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 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. This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is a memoir both wide ranging and deeply personal, overflowing with close observation and emotional wisdom, told with wit, honesty and irresistible warmth.
Novelist Ann Patchett began her career writing articles for magazines, and as she met deadlines and shaped complex topics and situations to fit column inches, so she honed her craft, becoming adept at presenting the essence of a subject in succinct, elegant prose. This collection includes many highlights from her non-fiction pieces, and is in itself a partial memoir, ranging over many personal experiences from the writing of her first novel, a painful first marriage and a happy second one, a lately acquired love of opera, and a long-time love of dogs. Warm and wise, her articles are marked by their clarity and easy fluency, and are highly recommended.
I hope it will not sound disrespectful if I say that I read this book for fun . But when I got to the end of the book, I realised I hadn't taken a single note. I had been so engaged by Ann Patchett's multifaceted story, so lured in by her confiding voice, that I forgot I was on the job . So compellingly personal you feel you're looking over her shoulder as she sits down to write' - International New York Times
'The pieces collected in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage have exactly the tone of a good story told at a convivial dinner party, by someone who has told it often enough to have the timing down cold and who happily caters to her audience's desire ... Patchett writes gracefully' -- Laura Miller Guardian
'She has an authoritative, straightforward voice in exploring some of the milestones of her life ... A memoir about her friendship with the deeply tortured writer Lucy Grealy, form the most telling and moving selections ... Many of these selections reveal a candid, evolved self-reflection' - Publishers Weekly
ISBN: 9781408842416
Publication date: 14/08/2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Format: Paperback
| ISBN: | 9781408842416 |
| Publication date: | 14th August 2014 |
| Author: | Ann Patchett |
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 320 pages |
| Genres: | Biography / Autobiography, eBook Favourites, |
| Categories: | Autobiography: literary, |
Ann Patchett is the author of four previous novels, including Bel Canto, which won the Orange prize. She writes for the New York Times Magazine, Elle, GQ, The Paris Review and Vogue. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Run, published by Bloomsbury in August 2007, and in paperback in June 2008, is a moving story of overlapping lives. Author photo © Melissa Ann Pinney Fellow novelist KERRY REICHS on ANN PATCHETT Pretty much anything Ann Patchett ever wrote is a sure thing in my book. I first read Bel Canto, and quickly followed it with everything else. Patchett’...
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