Crooked Little Heart: A Novel

I really loved this book, mostly because I could empathize with Rosie's middle school angst and insecurites. But I also admire (and envy) Lamott's writing in general - she creates beautiful phrases such as "it was so hot that the only things moving outside were the crickets and the anorexics" and "the sun smelled warm, like laundry in the dryer, like melting yellow crayons." Her writing startles me sometimes, so I have to stop and reread. I would never think to associate melting yellow crayons with the sun, for example...but the comparison makes perfect sense. Simone, Rosie's best friend, wasn't one of my favorite characters at first, but her story turned out to be heartbreaking, and I was genuinely sad for her. I can still see her sitting on the bench with Rosie, waiting for Jason. Collapsed dreams, humiliation, and the double standard all follow - as usual, the male is not castigated by society. The male is not kicked out of the country club. I liked Rae, Rosie's mom's best friend, the successful artist. When teased for her religious views, I was so proud of Rosie for defending her, reminding everyone that America "was founded on the principle of religious freedom," and no one should trivialize a woman's deepest feelings. I also liked Luther, the mysterious observer at the tennis tournaments. I thought he was creepy at first, but he paid attention to Rosie when no one else did (her mother might be spacing out as she retreats into the past, and her stepfather might be checking his messages). Luther helped her, was there for her, so Rosie was never alone during a game. "Too bad about the hair.." - when Rosie's coach said this to her (upon seeing Rosie's newly shorn head), it only confirmed my belief that he's sexist, that his voice echoes a society which regards hair as something that defines women, gives them value, forms stereotypes. Alas, Simone had glorious hair, and look what happened to her...her value appeared to decline in the end. When a woman chops off most of her hair, it is one of the most liberating things in the world. I wish I'd gotten rid of mine when I was Rosie's age, instead of waiting until I was 24.

In my other reveiw of "Rosie", the prequel to this book, I was rather hard on Lamott. Her non fiction, Travelling Mercies, Bird by Bird, Operating Instructions, is so compassionate, witty, and funny, that it is hard to believe that she wrote Rosie and Hard Laughter. This book is finally the work of fiction I believed that she could produce.It follows the story of Rosie during the summer of her 13th year, and trials and tribulations that are realistic and engaging. Although the focus on tennis was a little too detailed and technical, the rest of the story is wrapped around it in tenderness and diverts the focus from that aspect.Although somewhat similar to Nabokov's Lolita in theme, this book explores in full the lives of each main character. You can more clearly see the effects of the events that occurred in Rosie, and they are painted more brilliantly and lovingly.The characters are easy to identify with. There's Rae who weaves beautiful tapestries with junk yarn, but seems to want to do the same with the junky men in her lives. There's Rosie who lives in frustrated teenage self-doubt. There's Elizabeth, who sinks and struggles and is, all in all, extremely irritating. Then, there's Luthor, the Steppenwolf of the story, who is dark and scary and mysterious, but has insight that Rosie desperately needs.You will find in reading this that the details of daily life are irresistably and eloquently captured - the feeling of laying with your lover knees bent into knees, the shine of dust particles in the light of the window, the fight that explodes and dissipates and the feeling of relief when love comes again.With a compassionate pen, Lamott sculpts their world not out of epic ideas or fantastic adventure, but in the love and angst and peace and war and tribulation and triumph of every day life. She finds the beauty and pain in it, and gives it the no-frills homage it deserves.Crooked Little Heart led me to examine myself more closely through the characters and their actions, and also provided me with basic tenets of living that I will cherish.A thought provoking book, with great ideas and beautiful writing, I rate Crooked Little Heart five stars, as a read that will warm your heart, make you laugh, and edify your life.

I re-read this book recently and was pleased to find that I wasn't wrong about it the first time: it's wonderful, just as satisfying as any of the others, although I am partial to each new book as it arrives, like a gorgeous newborn. I didn't read Crooked Little Heart, I absorbed it. I fell in love with Rae and Lank -- their love story is one of the most poignant ones I have ever read. I know they will end up together. I just know it. I am dying to know more about Rae, actually. Will James ever learn to dress? Will any of us? Keep it up, Anne.

In the six months since I read CLH, I have thought of pieces of it hundreds of times. I think Anne Lamott is an amazing writer, one of the best contemporary American writers we have, along with Fred Chappell, Louise Erdrich, Kaye Gibbons, and Lee Smith, to name a few. I think with any piece of fiction the reader must be willing to enter the author's constructed world on their terms. I loved the title of CLH and wanted to know all that lay behind it. Also, I knew I liked Lamott's writing from some of her nonfiction. So, I kept going even though it took me several chapters to become fully engaged in the story. I find so much of her imagery and metaphor incredible that even without caring about tennis at all, I wanted to keep going. Plus, I trusted her to take me somewhere worthwhile. And she did. I love that Luther tells Rosie, You're not a cheater. You're someone who cheated. I saw so much compassion and honesty in that exchange. I think it's what the book was written for, and that it is more than enough to justify the story's length. Another of my favorite lines is also near the end, where Rosie tells Elizabeth, We're not like a real family, we're like some family you'd buy at a garage sale. (This may not be exact, I do not have the book with me). By that time, you realize that Lamott is saying most real families are that way, and that's the beauty of the thing--along with the fact that Rosie as an adolescent is not yet fully aware of how much of life really is like something you get at a garage sale and make do with and come to love devotedly.

I adored this book the first time I read it, and I'm rereading it again now, a year later. I can't believe how many "not good" reviews there are here--are we reading the same book? CLH is, to me, a fast, smart, heartbreakingly-precise portrait of a "family" living in the prosaic world of growing up--not just Rosie's growing up, but Elizabeth's, Rae's, James's--everybody's. This is a story about what it feels like to care about things too much, and it's brilliant. Don't listen to them, Annie. Keep it coming.