Blue Shoe

Rating:
Summary: Blue Shoe Lacks Color
Review: Anne Lamott's Blue Shoe reminds me of a California version of Seinfeld, only with children. Both Blue Shoe and Seinfeld are about average people dealing with the minutiae and events of everyday life, including friends, family, parents, and relationships, and like Seinfeld's characters, Lamott's have strange qualms and neuroses. But while I like Jerry Seinfeld's adventures, I am not so fond of Lamott's main character, Mattie's.

There are three main storylines in the book: the decay of Mattie's mother, Mattie's love for her already married best friend, and Mattie's search for her father's secrets. Any one of these could have made an interesting book of its own, but Lamott gives them to us all at once. The book begins with Mattie recently divorced with her two kids and living on her own trying to make ends meet. Soon she develops a friendship with the man who comes to exterminate the rats in her walls and spends the rest of the book lusting after him. She also finds an old toy, the blue shoe of the title, amongst her father's belongings and becomes obsessed with finding where it came from. This search leads her to discover that her father had a secret life she knew nothing about. The whole time she still has to deal with the daily problems of her children and her career, not to mention fight with her mother who is slowly losing her mind to a mysterious disease but refuses to admit it or be treated for it.

The amazing thing about a Seinfeld episode is that the characters have their own stories but by the end they will all have intersected somehow so that the events of their lives seem, like our own, as a web. Lamott's storylines are like parallel lanes of traffic and just when we are becoming interested in one of them she changes lanes completely disorientating us until we stop caring about any of them.

And that is the main problem with the book. Lamott gives us so much information that we stop caring. The background she provides helps make better-developed characters, but it doesn't make them any more interesting. We see Mattie whine and cry over such small things that by the time we learn the truth of her father's secret, we feel it is meaningless.

Not that there aren't occasional moments when Lamott shines. The section when her dog is put to sleep or the misadventures with her pet iguana hold their own, but the main plots lumber along beside them and other less interesting sidebars only slow the progress more.

If you read this book, I suggest you start at Chapter 2. The first chapter merely contains background information, all of which can be found within the context of the rest of the book. Chapter 2 begins with the entrance of the important character Daniel, the man Mattie falls for, and introduces the blue shoe. I am convinced had I started here, I would not have had the time to become bored with the characters before the plot began. I'm not sure I would have been anymore entertained, but with a book like Blue Shoe, you take what you can get.

Rating:
Summary: God helps those who help themselves
Review: I enjoyed the beautifully written descriptions of the lead character's surroundings. It was interesting to note the degree of self-centeredness for her. Even the wonderfully articulated weather reflects exactly Mattie's inner state. I found myself frustrated while reading this novel. I wanted to scream, "HELP YOURSELF!" while she constantly blamed others for her poor circumstances and plead with God. It was a good book, but one that annoys all the while. I felt as though Mattie never grows during the course of the novel.

Rating:
Summary: Anne Lamott does it again!
Review: Lamott has once again translated potential heartbreak into a spiritual experience that defies the mere flesh. There is so much to love about this book. She hits the nail in the head when Mattie analyzes her parents' marriage. Did she follow her mother's pattern when she married her philandering husband? It's hard not to connect with a book that touches on familial love and reality during crisis in a way that captivates all who have watched a loved one, or parent, suffer the cruel and senseless blows of a failed relationship. Her signature poignancy cannot be missed.

As always, I find her styling and characters superb in their authenticity -- she once again demonstrates an unerring voice for dialogue and transmits emotion into a funny, moving account. Even though this isn't as memorable as Traveling Mercies and Crooked Little Heart, Anne Lamott hasn't lost her keen observations and ability to convey the same. If you liked any of her previous books, I guarantee this will not be a disappointment...

Rating:
Summary: Feh to the naysayers. It was wonderful.....
Review: last week, a winter storm brought down power lines in my neighborhood and plunged me into a blackout for five days. luckily, i had my first edition of BLUE SHOE to tide me over until the power went back on. it was crucial to my well being, and for that I thank Ms. Lamott.

BLUE SHOE offers Lamott's trademark array of real-life characters that endear one to them in much the same way that Anne Tyler's do; we relate to these people because they are not shiny and happy lobotomized versions of human beings -- deeply flawed, they struggle to the surface of their lives as we root them on, never quite knowing what will happen next. No cookie-cutter relationships here, thank GOD. although I am not religious, I didn't feel alienated by the christianity references -- this is hardly OLD TESTAMENT stuff, just a gentle sea current of spirituality that threads its way through the text. my favorite passages seemed to squeeze time sideways, protracting the moments in the character's lives that plot is made of. of particular sensitivity and beauty is Lamott's portrayal of Abby, and the tenuous relationship with her dead father which resolves itself by the end of the novel in a way that can be understood and believed in. All in al,l I got the same feeling of well being and good company that each of Lamotts novels have stirred in me. the fact that she makes it look easy does not mean that it IS easy to write about complex moral dillemmas and family secrets with such style and grace. I found the final pages of the book to be glorious and I was saddened to arrive at the last page. Closing the book with a full and round feeling of contentment, I found myself wondering whether, after all the agnostic nonsense and harsh petty criticism leveled at her on this site, Lamott will do us the honor of another novel soon. Let us hope that she does.
Annie -- you rock. -- Eve

Rating:
Summary: Focuses on the Bad, not the Good
Review: Like much of Lamott's nonfiction, Blue Shoe focuses on what's *wrong* with the life of the protagonist. The main character Mattie has a house, two kids, a true faith, and wonderfully supportive friends. She is even able to eek out a living in the absence of a real job, by doing some sporatic modeling for Sears.

Just as in Lamott's nonfiction, we are subjected to laments about the past--mainly her crazy alcohoic family. And, of course, the lack of a leading man. Quite frankly, the story line grows weary, wheter it's in fiction or nonfiction. Who wants to hear a woman with a decent life whine about her messed up family past and her poor choices when it comes to men?

I gave Blue Shoe two stars, rather than one, because Lamott can be funny and entertaining. I enjoy when we hear about the *good* in Mattie's life--the deep friendships, the wonderful kids, the found faith. And Lamott *can* be downright funny. The book held my attention and was entertaining enough. But periodically I had to put it down because the whining was driving me crazy.

Perhaps someday Lamott will realize how blessed she is, and will decide to focus on the human connections and the humor of everyday life, rather than wallowing in self-pity.

Rating:
Summary: Got Faith?
Review: Mattie Ryder is a middle aged divorced mother of two who loves her children, loves her parents, loves her friends, and loves her dog. She doesn't have a lot of money but she does have a lot of faith. Equipped with her faith and a little blue shoe, Mattie encounters events that will begin to change her life forever.

Anne's Lamott's new novel "Blue Shoe" takes us through experiences in Mattie's life from her point of view. We get to hear her innermost thoughts and desires as the episodes of her life take place. We get to experience her grief and pain as her aging dog Marjorie passes away as well as the joy she experiences every time she picks up and hugs her daughter Ella. We also get to sense her desire for Daniel a new friend she encounters during the novel. In turn we get to feel her need of forgiveness from God because Daniel's married to another woman.

We start off the novel finding out that Mattie is recently divorced and living in her parent's old home, her childhood home. We get introduced to a handful of characters including her mother, Isa, her son, Harry, and her daughter Ella. Her father is recently passed away and we get the sense from the very beginning that she misses him very much.

Blue Shoe is an assortment of plots brought together to tell the story of Mattie Ryder. Various stories fade in, out, and often times into each other to keep the readers reading on. Whether or not all the individual stories interest you or not, there's always the characters intertwined in the stories to tide you over.

One of these intertwined characters that keep popping up in the book is Isa, Mattie's mother. Once a proud and distinguished woman, her old age and ailing condition leaves her in an almost childlike state, needing medical help almost twenty-four hours a day. Through these episodes we see Mattie's determination and faith give her strength and caring as she sacrifices her time and money, to be with and care for, her mother. .

Another character with a high degree of faith is Daniel. Being Mattie's main male interest in the book wouldn't seem like a bad thing, except for the fact that he's already married to a beautiful young woman Pauline.

Then there's her recently deceased father, Alfred. Although deceased at the time we begin the book, we get plenty of background from Mattie about him to view him as an important character. Lamott captures the love of a daughter as she describes him through Mattie's thoughts. She relays the way that Mattie misses him every time she sees a picture of him, sees something that belonged to him, or enters a room that sparks a memory of him.

Lamott's book offers more than just a "snapshot" of a family. We follow her characters through their lives the way we'd follow our own family members through theirs. We see these characters at family occasions such as Thanksgiving, eating Turkey and dealing with family issues, just as we'd see our own. In reading this book you feel less like you're observing a family and more like you're a part of it.