Joe Jones: A Novel [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Anne Lamott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 5, 2003

JOE JONES is Anne Lamott’s raucous novel of lives gathered around Jessie’s Café, "the sort of broken-down waterfront dive one might expect to find in Steinbeck." Jessie, "thin, stooped and gorgeous at seventy-nine," inherited the café years before and it has become home to a remarkable family of characters: Louise, the cook and vortex, Joe, devoted and unfaithful; Willie, Jessie’s gay grandson; Georgia, an empress dowager who never speaks; and a dozen others all living together in the sweet everyday.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Lamott has written before about copingwith death in Hard Laughter , with life in Rosie. But Joe Jones is about nothing else; coping seems to fill the hearts and minds of the characters at Jessie's Cafe, and it certainly dominates their epigrammatic, italic-studded conversation. Not that theirs isn't a lot to cope with. Louise, cook and philosophical earth mother, pines for Joe, the faithless lover she sent away, and he, a hypochondriacal drifter, longs for her. Willie, Jessie's gay grandson, loses a lover to a distant job and his grandmother to heart failure. And those are only their current trials. Lamott's spare prose can sing, but here it too often sounds forced. "Life is hard and then you die," as these characters note more than once, is too trendy and insubstantial a framework for the fine work Lamott can do. Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"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." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Shoemaker & Hoard (August 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593760035
• ASIN: B000T9VNNK
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,503,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anne Lamott is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Grace (Eventually), Plan B, Traveling Mercies, and Operating Instructions, as well as seven novels, including Rosie and Crooked Little Heart. She is a past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imperfect world -, November 3, 2003

By 

Mary K. Emmrich (Morocco, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joe Jones: A Novel (Paperback)

Anne Lamott captures imperfect people in our imperfect world beautifully in this novel. Readers who think Lamott has left them bereft of plot aren't paying attention. The title character's imperfections construct the plot for us. This books is about loving someone despite it all.
Joe Jones is flawed, and does not realize his shortcomings, making those that genuinely care about him the central characters. I found great strength and hope in Louise - she was more physically and spiritually beautiful by the end of this novel than I ever expected. Louise also teaches us by example. Faith and inner strength are not attributes bestowed one time that last forever. They falter, need to be replenished, and are questioned daily, hourly for each of us. I think we forget that sometimes.
I always find guidance in Lamott's writings - snippets and phrases that bolster me and comfort me. "Joe Jones" is no different - the memorable phrase from this being "It's just so time-consuming being me."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a wonderful book, another gem for the collection, November 27, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Joe Jones: A Novel (Paperback)

In the introduction, Lamott thanks Jane Vanderburgh(sp?) for lending an editing hand to Joe Jones, published a long time ago. Having read the original and liked its quirky, flawed movements, I am now absolutely savoring this rewrite. It is a full novel, rounded and studded with unforgettable characters like the elderly Jessie (the car driving scene - the long one - isi sidesplittingly funny), the romantic but wise Lou, and of course the charming and lovely young Willie, whom we all know out there somewhere, the eternal boy-man. Oh it's all pure delight. Fey to the naysayers! A perfect read for the intelligent reader who doesnt need a Hollywood plot or a pat ending. I will not,howvever, be satisfied until Anne writes a sequel to Rae's character in Rosie. We need the Rae book, Annie! We honestly do. All hail Lamott, writer for women (and men) who think.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A real mess, worth reading, but not worth buying, June 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Joe Jones (Mass Market Paperback)

Even the author acknowledges this as her sloppiest published work. The characters themselves are the sort of lovable, messy types Anne often writes about. The problem is the lack of structure in this wildly uneven work. It has a plot, sort of, but even after you get to know the characters, and watch them do their thing, you have little insight into why. If you're a fan, find it in a library and read it for completeness, but don't bother buying it.