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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
"The present life was only a matter of how things had stacked together in the past..."
A beautiful and lovely read from Ann Patchett. The complexities of life are created through the past, and we must appreciate and embrace the present. So much love for family in this novel, and struggle to maintain expectations. It was touching and heartbreaking, but inspiring. Remember your passions, and live life the best you can. Release expectations and live! Cheesy...
A beautiful and lovely read from Ann Patchett. The complexities of life are created through the past, and we must appreciate and embrace the present. So much love for family in this novel, and struggle to maintain expectations. It was touching and heartbreaking, but inspiring. Remember your passions, and live life the best you can. Release expectations and live! Cheesy...
The story is sweet and predictable, and the writing is, mmmm, tidy. With some changes, it would probably work better as a morality tale for young adults. Or something.
Patchett has written a couple of decent novels (and one horrendous memoir), but y'all should probably skip this one.
Patchett has written a couple of decent novels (and one horrendous memoir), but y'all should probably skip this one.
I am a huge fan of Ann Patchett normally. Like, “checking obsessively to see if she has written something new”, “this woman’s writing seamlessly melts into my brain” fan. But this book was bizarre. A mix of intense Catholic guilt and debt to your family with white-savior complex galore, from all characters of any race. Truly absolutely strange for the novel that came out after Bel Canto. I did find it easy to read as expected, but dang this was a weird one.
I checked this audiobook out from the library based on the fact that I have enjoyed some other books by Ann Patchett. I didn't realize that it was set three-ish weeks after Christmas in the Boston area, thus making it very seasonally and locationally very appropriate!!
In the author's interview at the end of the audiobook Patchett states that she thinks this is a story about politics. I guess the question is more was this her story to tell? She highlights the socioeconomic difference of living just a few blocks apart in same neighborhood makes, though some of her sweeping generalizations feel a bit problematic.
2025 🎧 Listen #2/Book #2
In the author's interview at the end of the audiobook Patchett states that she thinks this is a story about politics. I guess the question is more was this her story to tell? She highlights the socioeconomic difference of living just a few blocks apart in same neighborhood makes, though some of her sweeping generalizations feel a bit problematic.
2025 🎧 Listen #2/Book #2
I really liked this book. I thought it was a book about family, and how we define it, and the people we choose to care for.
Then I read the interview with the author, and now I am totally not sure what the book is about.
That's okay though. It's still delightful.
Then I read the interview with the author, and now I am totally not sure what the book is about.
That's okay though. It's still delightful.
This book is completely unrealistic and the characters are very one dimensional and unbelievable - but I really really enjoyed it. Maybe because it’s set in Boston, maybe because it takes place over just one day, maybe because it’s mostly a feel good book that can make you feel optimistic about people and the world. But I loved Kenya and Tip and Teddy and Doyle, and even Sullivan.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is the sixth Ann Patchett book I've read and loved, and it might be my favorite. As I think about Ann's novels, I am transported to them, as if they're not really books at all, but tangible places to be visited. Places I want to return to again. The cherry orchard in Tom Lake, the Jungle in State of Wonder, The Dutch House, itself, with Mae's painting sitting so perfectly above the fireplace.
This novel, while much of it takes place in a hospital during the freezing winter, still holds that quality in a science wing at Harvard and the Doyle's home, but above that, I feel a wonderful sense of attachment to each and every character. I love the Doyles, Kenya, Tennessee, and Father Sullivan.
And I love Anne's storytelling, which is so incredible here, I can't help wondering how much fun it was to have written this book. Yet, it still holds her quiet political voice, as well, begging for things to be made better, and in such a clever way, as the characters are often quoting people like Henry David Thoreau or Martin Luther King.
This novel, while much of it takes place in a hospital during the freezing winter, still holds that quality in a science wing at Harvard and the Doyle's home, but above that, I feel a wonderful sense of attachment to each and every character. I love the Doyles, Kenya, Tennessee, and Father Sullivan.
And I love Anne's storytelling, which is so incredible here, I can't help wondering how much fun it was to have written this book. Yet, it still holds her quiet political voice, as well, begging for things to be made better, and in such a clever way, as the characters are often quoting people like Henry David Thoreau or Martin Luther King.
Ann Patchett creates a compelling story of one family and draws its troubles and tensions over time into the events of one day. Love and loss, respect and resentment, support and surprise, life and death. Touching lightly on larger issues of race, economic class, privilege and lack, it's the personalities and relationships that will compel your attention through this lovely text.
Engaging, interesting beginning, but the story deviates so far from the hook it’s hard to believe it’s the same plot line! Ann Patchett is not graceful with how she writes black characters; neither the (to use Anthony Jack’s language) privileged poor nor the doubly disadvantaged characters are fleshed out. The ending is atrociously rushed and dismisses all the emotional buildup that supposedly circled around motherhood or family. The relationships feel fake! What changes, aside from impulsive decisions that ultimately take our central characters back into roles their parents wanted for them?