Several days ago I finished Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett. Patchett is best known as a fiction writer, but this is the first book of hers I've read. It's the story of her friendship with writer Lucy Grealy. The reader knows from the beginning of the book that Grealy has died, so you know the story will have a sad ending. Grealy herself wrote Autobiography of a Face, which I blogged about in January 2009. Grealy had to have part of her jaw removed due to childhood cancer and endured dozens of surgeries throughout her life. Truth and Beauty talks about some of Grealy's health issues but also about what it's like in general for a woman to have a close woman friend, what that relationship can be like. I thought Grealy didn't seem entirely sympathetic -- Patchett is definitely willing to explore her flaws -- but despite that I liked the book, thought it was really well written, and I will definitely have to check out some of Patchett's fiction.
More recently I started An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude by Ann Vanderhoof. It's a memoir of Vanderhoof and her husband putting their lives in Canada on hold and sailing around through the Caribbean. I've only just started it but I think I'm going to really like it -- Vanderhoof has a way with language and the tropical setting really comes alive.
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