Joe Jones is Anne Lamott's raucous novel of lives gathered around Jessie's Cafe, "a restaurant from another era, the sort of broken-down waterfront dive one might expect to find in Steinbeck or Saroyan." Jessie, "thin, stooped and gorgeous at seventy-nine," inherited the cafe years before and it has become home to a remarkable family of characters: Louise, the cook and vortex, "sexy and sweet, somewhere on the cusp between curvaceous and fat"; Joe, devoted and unfaithful; Willie, Jessie's gay grandson, ("I thought he just had good posture," said Jessie); Georgia, an empress dowager who never speaks; and a dozen others all living together in the sweet everyday. Lamott's rich and timeless themes are also here: love and loyalty, loss and recovery, staying on and staying together, the power of humor to heal and to bind. Out of print for fifteen years, Joe Jones is a novel of hilarity and joy
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
good but not best:
I am an avid Anne LaMott reader. The commentator who said they were off to read ROSIE will NOT be disappointed. That is an extraordinary book. Although I enjoyed these characters they didn't have the usual depth of LaMott's characters. They were all full of flaws, yes, but I didn't actually believe how they felt about each other. And I could find little in me that even liked Joe Jones. I would've rather seen Louise in a book all by herself. Anyway - I am not swayed from my love of LaMott and her work but... more info
It's a wonderful book, another gem for the collection:
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,... more info
Imperfect world -:
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... more info
Dissappointed at best:
After reading Bird by Bird and Operating Instructions, I was thrilled to start on Joe Jones. I've been terribly dissapointed by a flimsy beginning, void of storyline. I've labored through the belly of the book and now find myself wondering whether I'll ever finish it. (doubtful) I still have faith in Anne Lammott so I'll be trying out "Rosie"... it's hard to imagine that the writer who put out Bird by Bird and made me think and wonder and laugh out loud could have written this boring story where none... more info
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