About this title: Tender but brutal, this portrait of unwavering commitment shines light on the little explored world of women's friendships through the author's relationship with critically acclaimed and recently deceased author, Lucy Grealy.
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Description: Good in good dust jacket. Good, In good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 257 p. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060572143ISBN:0060572140
Description: Good in Good jacket. First Edition. 185-W Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous owner's name, stamp, sticker, or gift inscription, or may be library discards. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060572143ISBN:0060572140
Description: Good in Good jacket. First Edition. 77-W Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous owner's name, stamp, sticker, or gift inscription, or may be library discards. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fine. Almost in new condition. Book shows only very slight signs of use. Cover and binding are undamaged and pages show minimal use. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780060572150ISBN:0060572159
Description: Acceptable. MAY HAVE COVER WEAR, SPINE CREASES, HIGHLIGHTING, UNDERLINING & PAGES YELLOWED FROM AGE. FASTER SERVICE FROM US! ! ! read more
"I have a little crush on Ann Patchett and it was so refreshing to read her first real stab at non-fiction, not least of all because it involves her own life. Well-written, and an intensely intimate look at a friendship which some other reviewers have derided as nonsensical, one-sided, abusive, etc. In many ways, it was all of the above. People like Ann and Lucy (though never quite to Lucy's extreme) have wandered in and out of my life as friends and I have loved and hated them for their selfish (or in Ann's case, occasionally too selfless) personalities. Loving a self-destructive friend is excruciating, but anyone who has ever had such a friend knows the struggle between loving and letting go.
I liked that this book was not about Lucy's death- and that Patchett never tried to manipulate me into feeling sorry for Lucy. Lucy was a life unto herself and Patchett understood that. Patchett gets deep into Lucy's faults and more lurid experiences, which others have reacted strongly against (the least of which being Lucy's sister). But if Lucy was who Patchett says she was, I think she would have loved the book.
I need to pick up Autobiography of a Face soon to read Lucy's story from her own perspective."
"28. Truth and Beauty: A Friendship, by Ann Patchett. This was one of the darkest books I've read all year. A memoir about Patchett's twenty-year friendship with writer Lucy Grealy, who eventually died of something like an accidental heroin overdose (the telling and probably the fact of it is unclear), the book starts out with the exuberance of two girls fresh out of college, and concludes with one of the girls spiraling into depression and addiction and her eventual and inevitable death.
I always feel sad when I read books about intense friendships, especially nonfiction, because while I have many friends I love dearly, none of us are quite pathological enough to have the kind of relationship where one of us feels the need to call the other every day and ask "Do you still love me?" (as Grealy does). I think I almost had one of these friendships once, in high school, but neither of us deserved the other: Jennifer was too smart for me, and I was too unself-centered for her. This sounds cruel, and maybe it is, because I am still resentful not only of her but of the failure of our young girlhood friendship to turn into a lifelong obsession that would have fueled endless novelizing and memoirizing of our lives.
Anyway, even though Lucy Grealy's death is no secret, and in fact an article about it was what led me to buy this book a few years ago, it hit me too hard. I am burdened with the sadness of The Book Thief, which is a world of pain and death, and now of Truth and Beauty as well, which is an individual and personal pain. Too much! I don't know if I need to take a break from reading or from reading these kinds of books, but yeah."
"I liked this book as I have like Patchett's other books, especially "Patron Saint of Liars" and "Run." This is non-fiction, though about Patchett's friendship with Lucy Grealy, another writer, who I had not heard about. I will likely read Grealy's book or poetry at some time, though. Lucy, who has lots of friends, is a demanding, jealous, insecure friend. She seems to be constantly seeking approval, for her writing, her "appeal", both sex appeal and with friends. I liked that Patchett's story is interspersed with sections from Lucy's letters to her. They had a very strange relationship.
"But it never worked that way, and the sex just made her lonelier. I understood that, as it had made me lonelier too. I couldn't ever remember her being lonely before, certainly no in this way, until I had seen the edge of all the ways you could be with another person, which brought up all the myriad ways that person could never be there for you."
These types of memoirs make me appreciate my "normal" life, which is so, so different from the lives (both Lucy's and Ann's) portrayed in this book."
"I'm adding this book to my shelf of books about writing. As much as it's about friendship and devotion, it's also about writing. I read the whole thing in a day. (Granted, I didn't get anything else done ... ) This is the story of two women who meet in college and become lifelong friends, until one of them dies. It's powerful and moving and awful and beautiful and I don't know what else."
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