Crooked Little Heart : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Good writing, characters obsessed with own navels
Review: Some find this overly descriptive, but I enjoyed the writing. There is some fine prose here, but is this really what Marin County is all about? As a sociological study of indulgent, privileged people who don't work, this is a fine portrait. I kept wanting to shake these people and tell them to get a life. Then I felt, maybe because I'm a man, I'm not getting something. Do women want to read about helpless women obsessed with their looks and their love life? At least the girls play tennis, which provides some relief from Rosie feeling sorry for herself and smacking herself with her fist to get sympathy. It made me weap for meaning in life. These people's lives have no meaning beyond their own narrow emotions which they can't escape. I would like to see the author turn to something with more meaningful!

Rating:
Summary: An extremely irritating read!
Review: It's really a shame. This could have been a good book. I really enjoyed the storyline on Rosie, but became very ill as I was continually subjected to her mother's angst. I realize that she'd had some difficult things to overcome in the past, but, HELLO, time to consider current blessings. I couldn't wait to leave their home, and I found myself wishing Rosie luck.

Rating:
Summary: Great book if you like tennis and good fiction
Review: As a jounior tennis player, i found the book Crooked Little Heart very enjoyable. The discriptions of tennis tournaments and life of a teenager was exact. Lamott did an excellent job with her words, thoughts, and the plot in general. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an easy read and a good, emotional book.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful look at adolescence and loss
Review: I loved this book and am recommending it to my friends. I found her descriptions of adolescence right on, and enjoyed a look at marriage and motherhood that didn't feature a picture-perfect heroine, but a real woman struggling with problems of addiction, grief and marriage and motherhood.

Rating:
Summary: Warm and fuzzy, good escapist read with excellent writing
Review: I bought this after seeing "The Horse Whisperer" (which I did not read). After watching mother and teenage daughter interact on screen, I wanted more of the same and got it in "Crooked Little Heart." I didn't have this kind of warm cuddly relationship with my mother, so I love reading about one even though I found it just a bit over the top. All that hugging, crying, feet rubbing and lying in bed together! Does that really happen or only in California? Oh, well, I bought it for a quick, involving read with good writing and that's what I got.

Rating:
Summary: A poor introduction to Anne Lamott
Review: I decided to read this book because I have read much critical parise of Ms. Lamott's other books and I am a fan of "coming of age" stories. This was an unfortunate introduction to Ms. Lamott's writing. I found the novel heavy handed and repetitive. In this novel, Ms. Lamott too often uses repeated (ad nauseum) physical descriptions (e.g., Rosie is gangly and pigeon toed) of her characters as a substitute for character development. If the characters were fully developed we would not have to be hit over the head with repeated descriptions for them to be remebered and live in our minds.

Rating:
Summary: Made Me feel LiKe Going to An A. A. Meeting
Review: I loved Operating Instructions, I loved Bird By Bird, I'm even ready to visit her church that she invites anyone to go to at the end of Crooked Little Heart...and it was a good story, but blech..if I had to read ONE MORE TIME about Rosie's gangly coltish puppy warm budding womanhood and Simone's ruby fleshy sexuality I think I'll yak. It was just too much clever descriptions and not enough compelling story. made me feel like I was at an AA meeting.

Rating:
Summary: Oh well...everyone has an off day sometimes.
Review: I held off on reading this latest book by Anne Lamott because I loved the anticipation of yet another delicious dive into the world she creates on paper. I relished the vibrancy of Rosie, which I read several years ago and looked forward to more of the same in Crooked Little Heart. Unfortunately, this doesn't feel like a sequel.....in Rosie everything and everyone was immediate and engaging. This book feels like it was written underwater and is keeping all the delectable characters at arms length with lengthy and unfocused prose. Like I said, everyone has an off day and I will keep reading everything Lamott writes....but I felt sad that the people I met in Rosie never resurfaced in this volume.

Rating:
Summary: This was a book that blew me away
Review: I read Rosie first and really liked it, but "Crooked Little Heart" was a novel that I wanted to crawl inside and live in for a while. Lamott writes about things of the spirit, things of the soul, so poignantly that I felt that I really gained some knowledge about myself by reading about Rosie, Elizabeth, Rae, and James. And that is what I hope for most as a reader -- a book that I can bring something of myself to. I loved this book so much I have it displayed on the top of my bookcase.

Rating:
Summary: Not one of Lamont's finer efforts
Review: I love Anne Lamont. Operating Instructions was exquisite. Rosie was embracing. Bird by Bird inspired me. Unfortunately, I was sorry I spent the bucks to buy Crooked Little Heart before the paperback edition came out. The book was readable, and I relaxed with Lamonts prose. But, when I was done, I thought, was I supposed to care? Rosie's adolescence was less that spectacular. Her feelings of inadequacy boring and normal. Her cheating disappointing. Her angst siimply boring. Yes, I'll hurry to buy the next Lamont. But my expectations are lower.