I GET THE PRIZE!!

I get the prize – not the Nobel, not the Pulitzer – the Patchett! I have now read every single book Ann Patchett ever wrote! I set myself this literary goal and I achieved it! Hurrah for me!

Here’s what I read (Note: I did not read it in chronological order):

Novels

• The Patron Saint of Liars (1992)
• Taft (1994)
• The Magician's Assistant (1997)
• Bel Canto (2001)
• Run (2007)
• State of Wonder (2011)

Nonfiction

• Truth & Beauty: A Friendship (2004)
• What now? (2008)

The final entry on my Patchett reading list was Taft. It was wonderful! In fact, after Bel Canto, it’s my favorite of her novels. It’s the story (I think) of two men struggling to figure out how to be good fathers. The first is John Nickel, a former drummer who manages a bar in Memphis (it takes place late 80s/early 9os). His ex-girlfriend has recently moved to Miami with their nine-year-old son Franklin, and he is struggling with learning how to father the boy from afar, and filled with regret for his perceived past misdeeds, such as not marrying Franklin’s mother, Marion.

Into John’s bar one day walks a young girl named Fay seeking work. Fay brings with her a host of complications, including her brother Carl, and a sad story that slowly unfolds of their father, Taft, who has recently died, and the life they left behind in a “hillbilly” town in eastern Tennessee. As Fay comes to mean more and more to John, he begins to imagine the life of Fay and Carl’s father, and the story begins to cut back and forth between these imaginings (or are they real?) and the present day story, which encompasses the bar, music, love and relationships, family, and some danger. (When John casually mentions, early in the book, the gun left in his desk drawer by the bar’s owner, we must think of Chekov’s warning: when there’s a gun in Act I, it will go off by Act III.)

The book is masterfully written and is, I think, a Patchett gem that should receive more acclaim. Some refer to it as one of her weaker books, but I disagree. I also read somewhere that she doesn’t think it is well-titled. With that I do agree. Nonetheless, if you’re a Patchett fan and haven’t read this one yet, bump it up the list!

Now back to that prize I mentioned. I was chatting yesterday with my friend Debbie Albert, who is also a member of this select club of readers who have conquered the Patchett canon. Debbie thinks we deserve lunch with the author. I think that’s quite an excellent idea. I told her I’d look into it. So as soon as I post this, I’m going to e-mail Ms. Patchett’s publicist at HarperCollins and send her this link. So, Jane, what do you say?