Summary

Anne Lamott, a writer, recovered alcoholic, former addict and impassioned Republican-hater, finds herself pregnant in her mid-thirties, and decides to have the baby. This journal is a chronicle of her son Sam’s first year. She is fiercely self-deprecatory and funny and unafraid to talk about the dark side of parenting an infant: the fear, exhaustion, anger, emotional swings; that 4 a.m. inability to cope with the crying neediness of the baby.

She is a single parent barely able to pay the bills, but she has a tremendous support network of family, friends, and the people of her church--all of whom clearly love Sam and love her. And then, when Sam is 7 months old, crawling "like a Komodo dragon," the author’s best friend Pammy is diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. The author, who discovers the depth and resonance of love because of the gift of Sam, must now learn loss. She questions her faith, which she cannot justify on a cerebral level, but still hopes that God loves and guides her the way a parent loves and guides a child.

Commentary

This book is hilarious and heart-breaking at the same time, just like a lot of life. I wouldn’t suggest throwing out Dr. Spock, but this does add another dimension to child-rearing books. An added benefit of buying the book, besides getting to glimpse into someone else’s private thoughts, is that you feel maybe you’ve contributed to the author being able to buy Sam a bike or something.

Publisher

Random House

Place Published

New York

Edition

1993

Page Count

251