I couldn’t have said it better myself. Part of her “healing” was her friendship, but also psycologically creating a better scenario. She compared her life to those of tragedy brought on by man kind, and not nature. “…Lucy found her courage and camaraderie was in persecution, the kind of systematic cruelty where absolutely nothing is left to chance. Stories in which people are destroyed because someone else chose to destroy them were the ones that lit a fire under her.” (92). Lucy strived to look at her situation as just a complication to the human body, and not a tragedy. Sure her face affected her interaction with others, but remembering that harm was inflicted on millions of people in the Holocaust, in war, and in famines and genocides when many if not all were completely innocent, her scenario seemed rudimentary. In a letter to Ann, Lucy wrote, “I would walk around for days pretending I was in a concentration camp, or that I was going to trip a landmine at any moment. I know it sounds morbid, but it helped me enormously: everything, everything seemed suddenly important to me.” (93). This was her way of feeling the unexpected consequences of monstrous regimes. Not knowing if they’d make it through the day without being blown up, shot, or gased was assumingly more painful than the inflictions themselves. Lucy did have friends, her mother, and a team of doctors across different countries that made her life as “normal” as possible. The two situations are on opposite ends of the spectrum, and Lucy counted her blessings.

Ann Patchett did not degrade Lucy’s persona by reflecting on her friend’s grusome life. A strength in this novel is the underlying need for this friendship, despite the bad choices made. When Lucy was in Provincetown, she would ask Ann to come over, like she lived next door, but she lived 3 hours away. When Lucy was betrayed by yet another man, she would look to Ann for love and guidance. Lucy wouldn’t have survived for as long as she did with the strong bond that acted as her life’s foundation. I couldn’t find a better quote to describe the importance of their friendship than on page 20, “Grasshoppers and hares find the ants and tortoises. They need us to survive, but we need them as well. They were the ones who brought the truth and beauty to the party…” A cliche metaphor that sums up that everybody needs assistance in one area or another, and that we depend on each other for guidance in those areas. Later Lucy and Ann were stranded on a highway because their car battery died, and the gentleman in a rusty 1970 Honda Civic said, “That’s what you owe me for this ride. You have to pick somebody else up. Do you understand me? Pick them up no matter what they look like.” (31). It proves the point that no matter the appearance, background, or successfulness, everybody is capable of helping another.

One may read Patchett’s book and think it defiles Grealy’s image, but I disagree. I judged Patchett and Grealy’s books strictly as pieces of literature. Both show a different side of human nature. Grealy’s book shows the proverbial “light” side while Patchett’s shows the “dark”. We, as human beings just like Lucy, have the potential to accomplish great things and/or to destroy ourselves. The books turned my logic upside down- and I realized everything in this world is subjective- there is no such thing as an absolute truth.

I believe that this was the purpose for Amir being the narrator. It allowed us not to write him off as a bad guy immediately. It showed that people can change. If Hassan would have been the narrator, it would have made us hate Amir like we hate Assef. If Hosseini would have made Assef the narrator, I am sure that we would have a totally different point of view of him. The reasons for why he turned out the way he did. We probably would have felt pity, not hate.

As far as the relationship between the two, it may appear that Lucy is dependent on Ann, but I think that there is a mutual dependence. Lucy needs Ann to always be there and support her, while Ann needs Lucy so that she can feel like she is making an impact in someone’s life. I think that the same kind of dependence exists between the man and the boy in The Road. The boy needs the man to teach him how to survive and help him survive, but the man also needs the boy so that he has a reason to continue living. Lucy finally understands why Ann needs her towards the end of the book, saying, “But at least I can make you feel like a saint. That’s what you’ve always wanted,” (225). Although Ann may profusely deny the accusations, I think that Lucy is right on. If she felt so strongly about Lucy, why would she write a book that exposes so much of Lucy’s personal business and so many of her flaws?

I would like to thank May for putting up that article. It is good to see that Lucy’s family is not just sitting by while Ann reveals Lucy’s negative qualities to the world. Suellen Grealy repeated my reasoning as to why Ann Patchett wrote this book, “To hitch her wagon to my sister’s star.” Truth and Beauty reveals sides of Lucy that she obviously never meant to reveal, and for that I will never be an Ann Patchett fan.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/aug/07/biography.features

I was so surprised when finding out Hassan was Baba’s son. As soon as I read those words everything made sense. Baba treated Hassan and Amir equally, always wanted Hassan to come along, made Hassan’s birthday special every year, and was beside himself when Hassan and Ali left. I thought it was because Hassan was who Baba wanted Amir to be. Baba, who was always spoken so highly of, was filled with guilt just like Amir. Hosseini displays the power guilt has over the human soul.

After reading Autobiography of a Face one gets the idea that Lucy is an intellectual and morally upright person who was and continued to be very unlucky, both of which are true. However, one also gets the feeling that she is better than us all and that we could never have seen things the way she saw them. This idea then makes her magnificent in the eyes of the reader. This latter sentence may also be true but Patchett’s book with the unveiling of other more jagged truths about Lucy makes this latter sentence less true while bringing forth the idea that Lucy was human and like others had made mistakes and carried on with vices.

Due to the fact that Patchett’s book is dedicated to Lucy and her memories, I think that it does just that by making Lucy more personable and real to the reader. By knowing her intimate details, one sees Lucy as a person who has made mistakes and is “human” rather than a person spiritually connected with her feelings towards beauty and life. This then makes one more able to relate with her life and miss her more after knowing of her death, thus accomplishing Patchett’s goal of immortalizing Lucy’s life. USA Today said that “If this honest book sends new readers out in search of Grealy’s memoir, Patchett will have served her friend’s memory well.” (This quote is located amidst the quotes that show “Enthusiastic Praise for Truth and Beauty”, page 2) This is exactly what it does.

Last thought:
Though I appreciate Patchett’s technique, I also disliked her book. My reason though is much simpler: I found it repetitive with Autobiography of a face.