Friday, Jul 25, 2008
An outpouring of fond farewells for Anne Lamott; readers weigh merits of "Monsters of Grace"; questioning the Kennedy legacy (and others).
Jul 29, 1999 | Y'all take care now
BY ANNE LAMOTT
(07/22/99)
I was sad when I clicked on Anne Lamott's column this morning, and learned that she's taking a break to begin work on a new novel. I often find myself both tear-stained and suck-out-loud laughing when reading Anne's work. Have come to trust Anne's writer's voice, probably because there's enough of a narcissist in me to like the fact that she sounds so much like me and my sisters and many of my friends: relatively privileged to have food and shelter and other goodies in life mostly available as givens, but sometimes really tired and taxed and discouraged, and yet still sometimes truly wise. Or at least capable of putting on a good front.
-- Jan Brown
Cambridge, Mass.
I eagerly wake up every other Thursday and immediately turn on my computer to read Anne Lamott's column. So I was quite surprised to find out she is leaving to write a novel. Please tell me it was all a mistake and she will not leave me! I will miss her column, and wish her the best of luck, and look forward to her next novel. What other choice do I have? Goodbye, Anne. We'll miss you dearly.
-- Patty Ferguson
Redding, Calif.
I am just the tiniest bit annoyed with Anne Lamott for deciding not to write any more columns. Some of us have come to depend on her columns, like a sober alcoholic needs to talk to another sober alcoholic. Her books are wonderful, but we need more steady and constant doses of the woman. We see no reason why she can't take care of all of us, all the time.
I exaggerate, of course. I am a single mom, about her age, with children near her son's age, and a writer too, so I know how swamped she is. But that's the very reason we need her columns. As long as Lamott understands that she has established a dependency here, and that she's pulling the rug out from under some of us, and is made to feel good and guilty about it, we'll be satisfied.
Maybe she could just e-mail all of us once in a while, or drop in for coffee, or something.
-- Yvonne Sadler
Monsters of grace
BY STACEY KORS
(07/21/99)
Glad to see I'm not the only one who thought the visuals were a bit "lost." Banal images accompanying a Philip Glass score borders on irony. When will Robert Wilson work with Steve Reich? He is the one composer who excels at transforming repetition into revelation.
It is difficult for Midwesterners to see these types of works, but I have seen Wilson's Knee Plays; there was no comparison. Byrne's score emphasized the natural humor and stylized history present in the "Knee Plays." The laughter I heard when I saw "Monsters of Grace," however, was the nervous product of an audience desperate to find meaning in a static presentation of tired imagery.
-- Mark Gisleson
St. Paul, Minn.
I was one of the many who saw the piece last December at BAM, and it was quite beautiful. While each minute detail may not have been completely controlled right down to the wire by Wilson, the piece was still exceptionally well done, beautiful and mesmerizing. While experimental, it most definitely was not a failure. As an abstract computer animator who works with new graphic technologies, this work represented to me a successful marriage of art, emotion and technology. Glass' operatic score was exquisitely sung, and a perfect match to the visuals.
The numerous friends of mine who also saw MOG had mixed reactions: A few thought it extremely boring, but the majority loved it. Wilson's very slow pace is something you can either take or not. I found it refreshing. To say Monsters Of Grace was not a successful experiment is simply just not true.
-- Staceyjoy Elkin
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