Ann Patchett/Lucy Grealy Binge

Autobiography of a Face

A few months ago,  I decided to go on an Ann Patchett binge, more or less. I had enjoyed Bel Canto, State of Wonder, and Run, but I had never read any of her nonfiction.  I wanted to read Truth and Beauty, but a friend said I should read the memoir of Lucy Grealy first: Autobiography of a Face.  Ann Patchett's friendship with Lucy Grealy forms the basis of Truth and Beauty so that seemed like an intriguing approach.

Grealy was born in Dublin, Ireland and migrated with her family to the U.S. when she was six. When she was nine years old, Lucy was diagnosed with a tremendously disfiguring jaw cancer.   Throughout the rest of her life, she underwent thirty-eight painful surgical attempts at facial reconfiguration, none of which was more than temporarily successful.  

Increasingly dependent on painkillers to cope with the surgical recoveries, Grealy became addicted to Oxycontin, and eventually heroin.  She died of a heroin overdose at the age of 39.

Autobiography of a Face is a memoir of a pain-filled life with, thankfully, interludes of happiness.  Lucy wanted very, very badly to be loved; she wanted to be beautiful, she wanted to be a successful writer; she struggled mightily with all three of these desires. She was frequently bitterly disappointed in people; certainly in society's interpretation of beauty and its discomfort with extreme disfigurement.  In the end, it was just too painful for Lucy Greaves to continue living. 

"This singularity of meaning--I was my face, I was ugliness--though sometimes unbearable, offered a possible point of escape.  It became the launching pad from which to lift off, the one immediately recognizable place to point to when asked what was wrong with my life. Everything led to it, everything receded from it..."

My rating: **

Truth and Beauty

Attending the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop for one year, Lucy Grealy became the roommate and friend of similarly aspiring writer Ann Patchett. The two writers became lifelong friends and correspondents.  Patchett became intimately acquainted with Grealy's physical, emotional and mental suffering.  Ann was the person Lucy often turned to in times of her greatest suffering. Several years after Lucy's death, Patchett wrote Truth and Beauty.

In this work of nonfiction,  Patchett's love and fierce loyalty toward Grealy is undeniable.  Throughout their seventeen-year friendship, Patchett is Grealy's one true companion, nurse, therapist, financial support system, and all-around rescuer.  Very different from one another, their lives are lived in sharp juxtaposition to each other and at times, Grealy's behavior and demands for attention are a source of exasperation.  

In Autobiography of a Face, we see Lucy through Lucy's eyes; that's the point  of a memoir, after all; in Truth and Beauty Patchett does not hesitate to expose the flaws as well as the strengths in Lucy.  It makes for an interesting compare and contrast exercise. 

Patchett is horrified with Grealy's addiction to heroin and pleads with her many times to seek help for her addiction but she also knows Lucy:

"Lucy was having the great love affair she had always dreamed of. It was dangerous and rocky, violently depleting, but in the few minutes it was sweet it made her feel the all-encompassing heat of love."

My rating **and 1/2

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

Ann Patchett's latest release is a collection of essays previously published in a variety of magazines.  I enjoyed her friendly style of writing; nothing overly dramatic or feverish, more akin to a story a friend might relay over a glass of wine. I have not read all of the essays in the collection at this point, but I have enjoyed the ones I have read.  The topics range from a classic "nun story" (a teacher Ann had in elementary school) to the desire to write to friendship, family, divorce (and the history of divorce in her family), and her current state of being happily married.  The collection of essays covers much more territory than the title suggests.

After reading several of the essays,  I  felt as though I'd just had a very satisfying conversation with an old friend  over a loooong lunch; I'm looking forward to more of those!

My Rating ***