From the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author: An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come.
For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title:
“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”
This really wasn't for me. Bird by Bird is more the memoir of a writer than a book about writing, and I found the author's personal life rather uninteresting.
Every single aspect of her advice is packaged in several layers of metaphor, and after a couple of chapters I just felt tired of it all. The self-depricatig tone is supposed to be charming, but I felt like she was simply shielding herself from criticism.
She makes many problematic statements, drawing parallels between South-American literature and 'primitive' art, using tragedies like the AIDS crisis and pox-riddled blankets to spice up accounts of her suffering as a writer.
Overall I found it overwrought and self-indulgent, and the actual meat of the book only truly seemed to apply to literary fiction and/or memoir writers. Although I appreciate that the author tries to answer the question 'but how do you ACTUALLY get words onto the page?', but her answers were so incredibly personal and tinged by her Christian faith that it has little use outside of her very specific experience.
