Author and title? Anyone recognize this book?

Question

I read a book in 2004, and cannot remember the title and author...she wrote the book about one of her best friends, who was also a writer, and died of a drug overdose after a lengthy addiction. The book was kind of a memoir about her relationship with her friend, how it started and the paths they took along the way.

Answer 1

"The Ant and the Grasshopper" by Ann Patchett

http://redravine.wordpress.com/2008/06/1...

"At Sarah Lawrence College, Ann Patchett admired the hugely popular Lucy Grealy from afar, never realizing that the two were destined to become the greatest of friends. Ann wrote short stories that people liked but was not someone they remembered. Lucy was the one everyone knew.

Talented poet, waif who as a child lost part of her jaw to cancer, Lucy ran the Friday night film series back at Sarah Lawrence. Students chanted “LOO-cee, LOO-cee, LOO-cee,” and crowded into the coffee shop to hear her read her poetry. Ann sat in the audience, watching, believing they might have something in common..."

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht...

"TRUTH AND BEAUTY

A Friendship

By Ann Patchett

257 pages. HarperCollins. $23.95.

In her story of a tender and undying friendship between budding writers, Ann Patchett often invokes the fable of the grasshopper and the ant. She presents herself as the dutiful, hard-working figure and draws another writer, Lucy Grealy, as the more glamorous and flamboyant one. The only thing wrong with this formulation is that Ms. Patchett's latest novel, the gorgeous ''Bel Canto,'' had nothing antlike about it. It was the dazzling performance of a butterfly. "