From Library Journal
Lamott has written before about copingwith death in Hard Laughter , with life in Rosie. But Joe Jones is about nothing else; coping seems to fill the hearts and minds of the characters at Jessie's Cafe, and it certainly dominates their epigrammatic, italic-studded conversation. Not that theirs isn't a lot to cope with. Louise, cook and philosophical earth mother, pines for Joe, the faithless lover she sent away, and he, a hypochondriacal drifter, longs for her. Willie, Jessie's gay grandson, loses a lover to a distant job and his grandmother to heart failure. And those are only their current trials. Lamott's spare prose can sing, but here it too often sounds forced. "Life is hard and then you die," as these characters note more than once, is too trendy and insubstantial a framework for the fine work Lamott can do. Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Imagine a café facing a waterfront. Then imagine Jessie and Georgia (who have 160 or so years between them) holding court for the customers at the "regulars'" table. Georgia, the luscious cook, reigns from the kitchen. Willie, Jessie's gay grandson, moons over his new love as he bakes the specialty of the day. Listeners can leave the rest to Barbara Rosenblat, who delights in telling of the lives in these pages. Rosenblat's craft in reading is a security blanket for the listener: You know that every character is true to the author's wishes and that Rosenblat will never let go of the center of each individual. You feel a part of the entire production and carry the joy of having heard it . . . maybe forever. J.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Book Description
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

ANNOTATION

Centered around a group of eccentric characters who congregate in Jessie's Cafe, this is a story of loss, recovery, and the humor that heals.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Joe Jones is Anne Lamott's novel of the 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 in the cusp between curvaceous and fat"; Joe, devoted and unfaithful; Willie, Jessie's gay grandson; Georgia, an empress dowager who never speaks; and a dozen others all living together in the sweet everyday.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Jessie's Caf , a tired waterfront restaurant, provides the focus of this latest Lamott novel. Jessie inherited the caf years ago and at 79 visits daily, chattering away to her mute friend Georgia. Life is hard for the frequenters of Jessie's, and their attempts to cope form the story line. Louise, the cook and mother figure, misses Joe, her faithless former lover whom she threw out, and he still pines for her. Willie, Jessie's gay grandson, tries to stay away from drugs after his lover takes a job in a distant city. Then Louise meets Eve and invites her to the caf . Alone and suffering from a terminal illness, maybe AIDS, Eve joins the "Caf family," bringing a quiet dignity as she copes with her failing health. Lamott's characteristic humor shines through the pain. Although this book lacks the more defined plot of Lamott's earlier works (Blue Shoe and Rosie), listeners will enjoy the warmth, love, and compassion these imperfect people display. Barbara Rosenblatt, one of the most accomplished audiobook narrators around, reads with clarity, making each character distinctive. Recommended for large public libraries.--Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Lamott has written before about copingwith death in Hard Laughter , with life in Rosie. But Joe Jones is about nothing else; coping seems to fill the hearts and minds of the characters at Jessie's Cafe, and it certainly dominates their epigrammatic, italic-studded conversation. Not that theirs isn't a lot to cope with. Louise, cook and philosophical earth mother, pines for Joe, the faithless lover she sent away, and he, a hypochondriacal drifter, longs for her. Willie, Jessie's gay grandson, loses a lover to a distant job and his grandmother to heart failure. And those are only their current trials. Lamott's spare prose can sing, but here it too often sounds forced. ``Life is hard and then you die,'' as these characters note more than once, is too trendy and insubstantial a framework for the fine work Lamott can do. Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.

AudioFile