This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage Author: Ann Patchett | Language: English | ISBN:
B00BATKV2M | Format: EPUB
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage Description
Blending literature and memoir, Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder, Run, and Bel Canto, examines her deepest commitments—to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband—creating a resonant portrait of a life in This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage takes us into the very real world of Ann Patchett’s life. Stretching from her childhood to the present day, from a disastrous early marriage to a later happy one, it covers a multitude of topics, including relationships with family and friends, and charts the hard work and joy of writing, and the unexpected thrill of opening a bookstore.
As she shares stories of the people, places, ideals, and art to which she has remained indelibly committed, Ann Patchett brings into focus the large experiences and small moments that have shaped her as a daughter, wife, and writer.
- File Size: 574 KB
- Print Length: 325 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0062236679
- Publisher: Harper (November 5, 2013)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00BATKV2M
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,906 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Before Ann Patchett achieved fame as a novelist, she honed her writing skills as a contributor to Seventeen, where she worked for eight years. She also wrote articles for such publications as Elle, Vogue, Gourmet, and the New York Times Magazine. These free-lance jobs paid Ann's bills and taught her self-discipline, flexibility, and humility. "This is the Story of a Happy Marriage" is a compilation of Ann Patchett's most memorable essays.
All of Patchett's pieces are nicely done, but some are particularly meaningful. I was deeply moved by the author's account of the time she spent with her aging grandmother, who was gradually losing her sight, memory, and ability to think clearly. "The Mercies" is a wonderful tribute to the nuns, especially Sister Nena, who taught Ann to read and write when she was slow to catch on and thought no one would notice. Years later, Sister Nena and Ann reconnected; the two became close friends. Ann supported her former teacher with money for needy children and also offered her time, effort, and comradeship. She no longer regarded Sister Nena as a forbidding and judgmental presence. Instead she recognized her as an exemplary human being to be reckoned with--an independent, compassionate, hard-working, and indomitable force of nature.
With self-deprecating humor, refreshing candor, and lovely, expressive writing, the author generously shares details about her past and reveals what her experiences have taught her about relationships, intellectual freedom, and personal growth. The best entries in this collection are wise, witty, poignant, and refreshingly down-to-earth.
Once begun on these essays, I finished them in a couple sittings, sorry to have my time with Ann Patchett come to an end.
Written between 1996 and 2012 for a variety of publications (Gourmet to Wall Street Journal) the author describes diverse experiences: touring in a Winnebago; watching Met operas in her home town at a big screen theatre; going on book tour; taking the exam for the Los Angeles Police Academy; staying at the Bel-Air hotel; opening her bookstore, Parnassus, in Nashville.
The title of the collection is from the essay that describes how the author came to marry Karl after over 10 years of on/off commitment but refusing to wed. She'd been married before years ago ("My divorce began less than a week before we were married.") and vowed never to divorce again.
Because Patchett's life is the background for many essays, Karl is a part of several: the RV trip, the rescue of the dog who became her beloved Rose, a memorable meal in Paris.
The author knew she wanted to be a fiction writer from an early age. Other decisions grew out of her early life. She and her sister "weren't the products of our parents' happy marriages; we were the flotsam of their divorces....I was still in high school when I decided I didn't want children....I would never inflict childhood on anybody..."
This is not to imply Patchett is an uncaring person. The two essays about her grandmother show patient loving support as the women declines. The final essay in the volume is about her relationship with 78 year old Sister Nena who as a young nun had a life-altering role in young Ann's life.
Rose, the rescue dog, was a big part of the author's life.
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