Operating instructions

About this book

It seems no mother of a newborn has ever been more hilarious, more honest, or more touching than Anne Lamott is in Operating Instructions. A single parent whose baby's father is out of the picture, Lamott struggles not only to support her little family by her wits and her writing but to stay sober at the same time. Faith in God helps; so does her loyal band of helpers, from her childless best friend Pammy to her mother and "Aunt Dudu" to the folks at the La Leche League hotline. And between colic, wheat-free diets, and the triumph of solid food, Lamott learns that blessings and losses come together, and that as our capacity for joy increases, so does our capacity for grief.

Themes & subjects

About the author

Anne Lamott

10 April 1954

A novelist and writer of non-fiction, Anne Lamott was born in San Francisco in 1954. She wrote for the newspaper at Goucher College for the two years she attended. She wrote her first novel, *Hard Laughter* for her father after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. Howard Freeman's term "particularism" is aptly applied to her narrative nonfiction. Lamott draws on her own life and experiences in her writing, covering topics such as alcoholism, depression, being a single mother, Christianity, and the intersection between them.