Category: Words Matter

I’ve been reading a lot lately, instead of running and hiking. It’s been so cold here (22 degrees as I write this) and I just want to sit on the sofa and read, with my dogs next to me. 

All my fiction-reading started with a review of the book, The Correspondent. I haven’t read fiction in a long time so I thought it would be a good change. When I looked at my bookshelf for something to read – all I saw was nonfiction. I needed to escape into fiction. 

The Correspondent is a book of letters that the main character wrote to her friends, family, authors and newspapers. What made this book so special to me was how deeply invested I became in all of the characters. They felt real to me and I could imagine where they lived and how they looked. I cared about their choices, their regrets, and the things they wrote to each other. 

I couldn’t put the book down and read it in two days. By the end, I was crying my eyes out.

The main character did all the things she was scared of. She was one tough woman. She made some bad choices throughout her life, like we all do.  It reminded me how powerful people’s stories are, and it made me want to write letters, reach out to family, friends AND newspapers and tell them exactly how I feel.

More than anything, it was a gentle but persistent reminder to fully live all of our days, no matter our age or where we think we are in life. I also think it was a lesson about aging.

It was my reminder that every person in my life is complex. I will never know what their inner life is. And, I will never truly understand why people do what they do. I think that is why I was balling my eyes out. We can never really know the people we love.

Additionally, I rarely read books from the New York Times Best Sellers list. The Correspondent didn’t land on that list until a full year after publication, purely through word of mouth. I have told every reader in my life, “You have to read this book.” 

After finishing this book, I wanted to start another book as soon as possible. I loved getting back into reading and being so absorbed in a story that I couldn’t wait to wake up to read it or get home from work to read a few chapters. I rarely turned on the TV.

I remembered in The Correspondent , Sybil, the main character wrote a letter to Ann Patchett and Ann wrote back. Sybil wrote to many authors and I thought that was a clever twist, especially when they wrote back so I googled Ann Patchett and read a few reviews of her books. I decided my next read was Tom Lake. I remember hearing about it when it came out but never read it. 

Now, I’m reading it and it’s so good. It takes place in a fictional town in northern Michigan, where I’ve been. Plus, the mom was from New Hampshire and attended the University of New Hampshire, my alma mater. I liked how the story depicted Michigan and New Hampshire, and the fictional summer stock theatre by a lake. The characters are complex and compelling. I was drawn in instantly to the main couples’ story, including the surprise twist in how they met. I loved learning about the personalities of the three daughters. I loved how the mother’s past is slowly revealed through the book. I’m halfway through and can’t put it down (except wanting to write this post – perhaps to draw out the eventual ending to the book)

Patchett is such a great writer and storyteller. I loved, loved, loved her book, The Dutch House and read it twice. I also listened to the audio version narrated by Tom Hanks – so good!

I remembered, too. I saw Patchett speak. It was 2019 and I was living in Concord, New Hampshire. I bought tickets to the event which included a signed copy of her new book, The Dutch House. The talk was held at The Capitol Center for the Arts’ so it was just a short walk downtown. Peter Biello was with her on stage and asked her questions. He worked at NHPR at the time and did a great job on stage. 

I found the above picture in my Google Photos from that night. I sat in the first row and was riveted by the conversation and wanted to learn everything I could about the writing life.

This is what I wrote in my journal from that night:

Ann Patchett was so awesome last night. I started reading The Dutch House once I got home and it’s good. One of the questions that she answered had to do with publishing. She said that it is your name: you do all the editing and make it be representative of your work. She talked about the idea of a home as a central theme in the book. She said our home is where we throw our lives. Home is emotionally charged. Every novel needs a home – it connects people.

She said the book is also about hurt feelings and the things that hurt us in our childhood. The idea that the characters can’t get out of the situation they are in – that is what she likes to write about. 

She said that part of her life she interviews authors and she reads all the time. She has a bookstore in Nashville. She said Margret Atwood’s new book is so good, as is Harlan Cobin. She was funny, smart and made me want to know all her books. 

She said all that matters is the white, hot center of your heart. Find that and write about that. It teaches you to access what you really care about. She said I can’t teach you about having something to say. Writing a novel is like swimming the channel. You have to stay in the present and you can’t look forward and you can’t look back. 

She said find the time to do what you love. If you have something to say you will find the time.

She makes me feel like reading and watching the news and being involved in this crazy world.  Going to an author reading does energize me and brings me back to the world. I laughed and genuinely enjoyed the conversation. She was really engaging.

Twenty years ago I bought Patchett’s 2004 memoir, Truth & Beauty, about her friendship with Lucy Grealy. I thought her story of coming up as a writer was fascinating. 

The point of this post is really just this: Ann Patchett is amazing- Read Her Books!  Virginia Evans is a wonderful storyteller – Read This One. These books have gotten me through a cold, snowy winter in East Tennessee.