Truth & Beauty

Lucy Grealy was an award-winning poet. For a long time, though, she was more famous for her appearance than her writing. That changed when she wrote Autobiography of a Face, which chronicles her story: as a child she suffered a rare cancer in her jaw. Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy left her disfigured, and she spent much of the rest of her life undergoing reconstructive surgery after reconstructive surgery. The experience also left her with emotional scarring as well.

Ann Patchett, whose novels include Bel Canto, The Patron Saint of Liars, and The Magician's Assistant, lived with Grealy during graduate school, when they both attended the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Almost instantly, the two writers became dear friends, and Truth & Beauty is Patchett’s account of their relationship. Patchett tells her story with unflinching honesty. Grealy’s mania and insecurities would test anyone’s patience, but Patchett’s adoration for her is so complete — though never blind — that we come to love her, too.

More than that, I came to love Ann Patchett. I’ve been a fan of hers since my Chicago days. I bought The Patron Saint of Liars on a whim and read it in a single night. I was sick with a bug and couldn’t sleep and made it through my misery with the help of Patchett’s book. Having read Truth & Beauty, I feel like I know her and Lucy. She tells her story as though talking to a friend, and by the end you feel like were there, experiencing the highs and lows of this epic friendship right along side Ann and Lucy.