A new Anne Lamott book is always cause for celebration. She has written a number of novels, but my favorite Lamott books are her non-fiction ones, where she talks about motherhood, with all its joys and desperation. Her new book is Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. This excerpt is courtesy of Salon:
People told me how utterly transparent with beauty babies can be, but I don't think anyone mentioned what beasts they are. So it was dicey going for a while. I have a photo on my wall of a baby in Sudan, breast-feeding, and she looks like chocolate, wrapped in a blue and lavender napkin, pressed into what little we can see of her mother's brown-black breast. This is a very universal baby, a safe baby. I had thought Sam would be more like this one, more of the time. I saw the same flatness in Sam's nose when he nursed, like the Sudanese baby trying to get as close as possible to what nourished her, and the same deliciousness of baby arms. But the clutch of her fingers should have tipped me off -- that grasping and clutching might come with the territory, grasping and clutching at you, and then pushing you away; and the openness of the baby's ear -- these babies are listening, can hear, and will use what they hear against you one day.
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