Biography (from annpatchett.com)
Ann Patchett is the author of nine novels, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, Bel Canto, Run, State of Wonder, Commonwealth, The Dutch House, and Tom Lake.
She was the editor of Best American Short Stories, 2006, and has written four books of nonfiction:
Truth & Beauty, about her friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy,
What Now? an expansion of her graduation address at Sarah Lawrence College,
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, a collection of essays examining the theme of commitment, and
These Precious Days, essays on home, family, friendship, and writing.
In 2019, she published her first children’s book, Lambslide, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser, followed by Escape Goat in 2020.
Biography (from annpatchett.com)
A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Patchett has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a National Humanities Medal, England’s Women’s Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Book Sense Book of the Year, a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize, The Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the American Bookseller’s Association’s Most Engaging Author Award, and the Women’s National Book Association’s Award.
Her novel, The Dutch House, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her books have been both New York Times Notable Books and New York Times bestsellers. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages.
Biography (from annpatchett.com)
In November, 2011, she opened Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, with her business partner Karen Hayes. She has since become a spokesperson for independent booksellers, championing books and bookstores on NPR, The Colbert Report (including the series finale), Oprah's Super Soul Sunday, The Martha Stewart Show, and The CBS Early Show, among many others.
Along with James Patterson, she was the honorary chair of World Book Night. In 2012 she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Ann Patchett lives in Nashville with her husband, Karl VanDevender, and their dog, Sparky.
PS—according to her "appearances" calendar, she's in Australia the better part of this month.
And she wrote this book on a treadmill desk, which she endorses.
Publications
The Patron Saint of Liars
Taft
The Magician’s Assistant
Bel Canto,
Run
State of Wonder
Commonwealth
The Dutch House, and
Tom Lake
From National Endowment for the Humanities
When the plots of Ann Patchett’s eight novels are summarized, they may seem, at first, to have nothing in common.
In The Patron Saint of Liars, a woman with a secret arrives at a home for unwed mothers.
In State of Wonder, a scientist sets off into the Brazilian rain forest to locate the body of her deceased colleague.
In Commonwealth, a messy, blended family mourns the tragic loss of a child.
For Patchett, however, the connection between her stories is simple: “A group of strangers are thrown together by circumstance and form a society,” Patchett said in a recent telephone conversation. “That’s it.”
This deceptively simple premise has allowed her to delve into the complexities of her characters’ inner lives and deliver what one reviewer described as “provocative insights that sum up entire relationships.”
Born in 1963, in Los Angeles, raised in Nashville, Patchett describes herself as a child who possessed a knack for “stillness” and being alone with her own thoughts, valuable skills for a writer.
From National Endowment for the Humanities
She studied at Sarah Lawrence College, where literary success came early—publishing her first story as an undergrad in the Paris Review—and later receiving her MFA from University of Iowa.
In 2001, not long after the publication of Patchett’s breakout novel, Bel Canto, her literary hero, Eudora Welty, died at the age of 92. Patchett got into a car and drove 400 miles to attend the funeral of the literary legend she had never met. She was anticipating a standing-room-only event, she later recounted, and was surprised to find a more modest crowd.
The experience speaks to her belief in the “life-altering” power of fiction and the place writers should have in the culture. In the years that followed, Patchett has served as an advocate for literature, extolling the pleasures of the short story in her introductory essay to The Best American Short Stories 2006, serving as the honorary chair of World Book Night, and spreading the word about hidden-gem writers such as Edith Pearlman.
Patchett speaks in pragmatic terms about her own writing process, but she speaks passionately of her love for books. “I would stand in an airport,” she wrote in These Precious Days, “to tell people about how much I love books, reading them, writing them, making sure other people felt comfortable reading and writing them.”
From National Endowment for the Humanities
This passion makes her well suited for running Parnassus Books, which she started in Nashville with her partner, Karen Hayes, in 2011. In the more than ten years since Parnassus opened, Patchett has championed, on venues that include NPR and The Colbert Report, the importance of independents, stressing the positive effects they can have in the communities they serve. During her interview, she enthusiastically cited statistics demonstrating that independent booksellers have made a comeback, sounding undaunted even as she described challenges that continue to absorb her and her fellow bookstore owners around the country: real estate, lease negotiations, and the paper supply-chain issues that can snarl up book orders.
Patchett also spoke with fondness about her other labor of love, the Parnassus Foundation, a small nonprofit she started several years ago that provides free books and sends authors to underserved schools in the Nashville area where children’s writers might not otherwise visit. It’s one more way for her to share her passion with others. “We give all the kids the books,” she said, her voice brightening as she described it. “That is such joy. It is so exciting.”
Video
Ann Patchett on her banned books in Florida
Cast of characters
Lara Nelson, also known as Laura Kenison, is the main character and narrator of this novel; currently 57 years old, married to Joe, she lives on his family's cherry orchard in northern Michigan (Traverse City), with three daughters. The girls know nothing really of her early life as an actress, the years from high school when she first plays Emily in Our Town to her final performance in that play at Tom Lake when she turns 25.
The talent scout Bill Ripley sees Lara, takes her to Hollywood where she does TV commercials until offered a part in the movie Singularity; she completes the movie but it's not immediately released so she takes a part in the summer stock theater at Tom Lake, playing Emily in Our Town, once again, where she meets Peter Duke, his brother Sebastian, and Pallace. She also meets Joe Nelson, Stage Manager
When she quits acting, she goes back home to take care of her grandmother, owner of Stitch-It, who has cancer. When her grandmother dies, Lara takes jobs as a seamstress, through Cat's connections, until one day Joe walks back into the theater where she's sewing tulle onto a dress.
Cast of characters
Joe Nelson, Lara’s husband, is initially introduced as Nelson, the director of the play Our Town at Tom Lake. Noted for his stability and constancy, Lara comments that Joe has changed the least over time. He's trustworthy and understated, making him an excellent director and Stage Manager. Unlike Duke, who seeks attention, Joe never draws the spotlight to himself.
Despite being a renowned theater director, Joe chose to walk away from that career to manage his family’s farm, owned by Ken and Maisie Nelson, his aunt and uncle. When Nell questions his decision, Joe explains that he had the opportunity to live multiple fulfilling lives, and he has no regrets. Symbolically, he embodies the farm, smelling like the cherry orchard. However, the responsibility of running the farm weighs heavily on him, especially during the pandemic when the workforce is significantly reduced.
Joe’s concerns extend to the farm’s future, compounded by daughter Emily’s announcement that she won’t be having children; her decision casts uncertainty on the farm’s future. Despite the challenges, Joe dedicates long hours to farm work, impacted by the pandemic of 2020 when the novel takes place.
Cast of characters
Peter Duke is a central character in the story, although he doesn’t physically appear in the present. He was Lara’s first love, a charming guy who became a famous actor but struggled with alcohol. His alcohol problem became evident when he started drinking during rehearsals for a play. Lara suggests that his life fell apart, possibly leading to his death by suicide.
In the end, he’s buried in the family cemetery on the farm. Lara acknowledges that he was right, as there’s enough space for everyone there. Duke’s burial provides closure for both the family and the reader.
When Duke first visited the farm, he was fascinated, feeling like he had imagined their family life when he was a child. Duke tried to buy the farm multiple times.
Cast of characters
Emily Nelson, 26, oldest of Lara’s three daughters, plans to stay and maintain the family farm, the only daughter to do so. She obtained degrees in horticulture and agribusiness from Michigan State to support this goal.
Currently, Emily lives in the smaller house on the farm with her partner, Benny, whose family owns the neighboring farm. However, Emily’s decision not to have children has created tension, as her parents see this choice as the end of the family legacy that has lasted for six generations.
Emily’s choices are driven by concerns about the future, climate change, and overpopulation. Despite her parents’ disappointment about family, Emily remains focused on saving the farm.
Emily's relationship with her mother is complicated by Emily’s teenage infatuation with Duke, star of the much-watched film Popcorn. She angrily contends that Duke is really her father, so family members tread lightly around her, but that misconception is also what prompts Lara to fill in the facts of her early life and disabuse the girls of their incorrect assumptions.
By the end of the story, Emily’s idealized perception of Duke is shattered, and she and Lara have a renewed relationship.
Cast of characters
Maisie Nelson, 24, the middle child of Lara and Joe, is already two years into veterinary school when the family comes back to the farm because of the pandemic. She plans to finish her education when schools re-open.
Despite the lack of a degree, friends and neighbors call Maisie for veterinary help when their animals need it. Kind and compassionate, she’s always available, day or night, to care for her neighbors’ animals. Instead of taking money, she accepts non-monetary payments, like apples.
Maisie is named after Joe’s aunt, who used to own the cherry farm and had a deep connection with Lara. Lara attributes much of the older Maisie’s strong and reliable character to her daughter. Lara admires Maisie’s logical and strong nature, highlighting her ability to handle challenges without worry, as with her cancer diagnosis. Lara is confident about Maisie’s dependability and fearlessness, especially when it comes to dealing with subjects like chemistry or taking care of sick calves.
Cast of characters
Nell, the youngest daughter of Lara and Joe, is 22, just starting her career as an actor, but the pandemic derails her plans. Unlike her sisters Emily and Maisie, Nell doesn't work as effectively as her sisters on the farm; she's small. Despite this, she maintains a positive attitude and jokes that she went to college to avoid picking cherries.
Nell is treated like the baby of the family and somewhat coddled. Lara is protective of her, fearing she might break something fragile in Nell. Despite this, Nell is determined to pursue her passion for acting. Lara notices Nell’s dedication to her craft, even while doing mundane tasks like picking cherries.
Nell therefore resents her mother for effortlessly entering and leaving the career Nell aspires to. But her acting skills and understanding of storytelling give her insight into Lara’s life, making her a thoughtful and intelligent reader of her mother’s experiences. Nell’s ability to foresee events adds depth to her character.
Cast of characters
Sebastian is Duke's brother, handsome, athletic, an almost professional tennis player who teaches history and coaches tennis for members of the Grosse Point Yacht Club. He's stable, reliable, a solid base for the more volatile Duke. He adjusts his playing to the tennis skills of his opponents, and rescues Lara when she pulls her Achilles tendon playing him.
He falls in love with Pallace. But while he's caring for Lara, Duke steps in because Pallace is now playing Lara's role in the play. He slugs Duke, and walks off. But he returns when Duke needs him, visiting every day while Duke is hospitalized for alcoholism and carrying his ashes to Lara's farm when Duke commits suicide.
In character, he resembles Joe Nelson, and neither of them is an actor.
Cast of characters
Pallace Clarke, dancer, singer, and actress in the theater at Tom Lake. She's Lara's understudy who takes on the role of Emily when Lara is injured. But she's also working in Cabaret, juggling performances. She's beautiful, and talented, initially girlfriend to Sebastian and part of that foursome who travelled to the Nelson cherry farm. After she moves her affections to Duke, she drops out of the plot.
Uncle Wallace, the "famous" movie star leading the cast at the Tom Lake theater as the Stage Manager. An alcoholic, with three former wives, he becomes ill during a performance, is hospitalized, ultimately returns to Chicago. He represents "success" as an actor.
Bill Ripley, Lara's talent agent. His sister lives in Durham and her daughter Rae Ann is playing Mrs. Gibbs in the play where Lara plays Emily. On the significance of his name:
. . . not to suggest that Ripley was a sociopath, but rather that he had an ability to insert himself in other people’s lives and make them feel like he belonged there. The believe-it-or-not part was self-evident.
Our Town
Our Town is a three-act play written by American playwright Thornton Wilder in 1938. Described by Edward Albee as "the greatest American play ever written," it presents the fictional American town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens.
Wilder uses metatheatrical devices, setting the play in the actual theatre where it is being performed. The main character is the stage manager of the theatre who directly addresses the audience, brings in guest lecturers, fields questions from the audience, and fills in playing some of the roles. The play is performed without a set on a mostly bare stage. With a few exceptions, the actors mime actions without the use of props.
The first performance of Our Town was at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, on January 22, 1938. It went on to success on Broadway and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; it remains popular today with frequent revivals.
Our Town—Act I: Daily Life
The Stage Manager introduces the audience to the small town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, and the people living there as a morning begins in 1901. Joe Crowell delivers the paper to Doc Gibbs, Howie Newsome delivers the milk, and the Webb and Gibbs households send their children off to school on this beautifully simple morning. Professor Willard speaks to the audience about the history of the town. Editor Webb speaks to the audience about the town's socioeconomic status, political and religious demographics, and the accessibility and proliferation, or lack thereof, of culture and art in Grover's Corners. The Stage Manager leads us through a series of pivotal moments throughout the afternoon and evening, revealing the characters' relationships and challenges.
At this time we are introduced to Simon Stimson, organist and choir director at the Congregational Church. We learn from Mrs. Louella Soames that Simon is an alcoholic when she, Mrs. Gibbs, and Mrs. Webb stop on the corner after choir practice and "gossip like a bunch of old hens." Everyone in town seems to know that Simon has a problem with alcohol; all the characters speak to his issue as a "peck of trouble," a phrase repeated by more than one character throughout the show.
Our Town—Act I: Daily Life
While the majority of townsfolk choose to "look the other way," including the town policeman, Constable Warren, it is Mrs. Gibbs who takes Simon's struggles with addiction to heart, and has a conversation with her husband, Doc Gibbs, about Simon's drinking.
Underneath a glowing full moon, Act I ends with siblings George and Rebecca, and Emily gazing out of their respective bedroom windows, enjoying the smell of heliotrope in the "wonderful (or terrible) moonlight," with the self-discovery of Emily and George liking each other, and the realization that they are both straining to grow up in their own way.
The audience is dismissed to the first intermission by the Stage Manager who quips, "That's the end of Act I, folks. You can go and smoke, now. Those that smoke."
Our Town—Act II: Love and Marriage
Three years have passed, and George and Emily prepare to wed. The day is filled with stress. Howie Newsome is delivering milk in the pouring rain while Si Crowell, younger brother of Joe, laments how George's baseball talents will be squandered. George pays an awkward visit to his soon-to-be in-laws.
Here, the Stage Manager interrupts the scene and takes the audience back a year, to the end of Emily and George's junior year. Emily confronts George about his pride, and over an ice cream soda, they discuss the future and confess their love for each other.
George decides not to go to college, as he had planned, but to work and eventually take over his uncle's farm.
In the present, George and Emily say that they are not ready to marry—George to his mother, Emily to her father—but they both calm down and happily go through with the wedding.
Our Town—Act III: Death and Eternity
Nine years have passed. The Stage Manager, in a lengthy monologue, discusses eternity, focusing attention on the cemetery outside of town and the people who have died since the wedding, including Mrs. Gibbs (pneumonia, while traveling), Wally Webb (burst appendix, while camping), Mrs. Soames, and Simon Stimson (suicide by hanging). Town undertaker Joe Stoddard is introduced, as is a young man named Sam Craig who has returned to Grover's Corners for his cousin's funeral.
That cousin is Emily, who died giving birth to her and George's second child. Once the funeral ends, Emily emerges to join the dead. Mrs. Gibbs urges her to forget her life, warning her that being able to see but not interact with her family, all the while knowing what will happen in the future, will cause her too much pain.
Our Town—Act III: Death and Eternity
Ignoring the warnings of Simon, Mrs. Soames, and Mrs. Gibbs, Emily returns to Earth to relive one day, her 12th birthday. She joyfully watches her parents and some of the people of her childhood for the first time in years, but her joy quickly turns to pain as she realizes how little people appreciate the simple joys of life.
The memory proves too painful for her and she realizes that every moment of life should be treasured. When she asks the Stage Manager if anyone truly understands the value of life while they live it, he responds, "No. The saints and poets, maybe – they do some."
Emily returns to her grave next to Mrs. Gibbs and watches impassively as George kneels weeping over her.
The Stage Manager concludes the play and wishes the audience a good night.
Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard
Because both literary works at set in cherry orchards, with families in some degree of distress, that play resonates as well. But the Russian play ends with the sale of the family farm to developers who will break it up into plots and sell to wealthy Russians. Like the Nelsons, the Russian aristocratic family farm owners have lost the laborers who picked the cherries, slaves or serfs, freed a couple of decades earlier.
But the family is dysfunctional, among themselves, and have failed to adjust to the changing economic circumstances, determined to maintain their life style. As a result, they're forced to sell and leave the cherry orchard their family had owned for generations.
Questions for discussion
What's the importance of Our Town, the play that figures prominently throughout the novel?
Questions for discussion
Like several other novels we've read, this one incorporates both past and present, two time periods specifically in the life of Lara, our protagonist. Technically her past as a young actress who dates Duke is an "embedded narrative." She tells the story to her daughters, piece by piece, as they pick cherries on the farm. So the past is embedded within the present. Although his daughters are much less interested, their father Joe has also lived "another life" in his youth.
The impact of the past on the present is a relatively common theme that we've seen in other novels, like London House this term. Structurally Patchett weaves the story of the past into the dominant narrative of the present. What is the significance of this theme in this novel?
Questions for discussion
For most of Lara's professional acting career, she plays Emily in Thornton Wilder's play, Our Town. In other words, from her teenage years to age 25, Lara plays a role in a theater production; she's Emily until she abandons acting. In fact, those who knew her during those years often refer to her as Emily rather than Lara, or Laura. And when she visits Duke when he's hospitalized for alcoholism, he has signed her in as Emily Webb.
Does it make a difference that friends refer to her as Emily rather than Lara?
Why does Patchett describe the young Laura (Lara) as playing a part in a play, one she consistently performs because her portrayal is so apt and true to character?
Questions for discussion
I don't know if it was a conscious decision, but Patchett clearly contrasts Duke, a big-name successful Hollywood actor, who commits suicide, with Joe, struggling cherry farmer, and Sebastian, almost successful tennis pro, history teacher, and loyal brother. What is she saying here?
Questions for discussion
The primary story line of this novel follows Lara's progressive, and partial, disclosure of life in her early twenties to her three daughters, also in their early twenties. How does this disclosure affect both Mom Lara and daughters?
Questions for discussion
Although it's not emphasized, the novel occurs during the pandemic when families are cloistered, separated from neighbors, friends, those outside the familial circle. What role does this isolation play in the plot of the novel.
Questions for discussion
At the end of the novel, when Peter Duke has died, his brother Sebastian appears at Lara's door; Duke's ashes are to be buried in the Nelson family cemetery. He paid Maisie and Ken for the privilege, which bailed them out financially when the farm was in trouble. Sebastian also tells Lara that several times Duke tried to buy the farm, never for sale. Lara agrees because there's always room in the family cemetery.
Why does Duke want to be buried in the Nelson family cemetery?
Quotes
It’s not that I’m unaware of the suffering and the soon-to-be-more suffering in the world, it’s that I know the suffering exists beside wet grass and a bright blue sky recently scrubbed by rain.
The beauty and the suffering are equally true. Our Town taught me that. I had memorized the lessons before I understood what they meant. No matter how many years ago I’d stopped playing Emily, she is still here.
All of Grover’s Corners is in me. (@p. 253 Kindle)
Quotes
There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it.
The painful things you were certain you’d never be able to let go? Now you’re not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else.
Memories are then replaced by different joys and larger sorrows, and unbelievably, those things get knocked aside as well, until one morning you’re picking cherries with your three grown daughters and your husband goes by on the Gator and you are positive that this is all you’ve ever wanted in the world. (@p. 115 Kindle)
Quotes
I look at my girls, my brilliant young women. I want them to think I was better than I was, and I want to tell them the truth in case the truth will be useful. Those two desires do not neatly coexist, but this is where we are in the story. (@p. 240 Kindle)
In life in general and in an Ann Patchett novel, the meaning placed on past events and relationships is fixed by the retelling of a story, and it changes depending on who tells it. Cara Ober
Ann Patchett has also so that we tell different versions of the same story to different people, depending on who is our audience. We tell the story with that particular person in mind.
Breakout room question
What did you come away with from this novel?
Genre—Literary fiction (wikipedia)
Literary fiction, mainstream fiction, non-genre fiction, serious fiction, high literature, artistic literature, and sometimes just literature, are labels that, in the book trade, refer to market novels that do not fit neatly into an established genre; or, otherwise, refer to novels that are character-driven rather than plot-driven, examine the human condition, use language in an experimental or poetic fashion, or are simply considered serious art.
Literary fiction is often used as a synonym for literature, in the exclusive sense of writings specifically considered to have considerable artistic merit. While literary fiction is commonly regarded as artistically superior to genre fiction, the two are not mutually exclusive, and major literary figures have employed the genres to create works of literature. Furthermore, the study of genre fiction has developed within academia in recent decades.
Genre—Literary fiction
LITERARY FICTION VS. GENRE FICTION: A SUMMARY
To summarize, each category abides by the following definitions:
Literary Fiction: Fiction that cannot be categorized by any specific genre conventions, and which seeks to describe real-life reactions to complex events using well-developed characters, themes, literary devices, and experimentations in prose.
Genre Fiction: Fiction that follows specific genre conventions, using tropes, structures, plot points, and archetypes to tell a story.
Additionally, literary fiction may borrow from certain genre tropes, but never enough to fall into a specific genre camp. Genre fiction can also have complex characters, themes, and literary devices, and it can certainly reproduce real life situations, as long as it also follows genre conventions.
(from writers.com)
Video
Interview—PBS News Hour
Interview—Amanpour, on CNN
Ann's blog, Parnassus Books
Ann Patchett on her banned books in Florida
Thank you!
Enjoy your summer, hope to see you then, and next fall.