- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (April 6 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1594487510
- ISBN-13: 978-1594487514
- Product Dimensions: 23.7 x 16.2 x 2.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 204 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #223,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"Heartbreaking and delightful, moving and hopeful, Imperfect Birds reminds us how our children are connected to and independent of us, and that no matter how difficult our struggle is with them, love underlies it all and saves us. This novel captures the deepest, purest, most terrifying experience of parents fearing for their children. With great insight and humor, Anne Lamott shows us what it means these dangerous days to be a parent, what it means to be a child, and what it means to be a family."
-David Sheff, author of Beautiful Boy
"This is a hell of a book, tough and wonderful. A heartbreak and a heart- mender."
-Martin Cruz Smith, author of Gorky Park and The Golden Mile
-David Sheff, author of Beautiful Boy
"This is a hell of a book, tough and wonderful. A heartbreak and a heart- mender."
-Martin Cruz Smith, author of Gorky Park and The Golden Mile
Book Description
A powerful and redemptive novel of love and family, from the author of the bestselling Blue Shoe, Grace (Eventually), and Operating Instructions.
Rosie Ferguson is seventeen and ready to enjoy the summer before her senior year of high school. She's intelligent-she aced AP physics; athletic-a former state-ranked tennis doubles champion; and beautiful. She is, in short, everything her mother, Elizabeth, hoped she could be. The family's move to Landsdale, with stepfather James in tow, hadn't been as bumpy as Elizabeth feared.
But as the school year draws to a close, there are disturbing signs that the life Rosie claims to be leading is a sham, and that Elizabeth's hopes for her daughter to remain immune from the pull of the darker impulses of drugs and alcohol are dashed. Slowly and against their will, Elizabeth and James are forced to confront the fact that Rosie has been lying to them-and that her deceptions will have profound consequences.
This is Anne Lamott's most honest and heartrending novel yet, exploring our human quest for connection and salvation as it reveals the traps that can befall all of us.
Rosie Ferguson is seventeen and ready to enjoy the summer before her senior year of high school. She's intelligent-she aced AP physics; athletic-a former state-ranked tennis doubles champion; and beautiful. She is, in short, everything her mother, Elizabeth, hoped she could be. The family's move to Landsdale, with stepfather James in tow, hadn't been as bumpy as Elizabeth feared.
But as the school year draws to a close, there are disturbing signs that the life Rosie claims to be leading is a sham, and that Elizabeth's hopes for her daughter to remain immune from the pull of the darker impulses of drugs and alcohol are dashed. Slowly and against their will, Elizabeth and James are forced to confront the fact that Rosie has been lying to them-and that her deceptions will have profound consequences.
This is Anne Lamott's most honest and heartrending novel yet, exploring our human quest for connection and salvation as it reveals the traps that can befall all of us.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.0 out of 5 stars (94 customer reviews)
106 of 120 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
If only her fiction could be like her nonfiction..., Mar 10 2010
By Bluestalking Reader "Bluestalking Reader" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Imperfect Birds: A Novel (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
I love Anne Lamott's nonfiction works. During one particularly difficult year of my life I listened to her entire canon of nonfiction on CD. That, and a particularly dedicated therapist, helped pull me through the year safely. But her fiction? Not so much.Teenaged Rosie is at the heart of 'Imperfect Birds.' A good student, off and on good daughter, and generally honest kid, in the summer between her junior and senior years in high school she starts falling in with the wrong crowd. From the relative "innocence" of experimenting with marijuana, alcohol and a few harder drugs, Rosie suddenly begins to spiral out of control. In her favor, she has two parents (including a step-father, as Rosie's biological father died), and a whole support system of people who love her.
Something about Lamott's fiction lacks the spark of herself, a certain impish quality, that seems to flow so freely in her nonfiction. I didn't care about Rosie. Lamott didn't make me feel invested in her character. By the 3/4 mark I was bored, just waiting for it to end. And when it did I breathed a sigh of relief.
I found the book so disappointing, so blah in writing style, and don't plan on reading more of her fiction. Though I'll never hesitate to pick up her nonfiction. I recommend that without hesitation.
59 of 67 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Family Unity, Mar 2 2010
By K. L. Cotugno - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Imperfect Birds: A Novel (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
Elizabeth lives with her husband James and her daughter Rosie in Marin County, leading a seemingly idyllic-seeming life. But everyone has secrets. In this continuation of her 1997 book "Rosie," Lamott employs a blend of sensuality infused with spirituality, bringing each scene to life with a vivid clarity of sight, smell and insight. Facing her senior year in high school, Rosie, most of all, is duplicitous to her parents who trust her judgment and believe her lies. Since this is a novel about people who care about one another, the conflicts are within the family unit, with the mother-daughter relationship primarily at risk. By taking Rosie at face value, the marital union is jeopardized, but as it becomes more apparent that action must be taken if they all are to survive as a family, resolution and redemption are sought in an unconventional way. The resolution of the family crisis is handled with wit and perspective, and never tips over into Jodi Picoult territory. Given the Marin setting and the fact that the characters while not particularly affluent have means beyond the common solution, not all readers will sympathize with Rosie and her situation. She's fortunate to have such loving parents who don't give up on her. She is also fortunate in her friendships. The bonds between her and her two closest friends are treated with heart and warmth, displaying a loyalty enviable to anyone.Although this book continues Anne Lamott's 1997 novel, it can be real as a standalone since there are enough references to the former book which enlighten a new reader and refresh the memory of someone who's memories may had dimmed.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very disappointing, Jun 20 2010
By Sinclair Thompson - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Imperfect Birds: A Novel (Hardcover)
I am a huge fan of past fiction and non fiction books written by Anne Lamott. I was excited to read that she had a new book out , and promptly went out to buy it.What a disappointment. I agree with other readers that it is poorly written. I also found it depressing and sophomoric. So much navel gazing !
I just can't recommend this book , even though I would pick up another Lamott book at another date. I loved her earlier novels, found them insightful , well written , astute.
I hope to read something in the future that inspires these feelings once again.
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