The Grasshopper and the Ant
I expect many readers have heard of and/or read Ann Patchett, but how many have heard of Lucy Grealy? I had not. Grealy wrote a well-received memoir, Autobiography of a Face, but only one, and she died young, which is...
Ann Patchett
An uneven slice of Memphis life
In Taft, Ann Patchett’s protagonist is about as different from herself as you can imagine. John Nickel is a middle-aged black male former blues drummer who now runs a bar. Then A girl walked into the bar. This teenager, Fay...
Understated charm
Having read a few less than glowing reviews of this Patchett novel, I admit I approached it with low expectations. Perhaps that was part of the reason I found it unexpectedly enjoyable. (I have mostly enjoyed all Patchett’s other novels,...
Not really my town
Readers who grew up in America and loved Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (described by Edward Albee as “the greatest American play ever written”) will probably love Ann Patchett’s latest novel, Tom Lake. Our Town appears both explicitly and implicitly in...
Virtuoso Storytelling
~ The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett ~ This is a classically excellent family saga. I always look immensely forward to any new Patchett novel, and this was no disappointment. The Dutch House of the title is a lavish and...
Sharps and Flats
~ Bel Canto ~ the book and film ~ If only Ang Lee had directed the film of Bel Canto. The exquisite novel by Ann Patchett is widely thought to be her best. It is approximately based on the 1996...
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