Book Reviews of Truth & Beauty: A Friendship

Patchett writes so beautifully that somehow it doesn't matter that this memoir of her friendship with writer and cancer survivor, Lucy Grealy, is often depressing and frustrating when Lucy's neediness and overwhelming insecurity dictates both their lives; however the love the two women have for each other shines thru all the heartache.

Lots of controversy over this mrmoir. Lucy's family says things didn't happen exactly as Ann Patchett says they did. Interesting discussion at book club, however.

This was o.k., interesting, funny at times, but not really what I expected. I kept waiting for it to get a little better. It seemed ver much like the friendship between the two writers was one-sided, with Lucy being completely selfish and self-absorbed, and Ann having a saintly patience. I didn't really like Patchett's Bel Canto, so perhaps it as just her prose style that left me wanting.

Facinating book. I recommend reading "Autobiography of a Face" first and then this book. Both are compelling and moving books.

Wow- it made me laugh, made me cry and i read the entire book in one night--AWESOME

A fantastic companion to Autobiography of a Face-Lucy Grealy. This book was written by Lucy's dear friend.

This is a non-fiction book by Ann Pachett who has written wonderful books. Although good I prefer the fiction books.

Enjoyable book details the friendship between the author and poet Lucy.

Really good book about friendship.

Excellent book, very different in style from the author's fiction.

The famous novelist Ann Patchett writes nonfiction about her friendship with the famous poet/memoirist Lucy Grealy. Beautifully written, though I think Patchett was sometimes too easy on her friend.

"Even when Lucy was devastated or difficult, she was the person I knew best in the world, the person I was the most comfortable with. Whenever I saw her, I felt like I had been living in another country, doing moderately well in another language, and then she showed up speaking English and suddenly I could speak with all the complexity and nuance that I hadn't even realized was gone. With Lucy I was a native speaker."

I really enjoyed this book. I have not read the autobiogaphy of a face, but certainly will now. It's an interesting story about friendship and also about young writers. Great.

For Ann Patchett fans (Bel Canto), this is the true story of her friendship with the dark and complex author, Lucy Grealy.

Beautiful read!

liked it.

Ann Patchett is a wonderful writer!

I enjoyed this book, though not as much as Patchett's novel, Bel Canto. This was very well reviewed, though. I originally read a glowing review about it in Entertainment Weekly.

A riveting story of friendship, what it means to be an author, and living a passionate life. It is all the more valid because it is based in reality, very frank and insightful.

I struggled to finish this. Yes, there were some amusing parts and some sad parts. I just kept wondering why the author would continue a twenty year friendship with someone so seemingly narcissistic and selfish. There were parts that seemed to me like jealous rantings of someone who spent half of her life living in the shadow of another. The part where her mother recommended that she save all of her letters from Lucy foreshadowed what was to become what I feel to be the intent of commercial success at the cost of another's privacy. Lots of dirty things revealed about a woman who is deceased and unable to refute or celebrate it. I just found the whole thing shameful and am upset at our bookclub member who picked this book (in conjunction with Autobiography of a Face) for this month's discussion.

Incredible story and incredible writing.

May be I am a very practicle person to have a long friendship like this one where one person is so dependent on another and yet the friendship coninues for years. I just had a hard time understanding why the friendship continues after so many mentions of what sound like complains about organizational skills and decipline of Author's friend.
If I did have a friendship like this, I would have had a very hard time writing in such great details the flaws of my best friend.
Even though the book is a great read, and made me think a lot about my friendships, I always felt like I was incapable of fully comprehending this friendship. I would recommend it to any woman with a circle of friends around her.

OK but not spectacular. More than anything, I wanted to see what Lucy Grealy looked like after reading the book.

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