"This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
is a wide-ranging and deeply personal combination of essay and memoir. Here, Ann Patchett shares entertaining and moving stories about her tumultuous childhood, her painful early divorce, the excitement of selling her first book, driving a Winnebago from Montana to Yellowstone National Park, her joyous discovery of opera, scaling a six-foot wall in order to join the Los Angeles Police Department, the gradual loss of her beloved grandmother, starting her own bookshop in Nashville, her love for her very special dog and, of course, her eventual happy marriage.
The book overflows with close observation and emotional wisdom and [its stories] are told with wit, honesty and irresistible warmth."
I said on Friday that I was reading too many books just now, but when this one arrived next morning I almost plunged in right away, so keen am I to read it, but in the end I exercised some restraint. I'm a fan of Ann Patchett's, of her fiction (see these posts on State of Wonder and Bel Canto), of her book posts on her own bookshop blog, and of the essays of hers I've read here and there, including The Getaway Car
, her "practical memoir about writing and life", and The Bookshop Strikes Back, both of which have been included in this collection. She's so eloquent, warm, witty, far-sighted, I find her a joy to read, and I'm sure this book will be just that.
Comments