Truth & Beauty

Truth & Beauty
by Ann Patchett
Harper Collins
New York
2004
ISBN: 0060572140

Plot Summary:
Lucy and Ann meet in college, beginning a long, intimate friendship that somehow manages to weather torrid affairs, crazy parties, writers' workshops, life-long battles with cancer, and suicide attempts.
Critical Evaluation:
A wonderfully-wrought autobiographical tale of the long friendship between two writer friends. Written after the death of one, the other attempts to explain both the cycle of the friendship, and the death of it. The prior knowledge of the story's end never alters the need sprung from the book's beautiful story to reach its conclusion.
Reader's Annotation:
After being friends with Lucy for so long, Ann can't imagine life without her. But for Lucy, it's often imagining life that's the hard part.
Genre:
Memoir/Biography
Author Info:
Patchett's third novel, Bel Canto, won both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in 2002, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Truth & Beauty was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Entertainment Weekly. It was also a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the Chicago Tribune's Heartland Prize, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Alex Award from the American Library Association.
Reader Level/Interest Age:
Adult Crossover
Booktalking Ideas:
*How does Lucy's illness determine her feelings towards living?
*What does their friendship provide for both partners?
Challenge Issues:
An adult book awarded by the ALA Alex committee, so verifiably appropriate for teens.
Why Include?:
Because Patchett is a wonderful writer, and the book is a symbiotic partner to Grealy's Autobiography of a Face.