I enjoyed this coming-of-age novel, the author's most personal to date. The story is somewhat autobiographical; Ann Patchett stated, "The specific actions of the characters are not the same, but the emotions are. As my mother would say, âNone of it happened, and all of it is true.'â Patchett also said, "My father was dying as I was writing this novel. I knew he'd hate this book, but I knew I was writing it because he was never going to read it.â
Sections of this novel feel like linked short stories rather than a novel - not a bad thing but there's a few fairly abrupt leaps in time and central characters.
Sections of this novel feel like linked short stories rather than a novel - not a bad thing but there's a few fairly abrupt leaps in time and central characters.
This is a novel about how an unexpected romantic encounter changes members of the Cousins and Keating families. It is a coming-of-age story about parent/child relationships and the bonds between siblings told in a succession of vignettes. Ann Patchett has admitted that the book is autobiographical. Although it is a mixture of satire, compassion and humor, it has great emotional depth. I enjoyed her writing and I look forward to reading a few more of her books. If you enjoy books about blended families then I think you will enjoy this book.
I am adding this to the list even though I did not finish it. I think I'm just not an Ann Patchett kind of gal even though she writes the type of fiction I normally like and I admire that she owns an independent bookstore. But I find her books really slow and hard to get into. Bel Canto? People raved about it and I just thought it was ok. It was slow. The Dutch House? read it recently for book club. Good writing, good characters, but the story line was so subtle and it was so slow. This one I can also tell that the writing is good, the characters so far I like, but I just can't get into the story. It is so slow. 3 days later and I can only read one chapter a night before I'm falling asleep. There is no spark there to grab me. So I'm putting it down about 100 pages in.
