It is difficult to critique a chapter or section of larger piece without knowing the greater context of the chapter. Based on a quick google search, Truth and Beauty is an autobiographical memoir describing the friendship between Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy, published after Grealy’s death. The first chapter does well to introduce both Grealy’s personality and her notable traits of being a talented writer and having a physical disfigurement from cancer, especially for the purposes of remembrance, and presumably, for the sake of the rest of the memoir. Aside from that, I would not say I particularly enjoyed the piece, though more so due to its relatively bland nature and a lack of personal investment rather than because of any poor writing ability.

As one would expect from reading an except, the end left several questions, most of them likely answered in the rest of the memoir. How the relationship between the writers continue, what happens to Grealy’s romantic and sexual life, and ultimately what happens to both writers(though knowing that Grealy dies young, presumably because of her cancer, partially answers that last question).