On Friday a friend and I went to hear Anne Lamott speak about her newest book, Some Assembly Required: A Journal of my Son’s First Son. She cowrote the book with her son, Sam. (Readers will recognize Sam from many of her previous books, namely, Operating Instructions, which is about Sam’s first year of life and the struggles of new parenthood.) He was at the reading, too. Together they read and spoke as a kind of duet that was hilarious and thoughtful and thought-provoking. Question-provoking, I should say. Like, for example, how didn’t Anne flip out when her 19 year-old son came to her and said he was going to be a father? Nobody asked that, though.
Anne is known for her honesty and bare-all writing style. She writes generously about such intimate topics as single motherhood, alcoholism and her Christian faith. If you’ve read any of her books, you know that she is one funny lady. One of the gems of the night was when Anne was describing her writing style and, speaking about her struggles, said: “I just find this placee has been a terrible match for me. The Earth.”
Another great moment came when Sam was reading one of his emails from the book, which he’d written to his Mom during the first few weeks after his son Jax’s birth. As he was reading, Anne creeped up behind him and whispered (loudly enough that we could hear), “Slow down”. That was the first glimpse of the night of a mother and son on tour for a book they wrote together. The banter continued throughout their night.
Have you read anything by Anne Lamott, or, have you already read this latest book? What was the best author event you’ve been to? This particular event had me reminiscing about the Decatur Book Festival and getting to hear these awesome dudes at the children’s tent.
(Photo by Laura Morton)
For the love of bookshops 