BLUE SHOE, by Anne Lamott, Riverhead Books, 291 pages, $24.95.
Mattie Ryder, the main character of "Blue Shoe," is a larger, more troubled version of author Anne Lamott, who puts a lot of herself into all her books.
It's a good thing Lamott is a natural, lyrical writer with a dynamite sense of humor, which she passes on to Mattie. It makes reading the book seem like spending quality time with Anne Lamott, and you don't want it to stop. It is funny, serious, thoughtful, weird and warm-hearted — all at the same time.
"Blue Shoe" is probably Lamott's best novel.
Mattie is divorced (a very good thing in this case), except that she continues to sleep with Nicky, her ex-husband (a very bad thing). She lives with her two kids in the same Marin County, Calif., house in which she grew up. It is still owned by her mom, a fascinating, caustic woman who was a bad mother until recently. Unfortunately, she is experiencing a mental deterioration that is both tragic and funny.
Mattie works as a fittings model for Sears; they like her because she is a perfect size 12. But there are many troubling things in Mattie's past that she has to reckon with, including her loutish father, Alfred, who cheated on her mother and abandoned his family. This means Mattie was cheated out of having a father. No wonder her marriage was to a man who bears a close resemblance to her father — a handsome, charismatic man who, predictably, cheated on her.
One of the best things that happens to Mattie is meeting Daniel, a married man with a fuzzy brown ponytail. He comes to her home wearing a brown jumpsuit, representing the Evergreen Pest Control Service. After only 10 minutes, he admits he has no idea how to get rid of her rats. He is a carpenter and this is his first day in pest control. She feels sorry for him, so she hires him to split wood.
Thus begins a sweet, enduring friendship that gradually grows into something more romantic. Daniel comes by often after that to do odd jobs, and when she invites him to come to church with her, he obliges. The religious angle of the story is well-integrated as merely a natural part of their lives.
When Mattie first meets Pauline, Daniel's wife, she describes her as "small and slight on top, with a large, round bottom, and her features were too big for her frame. . . . Ropes and tendrils of curly blond hair were piled high on her head. She wore rings on every finger, a silver anklet, a velvet skirt and an antique lace blouse. She spoke in warm, vigorous tones. . . . She had a lovely laugh, and paid very close attention whenever anyone spoke, actually cocking her head to listen. Mattie had a puzzling and immediate aversion to her."
A tiny blue shoe is numbered among some possessions taken from Mattie's father's old car, now owned by someone else. Mattie makes the shoe into a good luck charm in her dogged search for her roots, an effort to find out more about her unhappy childhood.
The book turns into a wonderful manifestation of the love of a parent for her children. Don't all parents have to
endure such comments from their children as, "You're mean! Why can't you be like other mothers?" Yet Mattie tenderly loves her children, even as she tries to come to grips with the meanness of her own mother, whom the reader can't resist liking.
Eventually, Mattie meets the woman, Abby, who, as a young girl, was the object of her father's affections. Abby, no longer young, lives in shabby circumstances while fighting diabetes. The reader knows how much progress Mattie has made when she practices true religion by bringing Abby some new socks to protect her sore feet. Then, realizing how caked with dirt they are, she washes Abby's feet.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com