Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
For a story about drug abuse and troubled teens, the story is almost completely lacking in dramatic tension. We come to learn that Rosie is experimenting with drugs, lying to her parents, engaging in unsafe sex, but we never really see any negative consequences of any of this behavior (except for one trip to an emergency room after drinking cough syrup, of all things). Perhaps the reader was supposed to react on a visceral level to the names of the drugs (Ecstasy, Adderall, LSD, etc.) but we never had any real insight into any negative effects these drugs had. Rosie’s moody behavior seemed typical of a teenager and the drugs didn’t seem to really change her in any way.
And the solution to Rosie’s drug abuse is to send her off to some wilderness camp where by learning to build a fire she will somehow become a more responsible person. The problems that caused and sustained the abuse (her father’s death, her mother’s own addiction and psychiatric problems) are raised but never dealt with. I was disappointed.