general

Female friendships are one of the most complex human relationships, regardless of age. And in TRUTH & BEAUTY, author Ann Patchett does nothing to dispel the mystery of girlfriends. If anything, she adds to it.

Although this book is nonfiction, it reads like fiction. Readers will dive into the story, greedily gathering information about the two main subjects --- Patchett and her friend, Lucy Grealy --- like characters in a novel. They were two young and ambitious women who go directly from Sarah Lawrence to the Iowa's Writers Workshop, the most coveted graduate school for writers. They develop a friendship that straddles the lines of intimacy, and they find literary fame. Along the way they form a bond that is difficult to describe. It spans continents, weathers illnesses both physical and mental, and seems to survive even death. But this is not a work of fiction, and so the eloquent writing of this well-known author packs even more of a punch. These are real people; this is Patchett's life, her beloved friend who lives, metaphorically speaking, just beyond her reach.

Patchett recreates her life with Grealy by interspersing their history with letters she received from Grealy over the years, postmarked from Scotland, New York, Providence, Connecticut, and all of the other places she traveled, taught and lived. They are letters that reveal a literary voice filled with love and admiration for a woman to whom she referred as "Pet." She was a competitive woman who was known to jump into Patchett's lap and ask repeatedly, "Am I your favorite? Do you love me the most?" And inevitably the answer was yes.

"Dearest Anvil, she would write to me six years later, dearest deposed president of some now defunct but lovingly remembered country, dearest to me, I can find no suitable words of affection for you, words that will contain the whole of your wonderfulness to me. You will have to make due with being my favorite bagel, my favorite blue awning above some great little café where the coffee is strong but milky and had real texture to it."

Narrated by Patchett, TRUTH & BEAUTY could be described as an analysis of Grealy, a woman who fights an uphill battle to recover physically from a cancer that robbed her of her outward beauty as a child, though it amplified an inner beauty. Grealy, as Patchett tells us, had a kind of animal magnetism that drew the best of people to her. She underwent at least 35 surgeries to rebuild a jaw decimated by radiation and lived her life subsisting on mashed fruits, ice cream and the occasional milkshake. Despite the staggering number of surgeries, the procedures never quite worked and much of Grealy's life was spent lamenting what she believed were her physical inadequacies. Yet TRUTH & BEAUTY is not a sad story. In fact, it features the gifts of Grealy's best features: her wit, gaiety and zest for life.

And while it focuses on Grealy and Patchett's friendship, TRUTH & BEAUTY may be better described as a study of human nature. Patchett writes about the intricacies of the human heart in THE MAGICIAN'S ASSISTANT, THE PATRON SAINT OF LIARS and BEL CANTO, and she tackles the subject once again in TRUTH & BEAUTY. The constant search for a love that seems to be right in front of a person's eyes is a recurring theme for Patchett, who weaves a beautiful if not frustrating story of a friendship that she worked diligently to maintain.

In life many people struggle to find reciprocal friendships in men and women. And, frequently, outsiders perceive even the best of friendships to be one-sided. This may also be the case here. Readers will complete TRUTH & BEAUTY with a keen appreciation for the love that exists between women, the unwavering loyalty that friends can maintain through years of turmoil and emotional trials. And while loyalty (as we see in this 257-page story) may falter occasionally, it can withstand the test of time. And perhaps even beyond.

--- Reviewed by Heather Grimshaw

Patchett is unquestionably a wonderful writer. I'd told several of my close female friends that I couldn't wait to read Truth & Beauty and then found myself telling them, Well, I read it, but it's quite disturbing and not at all for the reasons you'd imagine...

First, there is little balance. Ann Patchett keeps herself at a safe remove, yet serves up every detail of Lucy Grealy for the reader. Patchett perhaps thought, Well, for the purposes of the book the reader doesn't need to know this or that detail from my personal and/or emotional life. And I'd agree. But I'm confused as to why she didn't then extend the same grace to her friend. Reading along, you think, Well, okay, she's telling me about the most achingly private moments of Lucy Grealy's life, then she will certainly balance it with some bit of refection on her own inner life. To say to the reader: This too, is who I am: flawed, human. And here were some of my struggles with self-esteem and sexuality etc. And okay, maybe it appears I have a saint complex, but the truth is...Well, that's the problem: the truth is...? You have no idea. And you start to wonder why you are reading the book at all, because the absence of Patchett grappling with the questions the book calls up, leaves you feeling simply voyeuristic. In the end, I wanted less salacious detail about Grealy and more analysis of the friendship. More emotional truth.

Second, though I've never read any of Grealy's work, it's clear that this was a tragic loss of an immensely gifted writer. Ann Patchett brought that home to me. So it was a disappointment that a portion of the book's proceeds are not marked for a writing fellowship or children's cancer charity in Grealy's name. To me, that would have been the true posthumous act of friendship, to have Patchett's writing gift help Lucy Grealy's spirit to live on in others.

Well written, strangely powerful and often horrifying. I can't quite recommend it. It's a special sort of pathology that many of us have encountered.