Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year - Softcover

"An enormous triumph. . . . Charming. . . . Powerful. . . . Funny." -San Francisco Chronicle

"A funny, self-mocking, vivid account." -The Washington Post

"Smart, funny, and comforting. . . . Lamott has a conversational style that perfectly conveys her friendly, self-deprecating humor." -Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Lamott is a wonderfully lithe writer. . . . Anyone who has ever had a hard time facing a perfectly ordinary day will identify." -Chicago Tribune

"First class all the way. . . . Lamott, along with her novelist's eye and often poetic prose, has a terrifically black sense of humor. . . . Deeply honest." -The Detroit News

"Wonderfully candid. . . . Even non-parents will enjoy this glowing work." -Publishers Weekly

"Lamott here shares her humor, faith, friendships, and irreverence. . . . Operating Instructions is enhanced by Lamott's colorful and expressive language, her philosophical reflections, and her descriptions of many eccentric friends." -Library Journal

"One need not be a new parent to appreciate Lamott's glib and gritty good humor in the face of annihilating weariness. She'll nourish fans with her entries, and give birth to new ones as well." -Kirkus Reviews

"Painfully honest, laced with humor and poetry and moments of profound insight. It captures the intense fluctuations of feeling, the rapid alternation of exhilaration and fury, love and despair, that characterizes new parenthood." -San Francisco Examiner

A single mother and writer grappling alone with the problems of a newborn baby presents a vivid account of the confusion, joys, sorrows, and struggles of the first year in her son's life. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.