Truth & Beauty: A Friendship
January 25th, 2010 Posted in Life Style
- ISBN13: 9780060572150
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product DescriptionAnn 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 defining to both of their lives as their work. In Grealy’s critically acclaimed memior, Autobiography of a Face, she wrote about losing part of her jaw to childhood cancer, years of chemotherapy and radiation, and endless reconstructive surgeries. In Truth & Beauty, the story isn’t Lucy’s life or Ann’s life, but the pa. . . More >>
January 25th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
A lousy book by a typical and quite untalented iowa type or model or what have you will swill writer. Poor sad Lucy being used by in death, she deserved a grander tribute. Just buy Lucy’s book and pass on this self serving untalented trash.
Rating: 1 / 5
January 25th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Lucy and Ann are the best of friends. They even share a twin bed together. Ann gazes at Lucy during long, leisurely, naked baths. Ann does Lucy’s bidding, whatever the personal or financial cost. I was shocked by Lucy’s demands–and more shocked by Ann’s willingness to comply, like a leashed dog.
I kept expecting Ann to go down on Lucy, what with all the kissing, sleeping together, and long, hard stares. This book reminded me of the art house film 9 and half weeks, except for the fact that in this case the portagonists are both females.
Rating: 2 / 5
January 25th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
I only found this book interesting in the parts where the author is talking about the end of her friend Lucy’s life.
Rating: 1 / 5
January 26th, 2010 at 12:47 am
This is a running diary of a strange life after graduation from Sarah Lawrence College when deciding to become a writer by enrolling in Iowa Writers’ Workship in the mid ’80s. She had a Catholic education (like my nephews) all twelve years before going off to school. A fellow classmate had made an impression on her, though was less than friendly, because of a facial deformity which had crippled her life.
Lucy was a year older than Ann, but she needed a place to belong, somewhere she could be expressive and not be looked on as an oddity. After they were settled as roommates in Iowa, they became best friends.
In Nashville, Ann met Dr. Karl V. and Lucy liked him as well. Lucy wasn’t exactly normal, taking heroin which caused her death of an overdose a week before Christmas, 2002. The reason she continues to see Lucy’s ‘spirit’ in odd places is the nonchalant way she treated her when she asked if she could spend Christmas with her — Lucy felt rejected! And probably knew that Ann had turned her back on her friend to be in Atlanta with Karl. After so many years together, she should have been invited along, but that’s ‘hind-sight. ‘
She tells so much ‘truth’ in this book you wish sometimes she would be more discreet, for a Southern girl — but the ‘beauty’ (if there is any) is on the inside, and not from a bar of soap at all. Smooth skin means nothing when your face is deformed. Having to face that truth turns one bitter with no hope for a happy future. The mirror does not lie, I’ve found to my despair. This is not a happy story, and some of the intimate details would have been better left unsaid.
Ann Patchett wrote THE MAGICIAN’S ASSISTANT and BEL CANTO previously.
Rating: 3 / 5
January 26th, 2010 at 3:24 am
Haunting (in a way), well-written (gorgeously, at times) tale. That said, let’s get a little editing here, OK? For example: (a) anyone. . . they. . . (sheesh; (b) Lucy had a PEDICLE flap, not a PEDESTAL flap; (c) Spell Percocet and Darvocet correctly. Left me wondering (after I started rooting for heroin towards the end) just what did the author get from Lucy that would in even a small way balance what Lucy sucked out of her?
Rating: 4 / 5