I find their honesty worthy of respect. Of course, her humor, natural and just so freaking funny, renders imagery that hits home, Oh funny bone!
If you love children, you’ll love this book. If you’re indifferent or have little experience, go for it. The humor and wit only a first-time mother and gifted writer can pen to paper will lighten your day with laughter and appreciation. If you are expecting your first child, you may want to wait until after the first birthday for a personal perspective, but then again, maybe not. Who has time to read with a one-year-old?
But the take away is more than first time mother’s observations of her son’s first year. It’s about loss, deep aching loss to cancer, good friends and surrogate family, about faith and hope, about each and every day winning the battle against addiction, and most of all, about bearing your soul upon paper and sharing your journey with others. Even when it hurts. Even at the risk of ridicule. This book reminds me we have much to learn from those who oppose, whose lives are of a different hue, have veered left where we stayed right or vice versa. And for this, I am grateful to Anne for sharing.
For the joy of motherhood and the village that surrounds, new lives and lost lives, tears of joy and tears of pain, years
of change, Operating Instructions is a must read.
Operating Instructions, written upon the advent of and journey through her son’s first year and her best friend Pammy’s last, is a memoir full of unabashed honesty, blatant humility, triumphs and failures, joy and pain, and the bittersweet rendering, the writing of which, I hope proved cathartic.
If you have yet to read Anne Lamott, add her to the top of your list, then promptly put the book in your purse, your car, upon your nightstand, anywhere where you will reach for it on a daily basis. Any one of her books will do. Operating Instructions is best read in snippets, a small dose every day, spread out over the course of a few months or even a year, to get the full effect over time, for what is a journey without time?
For a mother of three, now adults, I found her account of her son’s first year endearing and refreshing. Anne’s writing holds no pretense, nor does she color in hues to subdue, an in-your-face honesty many find unsettling, but I find refreshing. And although I can’t say I identify will all of her ideologies, I find their honesty worthy of respect. Of course, her humor, natural and just so freaking funny, renders imagery that hits home, Oh funny bone!
If you love children, you’ll love this book. If you’re indifferent or have little experience, go for it. The humor and wit only a first-time mother and gifted writer can pen to paper will lighten your day with laughter and appreciation. If you are expecting your first child, you may want to wait until after the first birthday for a personal perspective, but then again, maybe not. Who has time to read with a one-year-old?
But the take away is more than first time mother’s observations of her son’s first year. It’s about loss, deep aching loss to cancer, good friends and surrogate family, about faith and hope, about each and every day winning the battle against addiction, and most of all, about bearing your soul upon paper and sharing your journey with others. Even when it hurts. Even at the risk of ridicule. This book reminds me we have much to learn from those who oppose, whose lives are of a different hue, have veered left where we stayed right or vice versa. And for this, I am grateful to Anne for sharing.
For the joy of motherhood and the village that surrounds, new lives and lost lives, tears of joy and tears of pain, years
of change, Operating Instructions is a must read.
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