Imperfect Birds: A Novel

Anne Lamott is wise, wry, and grounded. She is also an astonishingly good writer. (For proof, see her book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.) I just finished her latest novel, IMPERFECT BIRDS, which I liked quite a bit -- not because the writing itself is so perfect (her fiction somehow isn't as powerful as her nonfiction), but because the story she tells is so moving. Lamott's story focuses on Rosie, a high-school senior who is succumbing to her addictions to various drugs and is drawn into an increasingly complicated web of lies to her parents about her behavior. It's a compelling narrative about the vulnerability of youth, the destructiveness of lying, the power of parental love, and the beauty (and ugliness) of truth.

Imperfect Birds is, on the surface, a frank and brutally honest story of a rebellious teenager and her mother. To outsiders, Rosie Ferguson appears to be a typical high school senior spending time with friends, volunteering at her local church, giving tennis lessons, yet still child enough to refer to her mother as "Mommy." The other side of Rosie is a master-manipulator experimenting with all manner of drugs and sex and full of disdain for many of the adults in her life.

Rosie's mom, Elizabeth, is a recovering alcoholic who chooses not to acknowledge the subtle signs of her daughter's self-destructive behavior. Mother and daughter have an almost-obsessive, but unspoken, fear of the other dying, yet at times claim to hate one other. Rosie's step-father James, despite best intentions, spends too much time and energy on his work to recognize that there are problems at home.

When Rosie's behavior begins to spiral out of control and James and Elizabeth can no longer ignore the obvious, they begin performing random drug tests on her in an attempt to force her sobriety. Their strategy backfires when Rosie seeks alternative ways to find a high that won't show up on the tests. All comes crashing down when Rosie drinks cold syrup prior to a church picnic and Elizabeth acts on the sage counsel of a friend who advises "Just don't do nothing today. Today, do something big." Elizabeth takes Rosie to the ER where the full spectrum of her drug use is revealed and Elizabeth and James are forced to confront the truth and take steps to save their family.

Underneath this compelling story are currents that reflect the classic struggle between mothers and daughters. As mothers, we cheer our daughters on when they reach adolescence and we begin to see glimpses of the women they will become, yet at the same time we mourn the fact that they are taking the first steps on a path that will one day take them away from us. As daughters we struggle to be free from the confines of our mother's arms, yet we wrestle with sorrow at the thought of leaving the security and love that they represent.

Read Imperfect Birds the first time to enjoy the story; read it the second time to appreciate the message it contains.

by Linda Hoye
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I just finished listening to Imperfect Birds. This is my family's story. The only difference is that my son has Juvenile Diabetes so when he went on a wilderness trip, I was even more scared. As soon as I finished listening to it, I e-mailed the other mother's that I got very close to, the year following my son's stay at Hazelden and a wonderful place in Port Townsend, Washington: Gray Wolf Ranch. Perhaps there may be people who won't appreciate this book, because they have never been there, done that.... Anne is right on target. 50 times I thought about shutting it off and yet I hung in there, and glad that I did. Thank you, Anne, for writing this book.

Soon into the book, I became frustrated by what I consider would have been common sense parenting of a child drawn by drugs. I don't remember ever seeing the question asked, why? What is missing from Rosie's life that she needs substances to make her feel good? I know it was in the environment, but not all kids get addicted. It was frustrating that Elizabeth and James never seemed to consider counseling/therapy. At the very least, a therapist could have given her strategies for dealing with those times of emptiness, loss, and sadness. And at the most, the feelings themselves could have been dealt with. Of course, then the novel wouldn't have unfolded as it did, but I do think it was unrealistic not to even to bring up the idea of counseling.

In her latest novel, Lamott revives an previous character, Rosie, and brings her to her toughest challenge yet, her daughter's addiction. I came to Lamott via her nonfiction. And although her fiction is different, it is no less compelling. Having said that, we must understand that the novel and the essay aim to do two different things in two very different ways. Imperfect Birds shows us a contemporary teenaged world of drugs, casual sex, and age-old angst. The truths Lamott seeks to show the reader about grace, God, and compassion aren't set out in funny one-liners like we find in her essays. Fictional narrative doesn't "speak" in one-liners. It tells stories and speaks to collective understandings about life. I found Lamott's writing to be sublime and the work to be charming. The reason for my deduction of one star is that Anne spends too much time in exposition concerning setting and immaterial characters for my taste, but it really is a matter of taste. I tend to be a minimalist about such things.

For a story about drug abuse and troubled teens, the book 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.

My daughter just turned 13 and we are moving into "those years." I thought this book would be good for me to read as we enter these challenging years. The whole novel, however, was unbelievable and poorly written. The characters were odd. Someone mentioned in a review above about how they were always smelling each other and in tangled limbs. None of the characters are likable. Nothing exciting happened. It was clear from the beginning that Rosie would end up in the Utah rehab woods. She almost has an affair with her teacher which would have been kind of interesting in a soap opera way. But the whole book revolves around this character's drug use. One day she is doing E the next day Aderall. She is drinking cough syrup by day with her boyfriend and "shrumin" by night. OK, this sounds like a drug addicts life. What else? Mom catches her, but doesn't tell dad. They find drugs in her room. And?! There is a cat. Then there is a dog. Mom is a lush herself. Step-dad is a pain in the ass. There just wasn't enough story to tell. I am disappointed I wasted my money on this book. Do yourself a favor and skip it.

While this book kept my attention probably for its style and language, it's not a book I would recommend to anyone I know. I didn't feel any relationship to any of the main characters, nor did I find them likable enough to care about them. The author deserves credit for her greatly detailed treatment of the drug culture, and I might recommend the book to someone who has been inside or close to that culture.

I listened to the book on CD & became completely immersed in Rosie & her family & found all that was written to be very real to teenage life in wealthy suburban communities: the entitled child and the parents who are either in denial about the problems of their children or too afraid of them to set limits. I was extremely disappointed however with the ending of the book. It seems to end in mid-air. Perhaps Ms. Lamont plans to continue what happens with Rosie in future books (as she's done in the past) but I felt angry that the reader of Imperfect Birds is left hanging.

Anne Lamott is one of my favorite authors : Operating Instructions, Bird by Bird. But these 2 books are non-fiction, or rather personnalized non-fiction, anyway, not novels.
Imperfect Birds is a novel, although from what I remember of the other 2 books, this novel must be inspired by many happenings in the author's life.
Elizabeth has a 17 year-old daughter Rosie. Elizabeth's first husband, Andrew, died when Rosie was a young girl, and Elizabeth has remarried, with James, a writer. Rosie is looking forward to her senior year in high school, and especially to doing well before sending out her college applications. She is an excellent student and a beautiful girl, although lacking in confidence (one wonders why). The problem : Rosie and her friends take any kind of hallucinatory drug they can get ahold of. Elizabeth is an ex-alcoholic and prone to moods. She also is hyper-anxious about Rosie- even before she learns about Rosie's drug problem. Rosie has become a skilled liar to her mother and her step-dad, whom she likes, even really loves as father.
There are many run-ins not only between Rosie and her mother, but also between Elizabeth and James, who do not see eye-to-eye about how to handle Rosie. In the end, Rosie is sent to a 3-month wilderness training school for teenage drug addicts. She adapts to her fate, but even towards the end, she is plotting to escape and to return to her friends, drugs and lies. The end is up in the air. We don't learn what will happen when Rosie returns home. Will she stay off of drugs? Will she finish her senior year? Will she be accepted at a good college? And what about Elizabeth? Will she have learned to be tougher, and yet not to be so anxious about the safety of Rosie?
Maybe the ending is left up in the air because a parent never does cease worrying, at least a bit, about a child's well-being, even when he or she is an adult- settled, married, with children and a good job!
In any case, this book sure put in perspective the (few) problems most people have with their children!
I like Lamott because she writes "true", and also because she finds fresh images to describe feelings and situations.
Noteworthy passages :
p. 202- Later, he wanted to make love, and she was glad to because her gratitude trumped the new feelings of mild revulsion she had begun to feel toward sex. Besides, it gave her a sex credit. She could look forward to a week off now.
p. 369- Elizabeth's heart opened and closed like gills.
Now, I am going to re-read this book "like a writer".
Carole Jean Tremblay author of The Patriot Conspiracy

Anne Lamott is peerless at understanding and revealing the underpinnings of family dysfunction. That she does it (on the surface) effortlessly, with biting wit and faultless timing, never pretending to know things she doesn't know, is mind blowing. She laughs at her own foibles, as she does in her non-fiction. But being fiction, she gives herself the distance to get even closer to revealing the hearts of her "people." It's lovely, moving work. Ms. Lamott understands teenagers. She understands adults. She understands them together--dealing with the culture we live in and trying to survive, still loving each other. By the time you're near the end, if you're at all like me, you'll need a box of kleenex.

The story that one faces reading "Imperfect Birds" is one that I could have written ten years ago. My story did not have such a "happy" ending as this one as I was unable to afford to send my daughter to a wilderness retreat and I doubt it would have worked. In many ways the book was frightening: reliving all that angst and terror of not knowing what was a lie and what was the truth. It brought up all the same feelings of self-hatred for lack of or too much control, wanting desperately to believe her but unable to and finally resorting to letting go. So feelings aside, I still didn't like the book.

Once finished with the book it seemed more like "Beautiful Boy - Lite" or "A Thousand (not a Million) Little Pieces". When I saw this book I snatched it up as I too am an Anne Lamott fan, albeit, non-fiction only and this one seals the deal.

Ten years ago, I loved anything Anne Lamott wrote, but I've become less and less enchanted with her. After this book, I feel as if I'm at the end of a relationship. Just a third of the way through, I started skimming, and not because I really cared about Rosie, but because I was looking for places where Lamott does her overly-glib thing: you know, the places where she wants us to say, Oh, you're so right and so funny. I'm not sure when it happened, but it feels as if the rest of us have grown up and she's stuck in time--and I kept getting the feeling that I'd read all her characters' witty comebacks before. Don't waste your money.

"...please don't let Rosie get [...] any neck tattoos; or AIDS. Also, help her not fry her mind. Oh, one more tiny thing: Could you please help keep her alive, and not have a spinal cord injury..."

So prays Elizabeth, a stay-at-home mom and recovering alcoholic, to a god she's not sure she believes in. She worries 24/7 about Rosie, her 17-year-old daughter, in their California community seemingly rife with rehabbing and dying youth. The novel proceeds through a series of teenage lies and irresponsible behaviors and a seesaw of maternal under-reactions ("It's hard for me to say no to [Rosie...] I'm so afraid of her wrath that I cave") and over-reactions (also prompted more by Elizabeth's own fears than by Rosie's best interests). As things worsen, the steadying influence of Elizabeth's second husband and an assortment of wise and grounded friends and counselors illustrate that support is available if people are open to accepting help.

Lamott's Bird by Bird is among my all-time-favorite books, and I also enjoyed Traveling Mercies and two volumes of her essays. This is my first of her fiction, and I'm undecided about pursuing more. She manages point of view well when it's her own (nonfiction), but here it frequently bumped me and sent me back to reread. The story felt slow and repetitive (incidents mostly occur at a similar level of tension/stakes rather than progressively escalating), and even somewhat withheld (much of the tension and fallout is off the page). That style distanced me -- until it occured to me that it mimics Elizabeth, and the realization added a satisfying layer.

This book was really hard to get through. To quote another reviewer "it was painful." I finally finished it, hoping that the end would make it worthwhile but it did not. I don't understand what the point of the book was. Was it supposed to be uplifting? It wasn't. Did it have a happy ending? It did not. It was the same thing happening on every page over and over and it went nowhere.

The characters weren't believable as people. What drugged up teen calls her mother "mommy?" I won't try this author again.

This book is a continuation of some of Ms. Lamott's former novels, but you don't need to have read them to enjoy this one. I know because I haven't read them and I loved this one. This is the story of Elizabeth and her teenage daughter Rosie. Rosie is a teenager and quite frankly Rosie is lost. She tells a lot of lies to both herself and her mother Elizabeth. Add into the mix the stepfather and there's a lot of lying flying around. Rosie claims to be a good kid, and everyone wants to believe it so bad they appear to be doing just that.

Because Rosie's parents love her they want to believe she's not doing drugs, want to believe she's not having sex. Just like most parents of teenagers want to believe these lies from their own children. In Rosies case not only is she doing these things, these things have led to bigger problems. This novel stands as a warning letter to all parents who believe "not my child" and the lies. It's important to know the lessons contained within this novel.

But let's say you have no children. This is a good novel for everyone. Lamott knows how to write a novel about real people, her characters begin to feel like people you can pick up the telephone and call. The storyline is so real. I read this one so quickly and kept trying to slow down to prolong the enjoyment. I don't want to give away anymore, but this would be a great book for every parent of a teenager or eventual teenager to read.

I've read other fiction novels by Lamott and this book further reminds me of why I love this author, good writing, good storylines and realistic characters.

Though this book starts out slow and is rather hard to sink into, eventually the story captured me and carried me along. Watching as Rosie slowly devolves in front of her parents' eyes is poignant and disturbing, and Lamott tells the story in lyrical prose. I did enjoy this book for its treatment of the mother-daughter relationship and the peek inside the mind of an addict. A good read once it grips you but definitely a slow starter.

Let's cut right to the chase. Imperfect Birds is a story of two self-centered people with no discernible moral compass who end up mystified as to why their daughter has been living a degenerate, self-absorbed life. In the eloquent words of Rosie the drug-addled teen protagonist, "Oh God!!!" Indeed. As in, Oh God, what a complete waste of time. Oh God, who could be the least sympathetic for these utterly unlikable characters? Oh God, what's with the pseudo-happy ending that is totally incongruous with the rest of this fatalistic nonsense? The End.

This novel begs parents to ask themselves the question, "how much freedom is too much freedom to allow your teenager". This book is number three of a trilogy --I have not read the other two books: Rosie and Crooked Little Heart, but it is not necessary to read them to fully understand this story.

In this novel, seventeen year old Rosie Ferguson is an intelligent and pretty girl who had always been pretty open with her mother. In the past she has shared personal details with her family about her friends and classmate's problems. However, as the new school year approaches it becomes clear, at least to the reader, that Rosie is a troubled girl in crisis.

Her mother, Elizabeth, is a recovering alcoholic and suffers from anxiety and depression. She knows her daughter hangs out with a fast crowd, and that Rosie has not always been honest with her, but yet Elizabeth hates to make waves. She fears that if she digs too deep, she may risk ruining her relationship with her daughter. Rosie has a stepfather, who is obsessed with work, and he seems to be pretty much a non entity. However, when a crisis occurs and things get out of control, the parents are forced to take action to help their daughter.

MY THOUGHTS - I was so looking forward to this book, and really wanted to like it, but ultimately, I was a somewhat disappointed. The writing was vivid, but I wanted to shake the mother and say "wake-up and do something". Maybe it was partly because she was struggling with her own issues, but it is not like the family did not have a good support system. I also did not care for any of the characters, and I find it hard to love a book, when I can't relate to, or don't like anyone in it. Yet, the novel tells an important story, and in many ways gives insight, at least to the observant reader, of signs to look for in a troubled teen.

Anne LaMott still has her trademark wry humor, jewel-like descriptions of life and landscape in wealthy, wonderful Marin County, California. But the book is no sanitized tour of Marin teen life. Elizabeth Ferguson, the main character and mother of Rosie, her teen daughter, looks around her small town and sees "parents who lost or were losing their kids, kids who lost or were losing their minds."
And from that, we, the reader, are taken on this bad trip to visit Marin's all too often feral teens. La Mott writes with an anthropologist's field notes detail on the credulity and gulabiliy of these affluent teens. Why did the angelic looking former Eagle Scout become a heroin addict ? Why are these feral teens cultivating the look of homelessness while car keys dangled from their belts as they drank four dollar lattes? Why is Rosie, the daughter, sinking into lying, compulsive poly-drug abuse? How can loving parents protect their children without their children bottoming out to death or disability?

LaMott notes that ..."life with most teenagers was like having a low-grade bladder infection. It's hard but you just have to tough it out."

And tough it out, Elizabeth does. Elizabeth moves from bland acceptance of Rosie's lies to a urine- testing- for- drugs mom. LaMott obviously knows this territory well. A friend who is a mother
of two teen girls found the book "terrifying".

Read the book, recommend it to your book club, and all parent-teacher groups and even teens. The book is beautiful and an easy enough read for the beach and a cautionary and
powerful enough for winter reflections.

The title comes from a Rumi quotation: "Each one has to enter the nest made by the other imperfect bird."

I loved this newest novel Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott and was sorry to see so many negative reviews. I found the book to be very interesting and well written. And that would be no surprise as Anne Lamott is and always has been an excellent book choice. I read this book practically non-stop because I did not want to put it down.

Check it out for yourself. It was a great find.

Anne Lamott is an incredibly talented writer, and captures the characters and the perplexities of their lives perfectly. This is a witty and engaging book, and the style of her writing makes it enjoyable to stay engaged throughout the whole story. I grew up in Southern Marin County in the 1980s and 90s, and she captured the area perfectly in terms of the community itself, the dynamics of family and friends, as well as the teenage experience. Throughout the book I was pleasantly surprised at how spot-on her depictions were of being a teenager in the unique little bubble of Marin County. She was able to portray internal and external challenges in a raw manner that is accurate and sensitive, without being overly cheesy and over the top. I highly recommend this book, especially for teenagers and any parent of teenagers.

Knowing a little about Lamott's hippie past, I should have known better than to pick up this book. Several pages into it I was already disgusted with Elizabeth and James. Sheesh, what an immature pair. When I read that they gave her a lot of independence because she was really a good kid....I threw the book in the trash. Yep, they knew she'd given oral sex, wasn't a virgin, used coke, drank alcohol, popped valium and other prescription drugs, shoplifted, but she was a pretty good kid who hadn't caused much trouble and got good grades in school. Only from Ann Lamott.

This was a disappointing effort by a skilled writer. I found it difficult to empathize with any of the characters. In particular, Elizabeth seemed whiney and self-pitying. I listened to the audio version which was poor. The reader attempted to voice each character as if she was a one-person stage play. Her male voices, instead of sounding, masculine, sounded like a woman impersonating men. The women, who had very different personalities, all sounded the same. The reading quickly became irritating and distracted from the book's impact. While I usually enjoy Anne Lamott's work, this book was not up to her usual standards.

Entering her high school senior year, seventeen year old Rosie Ferguson is a high achieving teen. Rosie is beautiful, an A student and a good athlete. Her mother Elizabeth is proud of her daughter.

Elizabeth feared the move to Lansdale in Marin County, but she, her husband James, and her daughter apparently adjusted rather easily though she prays Rosie stays away from the youth drug culture as she knows she herself uses alcohol to numb emotional excess. She and James vigilantly watch Rosie for signs of abuse and use as the square sells everything. However, in spite of their vigil, they fail to notice her daughter's mendacity until it is almost too late. Risking their marriage, James and Elizabeth intervene while Rosie objects.

Rosie and Elizabeth return (see Rosie) in this profound gut wrenching family drama. The story line captures teen behavior with a strong need to ignore parental authority while also demanding privacy and the typical subsequent parental reaction. The lead trio is an awesome combination of love, defiance, and anger as Anne Lamott provides an intelligent psychological family drama.

Harriet Klausner

Anne Lamont blesses her readers with prose that exhilarates. Her descriptions transpose the reader to the beauty of San Francisco's bay area; the serenity of sunrises and sunsets; the lush gardens arrayed with musical color; the tranquility of soft breezes and tranquil nights. Against this iconic backdrop, Lamont introduces us to James and Elizabeth, parents deeply in love with their beautiful seventeen year old daughter, Rosie. But Rosie has secrets and those secrets are about to tear this close trio into shreds. What do they do when their A student daughter starts staying out later, ignoring curfews, coming home reeking of various odors, acting bewildered and belligerent?

The novel addresses all three of the characters foibles, their weaknesses and strengths, their empathy; their anger; their willingness to face the foe, or hide from it. With keen insight, Lamont instructs the reader about the insidiousness of drugs; their power to destroy trust, destroy bodies, destroy a family unit; in their extreme the ability to annihilate a life.

Touching to the core, wonderfully expressed, this is a novel that both sexes will relate to in their individual spirits. A must read!

I really liked this book. The beginning was little bit slow, but then I got sucked into it. I think the author did a very good job describing the teenager (Rosie), her behavior, lies and tricks. Learn about different kind of drugs. Also, I think the author very skillfully portrayed the mother, Elisabeth, her agony, melancholy, denials and moods. Also, I enjoyed the flowerless writing style.

I really liked this book. The beginning was little bit slow, but then I got sucked into it. I think the author did a very good job describing the teenager (Rosie), her behavior, lies and tricks. Learn about different kind of drugs. Also, I think the author very skillfully portrayed the mother, Elisabeth, her agony, melancholy, denials and moods. Also, I enjoyed the flowerless writing style.

Honestly, don't know why I finished this book but once I start one I try and finish it until the end even if it stinks. This book was so caught up in the authors lofty vocabulary that it was difficult to read. It took on a difficult subject with hard to believe characters. I really don't believe that a person in real life could party so hard and do so many drugs and keep an A average. The parents weren't that believable either. I really can't say too many nice things about this book.

I deeply regret that my experience with this book was much different than that of reviewer, K. L. Cotugno and akin to that of Bluestalking Reader because I have liked several of her past books.

While some reviewers felt deeply moved by the fear felt by teenager Rosie Ferguson's parents as she experiments with drugs and sex I felt irritated about the parent's apparent haplessness. Sure the teen years can be fraught with danger and the worst time for most parents, especially for those living in a liberal, easy going wannabes, well-intentioned, middle-to-upper middle class county like Marin (where I live). And it's a mystery why some teens thrive on the opportunities and lifestyle and others seem to slide into hanging out and/or worse.

And despite the loving discipline that many parents more or less consistently try to maintain during these trying years, some teens engaged in self-destructive behavior from which they are not able to emerge. Yet, from the beginning scene in this book, the parents seemed to think and act like children as much as the daughter did. They may have felt closer as a family at the end yet I did not see any gained wisdom by either parent nor find the usual humor along the way, with which Lamott often leavens her books.

I fell in love with her imperfect family her book All New People and also treasured Bird by Bird.

This was a very long and very repetative story about drug abuse, lies, and a spineless mother.
They never heard of "tough love" and each chapter was more and more of the same.....drugs, sex, deceitful behavior,
I will never read another book by this author.....plus the gal who read it.....mispronounced several famous tennis stars names....REALLY!

Perfect for any family, especially those with coming of age children, and/or those who are dealing with addiction. Anne Lamott is, as always, keenly aware of pain and the sharp humour need to survive.

If you've ever loved or, heaven forbid, raised an addict this book will shine the light on how easy it is to deny the trouble your loved one is in. Anne Lamott beautifully portrays the struggle, the denial, the hope, the dashed hopes of loving an addict. If your child is suffering, read this book. It may help you see how "helping" doesn't help an addict. Raising an addict goes against the fabric of life and this book will open your eyes - if you let it.

Elizabeth lives with her husband James and her daughter Rosie in Marin County, leading a seemingly idyllic-seeming life. But everyone has secrets. In this continuation of her 1997 book "Rosie," Lamott employs a blend of sensuality infused with spirituality, bringing each scene to life with a vivid clarity of sight, smell and insight. Facing her senior year in high school, Rosie, most of all, is duplicitous to her parents who trust her judgment and believe her lies. Since this is a novel about people who care about one another, the conflicts are within the family unit, with the mother-daughter relationship primarily at risk. By taking Rosie at face value, the marital union is jeopardized, but as it becomes more apparent that action must be taken if they all are to survive as a family, resolution and redemption are sought in an unconventional way. The resolution of the family crisis is handled with wit and perspective, and never tips over into Jodi Picoult territory. Given the Marin setting and the fact that the characters while not particularly affluent have means beyond the common solution, not all readers will sympathize with Rosie and her situation. She's fortunate to have such loving parents who don't give up on her. She is also fortunate in her friendships. The bonds between her and her two closest friends are treated with heart and warmth, displaying a loyalty enviable to anyone.

Although this book continues Anne Lamott's 1997 novel, it can be real as a standalone since there are enough references to the former book which enlighten a new reader and refresh the memory of someone who's memories may had dimmed.

I was looking forward to reading this, but finishing it became a chore. It is too long. It's as if the author got very lazy writing it (entire passages are repeated in the book!) and as if no one edited it. The characters were distasteful and unrealistic, and it lacked real dramatic tension. The mother, Elizabeth, is a weak, boring, spineless parent who can't even allow her wimpy writer husband 30 minutes of uninterrupted writing time without having a "breakdown." No one seems to work; everyone spouts platitudes ("the adults are the ones who ruined the planet") and it's tough to really care about these people. Not worth spending money on this one.

Remember that term from the 60s and early 70s? Remember when kids didn't trust anyone over 30, drank, took drugs, smoked pot, went on the pill, had sex, even group sex, attended rock concerts and all night parties where they drank, took drugs...and California set the tone for the rest of the nation. I was in San Francisco in 1970. I know how Rosie felt and I don't mean emotionally. So why is it (and this doesn't mean the author has it wrong) that those kids, who are now the parents, don't get it when their own kids are doing the very same things? The kids lie to their parents routinely and the parents believe them. The kids are telling the parents what the parents want to hear (just like back then). The parents then didn't want to know when you got home at 5 o'clock in the morning that you'd been having sex in the back seat of John's car for the last few hours. Rosie is really a professional at lying. She can think on her feet and do some Oscar-winning acting. And Elizabeth has problems of her own with alcohol and drug addiction, goes to AA and sees a psychiatrist. So maybe she feels she can't call her daughter out on this one. James is harder to fool, and he is starting to get it. Things are catching up with Rosie. Two classmates have alreaddy died in a car crash that summer, speeding home after taking drugs. The writings on the wall, but teenagers often don't think. Will Rosie's parents wake up before it's too late?

This book deals openly and honestly with teenage angst, rebellion, drug abuse and sexual promiscuity along with their effect on the family dynamic. Though lamott's writing pulled me in with it's raw emotionality, I only rated with three stars because it was painful to read and it left me with a feeling of incompleteness. I recommend it for anyone whose life is touched with the difficult topic of teenage drug use.

Anne Lamott, bestselling author of Traveling Mercies and Crooked Little Heart is one of the best writers today. Imperfect Love is a compelling story of love and redemption within the confines of a family unit. Heart rendering and heart breaking and, like all of Lamott's books, it is impossible to put down.

I checked out this book from my local library. (I learned my lesson the hard way with her last book, which I'd purchased, which was also a disappointment.) I was so excited about a new Lamott book that I was first on the list to request this one. My husband picked it up for me and I eagerly dove into the story. I loved Rosie and was looking forward to reuniting with one my favorite of Ms. Lamott's fictional charcters.

I must've read the first ten pages or so five or six times. The writing was embarrasingly juvenile and trite. (I found so many grammatical errors that I wanted to write a letter to Lamott's editor.) It began when Elizabeth and her husband were waiting for Rosie. The immature descriptions of people and their pets passing by were horrible. One that comes to mind was about a dog rudely called a 'chemo dog'. When she began describing her characters' complaints about ageing, I literally cringed it was so bad. It was like listening to my 80 year old neighbor complain about her ailments. It added nothing to the story. I tried to read the book and I wanted to love the story. Around page 68 I gave up. It was like reading something written by a novice writer. I own every single book Anne Lamott has written and loved her early work. I have given away countless copies of Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year and Bird by Bird to my friends. I think the title of this book was an unsuccessful play on the title of "Bird by Bird". Simply put, Ms. Lamott has lost her mojo. Save your money or buy one of her early novels or non-fiction books.

Boring boring. I waited 317 pages for something to happen. This was a book of conversation . The conversation dealt with the parents worries and mistrust of Rosie, their teenaged daughter. I kept thinking there would be a little action. These parents were so gullible. Rosie was, I must admit, an exceptional liar. Obviously Anne Lamott has "written out". I enjoyed "Crooked Little Heart", which I read many years ago. I contend that many writers have only one or two good books in them. This seems to be so of Lamott
I repect writers who wait years between their books. Why not wait until you have something to say. Also why do publishers agree to release the inferior work. I will never buy another book by Anne Lanott

This book is boring, and the characters are not believable. I was compelled to finish this book for some reason, and the ending was worse than the rest of the book. I want the time out of my life I spent reading this book back. I'm not a parent, but if I was I imagine this book would freak me out. What unnecessary pain to put oneself through for no insight or fresh observations on life.

I read over half of this story before finally giving up and throwing it away so no other person has to suffer. ALL the characters were empty and shallow, and her rants on God were pathetic. New age garbage.

This book changed something in the way I am parenting my 6 year old. Humbling to read as a mom who wants to believe the best about my daughter but maybe needed to rethink some things before she is a teenager. Loved this book!

Anne gives us another peek into the modern American family, albeit one living in the Bay area.
The characters are readily identifiable - true easy-going California hippies - and the story plausible but not as fresh as past fiction offerings from Ms. Lamott.