Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Since I don’t share the author’s sense of humor, since I often found myself groaning and rolling my eyes, I found the book a bit tedious to get through. And the author’s preoccupation with jealousy (she devotes an entire chapter to it) is troubling. I know that when she “wishes for small bad things to happen” to her more successful writer friends, it’s mostly tongue-in-cheek. I still find it grating and rather childish.
Still, there’s good advice in here. And even the fact that she’s honest about all her feelings, including her consuming jealous and resentment of successful authors, is something. You could even say she’s taking her own advice in not holding anything back and getting in touch with her dark side. Ironically, some of the best parts of the book are her quotes from other writers (but don’t tell her, she’ll be consumed with jealousy).
The book is largely a memoir, structured around how she teaches writing to her students (and how inevitably most of them fail to appreciate her wisdom) . Short on technical advice (just one chapter each on plot ,character, dialogue and “set design”), most of the book focuses on how to get past your own personal demons and keep writing. And for that alone, it’s worthwhile.