I didn't care for it, for several reasons. First of all, I didn't think much of the quality of the writing--certainly nothing like Lucy Grealy's in her own memoir. Second, I found both women's behavior in the friendship really strange. Ann seems completely blank in the relationship, never asserting any real personality, and completely enabling Lucy's neediness and selfishness. Lucy just sounded like a black hole, sucking up every bit of attention, affection, needing more and more extravagant dec...

Wow -- what a fascinating experience, to read "Truth and Beauty" after "Autobiography of a Face" and then to follow up with Suellen Grealy's angry article. I actually thought "Truth and Beauty" was the better book of the two, although perhaps it's not fair to say that because much of my fascination with "Truth and Beauty," at least initially, stemmed from having read "Autobiography of a Face" and the unique, stimulating opportunity to read one person's memoir and then to read how that person was...

This is a beautiful memoir of a friendship between two writers, Ann Patchett and the poet Lucy Grealy. I read this back in 2006, and it's still one of my favorite books about the nature of friendship and the bonds that we form with others.Ann met Lucy in college, and later they both attended the Iowa Writer's Workshop. As a child, Lucy had suffered cancer of the jaw and her face was disfigured during numerous reconstruction surgeries. Lucy wrote the memoir "Autobiography of a Face" about her exp...

Addicts are not very likable. At best I found Lucy Grealy tiresome. That was at the beginning of Patchett's memoir about their friendship. By the end my feelings for Lucy had turned into active dislike.I don't think this was the author's intent. When Lucy dies, she says: "I had thought I could let her go. But now I know I was simply not cut out for life without her. I am living that life now and would not choose it." But she never made me see why this should be. Why was she so devoted to Lucy, w...

After listening to “My Precious Days” recently- ‘twice’ already….and half way into my 3rd round —I discovered the library had a copy of audiobook “Truth and Beauty”… (one-of-a-few Patchett books I hadn’t read-yet)…so I switched books.The Audiobook is 8 hours and 6 minutes long. Ann reads it proficiently and wonderfully as she ‘can do’ and ‘does do’. I had not been very far into “Truth and Beauty”, when I realized … as in “Omg, of course….Ann was writing about the woman - Lucy Grealy—who wrote a

I learned how not to treat friends. I couldn't believe that Ann didn't end her friendship with Lucy after so many irritating incidents on Lucy's part. I would have backed out of sharing an apartment with Lucy if she had jumped up on me when I first arrived at the apartment. When Lucy demanded that Ann tell her that she (Ann) loved her most, why did Ann cater to her wishes? The author did not explain to my satisfaction why Lucy continued to have friends. Apparently Lucy must have had some sort

My poor review has nothing to do with Patchett's writing ability. I found the story very disturbing, I couldn't understand other than her writing accolades what Patchett got out of this unhealthy friendship. Lucy was such a negative, manipulative person that her 'looks' to me were very much beside the point.

Raw and next to life... this is what fiction should be! I enjoyed reading your work, Ann!

There should be a government warning on this book.When I pick up a book with a cheesy title, and a cheesy cover with a cheesy butterfly on it, I do not expect to get, to put it simply, my sh*t rocked.This book is very sad, and very beautiful, and very powerful.I did not know a thing about it going into it, and that made for both a pleasant surprise and the reading equivalent of a near-death experience. This is just excellent.Bottom line: One of the best reads I didn't expect of my life.---------...

Okay, I'm gonna come out and say something earnest here, in a short break from the usual foul-mouthed cynicism. I think books ought to have courage; I think memoirs, out of all books, must have courage. And this one doesn't.This is supposed to be the story of a twenty-year friendship between two women writers, but in reality this is just a book about Lucy Grealy, the girl who lost most of her face to cancer, the eventual darling of the New York literary scene, the heroin addict. The cowardice st...

Oh, my experience rereading this book was so different from my first reading ten years ago. Back then, I don't think I'd read any Ann Patchett yet--I'd read Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face and wanted to know more about her and how she died. Even though Ann was doing the telling, I saw this as Lucy's story.Fast forward ten years: I've now read and loved three of Ann Patchett's novels and a fair amount of her nonfiction pieces. I'm a fan. Rereading Truth and Beauty, I'm much more interested

I was very interested to read about Lucy Grealy, a brilliant poet who died at 39. But from the very beginning Patchett uses a style that greatly annoyed me and which - by want of a more suitable word - I can only describe as 'passive-aggressive-praise'. By that I mean showering constant praise on someone (Lucy) and always affirming that this person is more talented than the one giving the praise (Ann), and more intelligent, more fun, more everything. But the praise is laced with tiny, almost imp...

I picked up this book because I read "Bel Canto" and loved it, and loved Ann Patchett's writing style. I also think that, in general, friendship does not get enough respect in our society. There's a lot of attention payed to family and lovers, but not much to friends. This is the story of a friendship between the author and a woman she went to college with. They both end up at the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop at the same time, and a beautiful, life-long friendship ensues. I loved the b...

Awful. Both obsequious and patronizing. Touted as a memoir of friendship. But, sweet Mary, I would not want either of the women as my friend.

“Truth and Beauty” is the story of authors Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy’s (“Autobiography of a Face”) friendship, commencing from their college days until Lucy’s death in 2002 at age 39. The title of the book “Truth and Beauty” is taken from a chapter and several references in Lucy’s book.Lucy Grealy is mercurial, irresponsible, needy, and an immensely talented writer. She is seriously facially disfigured from having half of her jawbone removed due to Ewing’s sarcoma as a child and from numerous...

It's a little confusing to separate all the various emotions and viewpoints associated with Truth and Beuaty because of the agita caused by the Grealey family's dissatisfaction with the book and Suellen Grealey's letter to the Guardian. The "controversy" stems from ideas of ethics and rights. Who owns the rights to Lucy's story? Is it ethical for Ann Patchett to use Lucy to tell her own story? I see both sides although I fall on Patchett's side. Reading Beauty, I could see how her family didn't