![]() ![]() Not all writers live in this cauldron, though we all have our peeves. The instructions are not wrong, but the intellectual underpinnings are feeble. It is uninstructive in a book which introduces itself as “Some Instructions on Writing and Life.” Though I laughed out loud many times, it was as if I were reading two books – laughing at the funny one but unenlightened by the “instructions on writing and life” one. Choosing sheep lice instead of, say, cockroaches or oxen is amusing, but humor should be organic and this imaginary comparison is tacked on without any meaning in this context. : “The very first thing I tell my new students…is that good writing is about telling the truth…Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little.” Funny. The book is filled with one-liners reminiscent of standup shtick. Yet I am a writer, and the three fires do not burn so wantonly in me, so in the end, I read it as a story. It is the naked devotion that connects so strongly that it is hard to reject her. Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird is a cauldron of humanity standing on three legs: humor, passionate devotion to writing, and despair. ![]()
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