All New People by Annie Lamott

I heard Annie Lamott at Powell's once when I lived in Portland. She had her signature blond dreads. She was funny and generous with her time, and I am certain nearly everyone there already knew her from her stories.

All New People is a story of growing up in the 60s with liberal hippie-ish parents, with her brother Casey, her mother's friend Natalie and her Uncle Ed and Aunt Peg. They lived in Marin County north of San Francisco near the sea. (The title comes from someone telling the main character that "in a hundred years, there will be all new people...." which made me think about transitory nature of our lives, as I am sure it was meant to.)

"Her husband had left her when my father left my mother, but her husband hadn't come back. Husbands were leaving, leaving; every couple of months it seemed another one was gone. Their children would be a the rec center with extra pocket money for snacks. They would have money to burn and would buy us things so that we would hang out wit them. I cultivated friendships with them, like I cultivated friendships with the Catholic children, for tuna-noodle casserole or English muffin pizza on Friday."

Or vintage Annie Lamott:
"My mother spent inordinate amounts of time talking to Jeffrey, and working on politics, stuffing envelopes, taking petitions door-to-door, or setting up tables down on the boardwalk, passing out leaflets, registering Democrats, collecting money for her causes. I still went to church with her every Sunday, although I was no longer sure I believed in God. I just loved the singing. My mother said that maybe I would believe again one day, that she had gone through long periods of disbelief too, and then would again come to feel Jesus hanging around her like a stray cat or dog, and she would finally with exasperation quit resisting, throw up her hands, and tell him he could come in for the night."

Her self-deprecation and humor, intuitive intelligence and humility and her sometimes wild spirit are always present in her work. Her sense of God and faith is refreshing, real and comforting.

She has recently written a new book about Sam, her 19-year-old son who (not according to her plan) becomes a father, making her a grandmother. It happens.