From Publishers Weekly
Confirming the talent evinced in Rosie (and somewhat obscured by the excessively arch tone of her last novel, Joe Jones ), Lamott here achieves her promising potential in a novel of rare sensitivity and evocative power. The rueful, elegiac tone of her prose balanced by humor and plangent insights, she tells a quiet but resonant story through the eyes of Nan Goodman, who has returned to the small northern California town of her childhood. This is a meticulously observed memoir of growing up as the child of ultra - liberal (former "commie") parents: her volatile father is a noted but not financially successful writer; her mother, a devout Christian who rails at God and seeks to reform the world through social activism. The extended family includes Nan's brother Casey, their feckless, alcoholic uncle Ed and obese aunt Peg, and Nan's mother's eccentric divorced friend, Natalie. There is little overt action here--Natalie gets pregnant by Ed, Casey smokes pot, their father leaves and comes back--but these events are magnified against the social and cultural currents of the '60s and '70s: developers change the character of the town, there is an epidemic of divorces, the drug culture takes its toll. The rural setting is integral to Nan's memories: the smell and sight of the sea, wildflowers on the brown hillsides, plum and apple and fig trees, pink and purple fog. Nan remembers it all with a clear-eyed nostalgia, acknowledging the migraines that made her an outsider, and the fear, shame and humiliation lurking even in the fondest memories of happy times. The emotional complexity of this understated tale makes it an absorbing read. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In this child's-eye view of the fear and pain of growing up, Lamott shows in vivid word pictures that the child is parent of the adult. Nan Goodman, hurting after a failed marriage and her father's death, goes back to the town of her childhood. As skinny little Nanny, aged five to 12, she either adored or was ashamed of her leftist parents, her writer father who never made enough money for comfort and her devoutly Christian mother who was his inspiration. Wrenching memories of family disasters, and especially the cruel snubs and abject solitude of childhood, are dissipated by love and laughter, and the adult Nan makes peace with her past. In spare prose Lamott ( Rosie , LJ 10/15/83) creates endearing, quirky characters in scenes memorable for being so skillfully drawn and universally appealing. A heart-warmer, to be savored.- Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New Yorker
"Anne Lamott is a cause for celebrations. [Her] real genius lies in capturing the ineffable, describing not perfect moments, but imperfect ones...perfectly. She is nothing short of miraculous."


Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Smart, funny, and comforting...Lamott has a conversational style that perfectly conveys her friendly self-deprecating humor."


Amy Tan
"Anne Lamott is the two-way mirror of our hopes, insecurities, and cheating hearts, an astute observer of human nature. She knows that what we don't know can hurt us. In true Lamott fashion, life doesn't stay neatly within boundaries, the best team doesn't always win, and only the voyeur knows who you really are. Fathers die, mothers drink, but there's also this: Love, redemption, and the certainty that life goes on."


Amy Hempel
"Equal parts humor, courage, and self-forgiveness. It's this last quality, amplified to absolve an entire family, that makes the book larger than so many family chronicles...A wonderful novel."


Seattle Times
"[She is] sidesplittingly funny, patiently wise, and alternately cranky and kind."


People
"Eloquent, detailed, emotionally honest...Lamott deserves praise for telling it like it is."


Book Description
With generosity, humor, and pathos, Anne Lamott takes on the barrage of dislocating changes that shook the Sixties. Leading us through the wake of these changes is Nanny Goodman, one small girl living in Marin County, California. A half-adult child among often childish adults, Nanny grows up with two spectacularly odd parents-a writer father and a mother who is "a constant source of material." As she moves into her adolescence, so, it seems, does America. While grappling with her own coming-of-age, Nanny witnesses an entire culture's descent into drugs, the mass exodus of fathers from her town, and rapid real-estate and technological development that foreshadow a drastically different future. In All New People, Anne Lamott works a special magic, transforming failure into forgiveness and illuminating the power of love to redeem us.


About the Author
Anne Lamott is the author of four other novels: Hard Laughter, Rosie, Joe Jones, and the recent Crooked Little Heart. Her non-fiction includes Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, and the best-selling Traveling Mercies. She lives in Northern California with her son, Sam.

ANNOTATION

After the break-up of her marriage, Nan Goodman returns to her hometown and relives her childhood memories of a gentler era.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

In this child's-eye view of the fear and pain of growing up, Lamott shows in vivid word pictures that the child is parent of the adult. Nan Goodman, hurting after a failed marriage and her father's death, goes back to the town of her childhood. As skinny little Nanny, aged five to 12, she either adored or was ashamed of her leftist parents, her writer father who never made enough money for comfort and her devoutly Christian mother who was his inspiration. Wrenching memories of family disasters, and especially the cruel snubs and abject solitude of childhood, are dissipated by love and laughter, and the adult Nan makes peace with her past. In spare prose Lamott ( Rosie , LJ 10/15/83) creates endearing, quirky characters in scenes memorable for being so skillfully drawn and universally appealing. A heart-warmer, to be savored.-- Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.

Amy Tan

"Anne Lamott is the two-way mirror of our hopes, insecurities, and cheating hearts, an astute observer of human nature. She knows that what we don't know can hurt us. In true Lamott fashion, life doesn't stay neatly within boundaries, the best team doesn't always win, and only the voyeur knows who you really are. Fathers die, mothers drink, but there's also this: Love, redemption, and the certainty that life goes on."

Amy Hempel

"Equal parts humor, courage, and self-forgiveness. It's this last quality, amplified to absolve an entire family, that makes the book larger than so many family chronicles...A wonderful novel."

The New Yorker