The Real Ann Patchett

OK, I have to admit it: Ann Patchett intimidates me. She is a prolific writer (six novels, two nonfiction books), successful (PEN/Faulkner award, Orange award, glowing reviews), and she owns an independent bookstore (surely the fantasy of most readers and maybe a few writers).

Now, she’s gone and published a terrific collection of nonfiction pieces—essays that reveal her to be brave, vulnerable, funny, generous, compassionate, and hardworking.

The intriguingly declarative title, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, might lead you to expect a treacly memoir. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, she does tell you about her winding path to meeting Mr. Right (actually, Dr. Right) and resisting him for years before she finally agrees to marriage—an institution she’s always regarded as dangerous. (She explains her reluctance: “I figured that if I never got married, I’d never get divorced.”).

Most of the essays were previously published in magazines like Granta, Harper’s, Bark, Vogue, and the New York Times Magazine, which give you an idea of her professional stature. Patchett is perhaps best known for her novels, but this collection of nonfiction shows the range of her work and style.

She writes about topics that could veer toward the sentimental—her deep love for her dog, Rose, her compassionate caretaking of her grandmother who’s sinking into dementia—but her economy of style and open-heartedness pack an emotional wallop.

Patchett travels for magazine assignments and book tours, but her heart is in Nashville—the very place she longed to escape in her youth. Now, it’s home. So, it’s only natural that, when the remaining two bookstores in the city close their doors, she decides that Nashville needs an independent bookstore—and she’s the one to make it happen. “The Bookstore Strikes Back,” Patchett’ tale of opening Parnassus Books (with co-owner Karen Hayes), will gratify readers and indy bookstore fans everywhere.

Moreover, in promoting Parnassus, Patchett discovers that she has, inadvertently, assumed the role as spokesperson for independent book stores everywhere. Through interviews, appearances on television shows like The Colbert Report, talking to readers, she is adamant on the subject: bookstores are not dead. She writes: “Now that we could order any book at any hour without having to leave the screen in front of us, we realized what we had lost: the community center, the human interaction, the recommendations of a smart reader rather than a computer algorithm… I promised whomever was listening that from those very ashes, the small, independent bookstore would rise again.” And so it does. See http://www.parnassusbooks.net

So, actually, now that I think about it, Ann Patchett isn’t intimidating—she’s impressive, yes, and famous. But through this collection of articles, she reveals herself to be a warm, witty, and thoughtful person—and very real.

(And can she write! But that’s a topic for the next post.)