Truth and Beauty: A Friendship

By Ann Patchett

Sunday Times bestselling author Ann Patchett’s first work of nonfiction, chronicling her decades-long friendship with the critically acclaimed author, Lucy Grealy.

When Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy met in college they began a friendship that would define their lives. Lucy Grealy lost part of her jaw to childhood cancer, and a large part of her life to chemotherapy and endless reconstructive surgeries. Stoic but vulnerable, damaged by bullying but fascinated by fame, Lucy had an incandescent personality that illuminated those around her.

In this tender, brutal book, Ann Patchett describes Lucy’s life and her own platonic love for her. Truth & Beauty is the story of the part of their lives that they shared – the camaraderie and comedy, the tribulations and tragedy of true friendship. A portrait of unwavering commitment through success, failure, despair and drugs, this is what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Feb 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9780007397365

Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Lake, works of nonfiction, and children's books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner, the Women's Prize in the UK, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books.

Reviews for Truth and Beauty

[andy5185 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this book over a rainy weekend. The story stayed in my mind long after I finished and definitely prompted me to want to learn more about Lucy.

[ilovebooksdlk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this shortly after reading Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a face. This book is a beautiful and honest tribute to their very special friendship. Patchett is honest about not only the beauty of the friendship, but also the strains of "carrying" Lucy through some of her dark periods.A beautiful book, but I'd recommend reading Grealy first to set yourself up for this one.

[drpeff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think ann put up w/ a lot of immature behavior from lucy. She was possessive, jeaous, and didn’t cope w/rejection. Ann stated frequently that she couldn’t live w/o lucy, but I didn’t see lucy’s love toward ann, only selfishness. It brought me back to my college days. I didn’t realize there were so many fellowships & workshops for writers. It was interesting to see that behind-the-scenes look.Group comments: similar. Anne f thought that author didn’t portray lucy in a very positive light. We commented on since this was a memoir, the author had more liberty with the portrayal than a biography.

[zacchia · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ann remembers her friendship with Lucy Grealy, from the first time she met her in high school to when they found her dead in her apartament. It is a story of friendships. it tells the struggle of Lucy with her face and her countless operatios, of her struggle to find love.Pleasant, not very deep.

[theampersand · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An elegy for Lucy Grealy, Patchett's talented, troubled friend and boon companion, "Truth and Beauty" is an uncommonly effective example of a memoir written by a younger person. Lucy, to Patchett's great credit, shines through as a character -- she's funny, magnetic, maddeningly complex and, as the title suggests, serious about the business of writing, a star in both the personal and professional sense. A lot of movies and books have dealt with female friendships in the past couple of decades, and while Patchett and Grealy had as intense a friendship as I've ever heard of and were constantly in touch, Patchett also uses their relationship to trace her own development as a writer and as a person. In a sense, "Truth and Beauty" is an autobiography told through a friendship, and it turns out to be a pretty effective device. The author seems quite aware that it isn't just Lucy she's memorializing here; she's also commemorating her own formative years, a time when she made the emotional and professional sacrifices necessary to become a writer. The book's level of emotional disclosure can sometimes be startling: Patchett includes several of Grealy's letters in their entirety, and descriptions of how her friend's disfiguring illness -- and the extreme steps she took to deal with it -- affected her life and molded her personality seem both sympathetic and unerringly clear-eyed, as are her descriptions of the disappointment she felt during the difficult years she spent working in a chain restaurant in Nashville. The book's closing chapters, which describe how Lucy's own frustrations and insecurities overwhelmed her and pushed her into drug use, are almost unbearably sad. Patchett freely admits that her friend's emotional insecurities could sometimes be trying, though she wisely rather to show, rather than spell out, the cracks that appeared in their friendship as Lucy became an addict. "Truth and Beauty" feels like a gift in a lot of ways: Patchett wants us to get to know her friend, and to fall in love with her in the same way she did. Still, it also serves as a lasting reminder of her immense talent and tremendous potential, and just how much of it was left unfulfilled. "Truth and Beauty" is also the sort of book powerful enough to haunt its readers.

[eilonwy_anne · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I don't read a lot of memoirs, but this one wouldn't be refused: it was a glowing recommendation, then a steal at the used book store, then sitting on the right shelf on the right evening.Ann Patchett writes here with honesty and grace. It's not easy to convey a vivid sense of a person or a friendship, but she does so. She has a delicate enough touch for difficult, emotional material, so that the reader feels touched but not manipulated or overwhelmed. The book is so engaging it's easy to begin reading and hard to stop.A professor of mine, [author: Jack Driscoll], likes to repeat that the impulse to write comes from the impulse to love, and this book seems to be a shining example. Through her careful prose, Ann Patchett seems to love the young women she and Lucy were together, and to love and forgive the women they became.

[jennybeast · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A paean to the friendship of Lucy Grealey and Ann Patchett. Fascinating if you've read autobiography of a face.

[cestovatela · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After I heard that Lucy Grealy's family objected to the publication of this memoir, I wasn't certain whether I should read it. Eventually, curiosity trumped my ethical concerns, and I opened the book. I loved Lucy's memoir, Autobiography of a Face, and watching her from another perspective is fascinating. While she is relentlessly self-critical in her own writing, Truth and Beauty depicts her as an intelligent, compelling modern-day Holly Golightly. I was fascinated that such a person could really exist, and I felt privileged by the rare opportunity to read about a real person from two very different points of view. As a bonus, the book also delivered an intriguing glimpse at the world of professional fiction writing. Though I respect the Grealy family's views about the book, I found it to be an overall flattering portrait of a deeply troubled woman, and the Lucy I got to know in Autobiography of a Face would have liked this book very much. I would definitely recommend reading Lucy's book first, and if you like it, don't miss this one.

[rosencrantz79 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Given to me by a close friend after we parted ways post-Peace Corps, this is my favorite book about friendship. I've read plenty of reviews that fault Patchett for letting herself be "used" by Lucy Grealy, but I applaud Patchett for this honest portrayal of a friendship that was not always easy. Despite the difficulties Lucy and Ann sometimes faced--loss, disease, drug addiction, success--their friendship remained strong and became the net that caught both of them each time they felt they were losing their grip on life. Beautifully written.

[hardlyhardy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Whether "Truth & Beauty," Ann Patchett's memoir of her friendship with Lucy Grealy, another writer, makes her look like a saint or a fool readers must decide for themselves. But then saints often look like fools, and fools, if you watch the movie "Being There," sometimes look like saints.Patchett and Grealy went to college together but didn't actually become friends until they both showed up at the Iowa Writers Workshop in 1985, Patchett an aspiring novelist, Grealy an aspiring poet. They ended up sharing an apartment together and becoming devoted friends. The friendship continued for nearly two decades, even after Patchett settled in Nashville and Grealy, an Ireland native, moved to New York City.Yet it was never an equal friendship. From the beginning Patchett was the giver and Grealy the taker.Grealy, who died from a drug overdose at the age of 39, underwent nearly 40 operations in her short life because of a facial disfigurement caused by cancer of the jaw. Even though her vibrant personality resulted in more friends and lovers than most other women could imagine, she became dependent upon Patchett to reassure her constantly that, yes, she was loved and, however her ever-changing face happened to look at the moment, she would have sex again.At one time Grealy was the more famous of the pair. "I was famous for being with her," Patchett writes. Her friend wrote a fictionalized memoir called "Autobiography of a Face," which became a best seller and led to television interviews in which she wowed audiences. But then, despite a handsome book contract, she could write nothing, while Patchett began turning out one novel after another, beginning with "The Patron Saint of Liars."Never able to manage money, nor anything else, Grealy gave no thought to paying her mounting medical bills, and she would just move to another apartment whenever her landlord became too demanding. Patchett, or some other friend, was always there to help her out and take care of her after those frequent surgeries. At one point Patchett even offered to write her novel for her.Eventually Grealy became addicted to painkillers, then resorted to harder drugs, all the while insisting she was not an addict. She died in 2002, and Patchett's book came out in 2004.I vote for saint.

[desirichter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I just finished reading Ann Patchett's Truth and Beauty: A Friendship, which chronicles the relationship of the author with the late Lucy Grealy. This book has been on my must-read list ever since I read Patchett's account of Clemson's attempt to censor it from their incoming freshman class. Based upon the brouhaha the book the book created, I expected something in the book that would have earned it the label certain members of the Clemson community gave it: pornographic. Of course I read it more because I enjoy Patchett's ability to engage in lyric reminiscence than because I was expecting to read steamy love scenes between the two girls. In that regard, I was left scratching my head and uttering a bemused, “huh?” for this decidedly PG-rated book. It turns out the relationship between Ann and Lucy was more mother-daughter than loverly (with Ann decidedly taking on the maternal role most of the time). Truth and Beauty is decidedly not about sex. It’s about the love of two writers who found each other in college and maintained a friendship through thick and thin. Most of the “thin” revolved around Lucy. Patchett paints Lucy as a dynamic human, the type of girl that couldn’t be ignored, a troubled woman whom everyone seemed to love but who, paradoxically, felt perpetually alone. Lucy was plagued by depression and insecurity, which seemed to be the natural outflow of living life with a face that had been stolen from her in childhood through the violent cancer treatments she underwent for Ewing’s sarcoma (a rare cancer of the jaw). She survived the treatments, but they left her with little lower jaw and no teeth. The fallout from her chemo and radiation also left Lucy with invisible scars that marred her ability to believe that she was lovable. Yet, Ann and countless others DID love Lucy. That’s because Lucy Grealy was, among many things, lovable immeasurable it seemed, creative, and full of candor. Lucy Grealy was stunning writer. And she was honest, whimsical and a force to be reckoned with. Ann’s depiction of their friendship paints not the sad tale of a manic-depressive, self-centered girl, but of a woman who was nuanced and vivacious. Though Lucy would never paint herself as a hero, I believe that Patchett saw her as one, though perhaps of a different sort than the “triumph over tragedy” trope. Patchett shares her perspective on Lucy, and it’s clear that this perspective is one of love, though not the rose-colored glasses kind. Lucy was needy, but this need tapped into something maternal in Ann. So while some would argue that Anne pandered to Lucy’s temperament, I would argue that these two girls loved each other fiercely and that they just enjoyed each other. Lucy cheered Ann. Ann’s practicality balanced Lucy’s more flighty tendency. And Lucy Grealy was self-deprecatingly FUNNY. The nature of their relationship is revealed through vignettes and letters written by Lucy during the many years in which they lived apart pursuing fellowships, teaching at different colleges, or while Lucy (Scottish by birth) spent a year abroad undergoing facial reconstructive surgeries.Whoever Lucy Grealy was, she was a complex woman who had dreams, spunk and talent in spades. I believe this account honors her life, though, like Lucy’s sister who lambasted Patchett for writing Truth and Beauty so soon after Lucy’s death, I wonder if Patchett should have waited a bit to publish the book. I understand her need to memorialize her friend, but I do question the wisdom of her timing. While I can see her sister’s point, the work itself still stands as a narrative that shines a light on what was one of the greatest loves of Patchett’s life. Sorry Clemson, the love between two women IS normal (even though this one was decidedly of the amicable-not-amorous, variety after all).

[lesliehurd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ann and Lucy attended Sarah Lawrence at the same time. Ann had noticed Lucy because of her vibrant personality and her many friends, but was sure Lucy didn’t know who Ann was. However, after a summer absence Lucy sees Ann and flies into her arms in greeting. From that point on they were devoted friends throughout their lives. They lived in poverty while Ann pursues her dream of becoming a novelist and Lucy a poet. Ann understands early on how needy Lucy is and determines not to let that rule her life, but Lucy also lives with great abandon and loves to dance, party, and spend her time surrounded by others, and shares those joys with Ann. They often spend evenings dancing in their kitchen until they're exhausted. As Ann spends years working in a restaurant while pursuing her writing, Lucy is in and out of hospitals having surgeries to correct her jaw, all of which ultimately fail. Each eventually become recognized as writers, but the real story is the enduring and passionate friendship. They communicate daily most of their lives, sharing everything and making each other a priority. While the road is sometimes rocky, their love for one another endures throughout. This is an honest portrayal of a flawed but wonderful friendship.

[rachelrj_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Loved this book. I thought the portrait of friendship and of the discovery of one's own self in contrast and in the context of someone else were wonderful. (Plus, it has the distinction of being my very first Kindle book, so it bears a shine of magic from that.)

[berly_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This memoir shares the friendship between Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy, both writers. Lucy had cancer as a child and as a result lost most of her jaw and teeth. She is a pixie, both slight of weight and full of energy. Her ongoing struggles with medical issues are second to her emotional instability: there is never enough love to make Lucy feel treasured and beautiful. She is most comfortable in the hospital and around doctors because she understands the rules there: be stoic, follow the rules, don't question the doctors, be a good patient. She feels special and unique in the medical setting. In life, she strives to always surround herself with people and forget her ever-changing face and her loneliness.The book lives in the space where these two lives intersected, and portrays their friendship as very tight, even possessively so at times. " 'Do you love me? She threw one leg over mine and in doing so managed to swallow up all the air in the restaurant.' " This obsessive need for Ann's undying affection is also reflected in Lucy's letters (which I loved), interspersed throughout the book. I have heard that Ann is not mentioned very much in Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face and I am interested to read that soon and see how the two stories diverge. A good read.

[ebt1002 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is Ann Patchett's memoir of her friendship with author Lucy Grealy. Lucy, who was badly disfigured in childhood due to intensive treatment for cancer in her jaw area, is a passionate, brilliant, funny, and ever childlike woman who longs for love. I mean, I know that most of us long for love but as Ann describes her friend, this woman *aches* to be special and to be deeply and obsessively loved. Lucy and Ann met in college, at Sarah Lawrence College, and became friends when they shared an apartment while enrolled at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. The rest is, as they say, history. Ann's patience for Lucy's dependence and frivolity is admirable; she herself acknowledges that her attachment to Lucy had an addictive quality. But their friendship is also so sweet, and so viscerally true. It is an illustration of the best of friendship and the worst of friendship. That Lucy's life ended so tragically is hardly a surprise and Ann wastes no time on maudlin regrets. She beautifully describes her desire for more time, even a week, with Lucy still in her life, but she refuses to glorify a desperate and terrible ending. If anything, she lets society off just a bit lightly. This is the first of Patchett's works that I have read. Bel Canto has been on my TBR pile for at least a couple of years and I did give it a weak try just once (I think I read about two pages before setting it aside). This lovely memoir motivates me to give her fiction a try.

[lauralkeet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ann Patchett met Lucy Grealy in college, but their friendship blossomed during graduate school at the Iowa Writers Workshop. The two complemented one another: Lucy was a free spirit, Ann was organized and practical. But Lucy’s life was complicated by childhood cancer which left her with virtually no jaw, and all of the self-esteem issues that can arise from looking different. As an adult, Lucy had several reconstructive surgeries, but none were successful. The two women supported each other as they encountered personal and professional challenges; Ann was always quick to hop on a plane to New York to visit Lucy any time she was needed, and especially after surgery. Lucy died young (not a spoiler, it’s evident in the dedication), but she left an impact on everyone who knew her.Both Ann and Lucy ultimately experienced literary success and fame, Ann as the author of several novels and Lucy through her memoir, Autobiography of a Face which now I simply MUST read. Truth and Beauty is Ann’s tribute to their intensely close friendship, and a very moving tribute it is.

[cookierooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well done. A portrait of the poet Lucy Grealy. The family was up in arms on this one, I can see why, but I feel like this comes acfos fondly and accurately.

[goldiebear · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was brilliant. After reading Autobiography of a Face, I thought it only appropriate that I read this as a follow up. I am glad I did. It really brought everything home. I think I actually enjoyed this book even more. I think it shows the power of friendship. Maybe I am a bit biased, because I have had a lot of emotional relationships with friends that many people never understood. I admire Ann for being Lucy's friend through everything. Lucy really put her through a lot, yet she stood by her no matter what. I admire that and I strive for that in my own life. She was not judgemental (for the most part) and really understood what it meant to be a friend. I think that is one of life's most important and hardest things. This book was beautiful. I plan to send it to two of my friends who I think it was also hit home with. Some people may wonder why Ann stood by Lucy the way she did, but I never questioned it while reading this book. Lucy's life was an amazing one, but I think this story of their friendship is even more amazing.

[bnbookgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This memoir is a great testament to true friendship. Being a true friend is not always easy, but we do it because of the deep love we have for that person. Ann and Lucy's relationship was filled with love through some truly tumultuous times and events. We all want to be able to save the ones we love, but sometimes they can not be saved or may not want to be saved. I will suggest this book to many. A perfect book for book clubs.

[gurubani_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is my kind of book;a memoir, great writing and people you like

[rglossne · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An extraordinary memoir of a friendship, which encourages the reader to think about questions such as what is the role of appearance in destiny? What is the role of art? Can friendship heal deep psychic wounds? How much pain both physical and emotional can a person survive? Patchett is a favorite writer of mine, and as the ant in the ant and grasshopper story of her friendship with poet Lucy Grealy she offers her own perspectives, and poses questions, too. In a word, unforgettable.

[ennie_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I heard Lucy Grealy talk about her book "Autobiography of a Face" on NPR, and later read a New York Magazine article by Ann Patchett about Lucy's descent into drugs (which killed her). This book is a much expanded version of that article, detailing the writers' long friendship dating back to college. Grealy did not have an easy life and could be irresponsible, needy, selfish and narcissistic, but Patchett was always there for her.

[sandrabrower · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Such a sad but beautiful story about two friends and the lives over the years.

I cried, I laughed, I smiled, I was horrified, but mostly it made me miss my dearest friend Lisa!!!!

So glad I picked this one up! Thanks GGirls ( again.!)

[suedonym · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's a fast read and an affecting account of an odd relationship. Much about Lucy was hard to like, yet Patchett manages to make the reader see how so many people cared so deeply about her. I honestly didn't think I'd like this book (it was a gift) but it pulled me in.

[msf59 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I first learned about the friendship of Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy, in Patchett's excellent essay collection,  This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, so I knew I wanted to read the full story in this moving and unflinching memoir.Ann and Lucy met in college. Lucy had a bout of childhood cancer, leaving her with a serious facial disfigurement, that wasted away her lower jaw. She ended up having nearly 40 surgeries, up until her premature death at age 39. Lucy dealt with self-esteem issues her entire life, which led her to substance abuse problems and suicidal tendencies. This is the story of their unique friendship, which had plenty of bumps along the way, as Ann tried to help Lucy deal with her multitude of issues. The prose is strong, all along the way, with a staunch sense of honesty, that is sometimes hard to bear. Now, I want to read, Autobiography of a Face, which is Lucy's own story. Highly recommended.

[jennyo_587543 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Truth & Beauty is Patchett's book about her relationship with Lucy Grealy, author of Autobiography of a Face. Like all the Patchett books I've read so far, it's very well written and compelling to read. Lucy was a charismatic but very troubled young woman, and her friendship with Ann often crosses the line from being something beautiful to being something dysfunctional.I read the book in a day and a half. I'm usually a fast reader, but I was so caught up in the story of this unique and obsessive relationship, that I found it hard to put the book down. I did think it was an excellent book, but it's one that I'd recommend cautiously as Lucy and Ann's story is often a painful one.

[pictou_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A lovely story of friendship where unconditional love provides a lifeline for a friend, most of the time. What I learned--love cannot save everyone, sometimes it's never enough.

[bobbieharv · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

About her weird friendship with Lucy Grealy, the Girl Without a Face. I read and liked the latter a lot; but the Lucy portrayed in this book is an insufferable needy narcissist, forever needing to be loved and the center of attention. She finally dies of a heroin overdose, Ann Patchett enabling her all the way. Why she loved her so much I never understood.

[kirstie_innes7will · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The most moving book I've read in a very long time, Truth and Beauty is the story of Ann Patchett's friendship with fellow author Lucy Grealy, who had survived childhood cancer at the cost of a disfigured face. Lucy is a mercurial character who exercises enormous charisma but also a devastating codependence with her friends - and Patchett describes both the beauty and horror of that unflinchingly, especially as she moves towards the devastating ending. It is a very brave and honest piece of writing - Ann's love for Lucy is obvious, as it Lucy's devotion to Ann, but the ugly undersides of both are also obvious. In the end, the limitations of friendship are also reached (many would argue Lucy crossed them long long ago), but the degree to which these two creative souls came alive in each other's company is such that it's hard not to cry for both of them eventually.

In Lucy herself, Patchett paints an image of someone who was forever chasing life as much as she was her own creativity. Tragically her inability *not* to chase love (an eternal, idealised form that no one can possibly fulfil and which she vainly attempts to obtain principally through sex) is in the end far more damaging to her than her original cancer. It is a frightening exploration of depression and love addiction - written without exaggeration or melodrama, which makes it all the more confronting.

At the same time, this is a beautiful testament to the importance of friendships among creative people - the loneliness of writing, the highs and the lows, are explored beautifully. There is also a moving description of September 11 (Ann is one of those who walked towards the towers, not realising the severity of what was happening).

The ending should not be read when emotionally vulnerable! I hope that Ann found some solace in writing this - it is writing straight from the (raw) heart.

[siri51 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very moving account of two writer's friendship - having read most of Ann's novel's, this is written from the heart.