Imperfect Birds Best Quality

Ms. Lamott never brought the characters to life. They seem flat, although of all of them, I got the best sense of Rosie. Rae was too much the earth mother, can do no wrong, warm and fuzzy; James, the husband, was always trying to use others' sayings and writings for his own, as he fumbled to write a novel, and Elizabeth, the mother, was, well, I don't know, as there are too many words to describe her. It is alluded that she has a psychiatric background and is an alcoholic. Not much is revealed of her family life, much less that of James. Her previous husband, Andrew, died, and apparently that contributed to her emotional and alcohol downfall but this is not explored at all - only vague references to it throughout the book.

Rosie's friends were not believable. Finn, the drug dealer, later boyfriend, makes a connection with Elizabeth that is so blatantly manipulative that I cringed; and Elizabeth bought it. Rosie's two other drug friends, Jody and Alice are also one-dimensional. Jody goes to rehab, gets cured and becomes the poster child for no drugs. Alice also got clean, although it was unclear in the book how this happened. I hung in with the book through Rosie's time in the "wilderness camp" for drug addicted kids, somewhere in the wilds of Utah, but lost it on pg. 268, when Elizabeth met with Jody and Alice, after seeing Rosie at rehab camp. James had recently adopted a dog, although Elizabeth had been against the idea, as discussed earlier in the book (is this James breaking out?). The dog is named Ichabod and when the two girls come to see Elizabeth, they spend time playing with Ichabod in the living room. Then Elizabeth gives her lecture, telling them: "It goes without saying that if you ever give Rosie drugs again, I will so rat you out. I will call every college that has taken you, and say you are a pusher - and I will hurt Ichabod," she said, and both girls screamed in protest." That did it for me - threatening girls she really doesn't know very well, threatening them with harming a dog she really didn't want, and these girls, who have just met the dog, "scream in protest"?

I found the dialogue unreal and not always believable; Elizabeth is very self-centered, and James is just crawling around in the background, rarely appearing unless he wants to "borrow" some person's sayings or writings. I guess that really annoyed me - his always asking: "Can I use that?" Hey, James, get your own words !Get more detail about Imperfect Birds.