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Fiction. Literature. HTML: An ex-jazz drummer wants nothing more than to be a good father in this moving family novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Dutch House. When his lover takes away his son, he's left only with his Beale Street, Memphis bar. He hires a young waitress named Fay Taft who brings with her a desperate, dangerous brother, Carl, and the possibility of new intimacy. Nickel finds himself consumed with Fay and Carl's dead father—Taft—obsessing over and reconstructing the life of a man he never met. A stunning artistic achievement, Taft confirms Ann Pathcett's standing as one of the most gifted writers of her generation and reminds us of our deepest instincts to protect the people we love. "What could be merely a literary parlor trick—keeping three stories in the air at once—becomes...as resonant as a blues song, each story harmonizing with and answering others.... Expect miracles when you read Ann Patchett's fiction."—New York Times "A moving emblem of fatherhood's rarely explored passion."—Los Angeles Times "Patchett writes with remarkable conviction and attention to telling detail.... [She] is excellent at portraying the steady love and interest that holds the family members together, even though that love and interest isn't always successful in preserving the members from danger."—Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Golden Age"Strikingly original."—Kirkus Reviews.… (more)
User reviews
The first third or so of this book is pretty much flawless, on its
Nickel is an interesting character. He is an ex-drummer. He is estranged from his ex-girlfriend and mother of his son, who has moved to Miami. He made some mistakes earlier in life, which he acknowledges, but very much wants a relationship with his son. I think we are supposed to admire him but his actions make this difficult.
For me, the structure of this story does not work very well. It mixes up what is real (Nickel’s life) with what is imagined (Taft’s life with his kids). I am not sure I understood the point of the imagined storyline. Perhaps Nickel is dreaming a fatherhood he would like to have with his own son? If so, it was a weak link. I think it would have been much more effective if the storyline had focused on Nickel. The plot takes a strange twist toward the end, which did not work for me. It was okay but not Patchett’s best in my opinion.
I am a big fan of Ann Patchett but this was not my favorite of her stories. The story plods along at times and it was slow to develop to the climax. While the characters were fairly well developed, I didn't particularly liked the two teens and couldn't understand why John went out of his way to help them. The ending was more exciting than most of the novel, though even it seemed rather unreasonable.
Patchett is usually worth reading even when, as here, she does not entirely succeed in bringing off what she attempts. Along with the main storyline set in the bar, there is a second line, like a backbeat, following the life of Fay’s recently deceased father. But it is unclear what this second storyline is doing, and even more confusing that it appears to be imagined by John himself. It smacks of high concept and design, perhaps, but the result is a muddle.
However, the real problem in this novel is that the narrative voice of John is simply unbelievable. No doubt it is brave of Patchett to even attempt it. But I don’t think she succeeds, as evidenced by the fact that I didn’t even realize John was black until three-quarters of the way through the novel when he explicitly says it of himself. That intrusion feels like an editor’s pen pointing out that even at this late date we have no clear vision of who this man is. Yet this in a first-person narrative. Pretty obviously something hasn’t clicked.
The result is that although the novel is not very long, it simply failed to hold my attention. I kept drifting off. And then the climactic violent final episode just appears, almost out of nowhere, or so it seems. There are better Patchett novels out there and, I hope, more yet to come. This one, though, is best left on the shelf.
-- Henry Green
Ann Patchett's early novel "Taft" (1994) begins with these words from the British novelist, and as I think about the novel in the days after reading it I see that that, in brief, summarizes Patchett's story. Her characters seem to
The story is told by John Nickel,a black man and a former drummer, who now manages a Memphis bar. His former girlfriend has moved to Florida and taken their son with her. It was her idea that John give up music and get a steady job to better support his son. Now he misses his drums, misses his boy and even misses the ex-girlfriend who refused to marry him.
One day a white teenager named Fay Taft walks into his bar and asks for a job. Against his better judgment, he hires her, the first of many times when he finds he cannot say no to Fay. Soon her brother, Paul, begins hanging out at the bar. It's clear, to John at least, that Paul is high on drugs.
The Taft kids grew up in eastern Tennessee, but when their father died they moved to Memphis to live with relatives. They, too, have been cast out of their heaven.
Complications follow. Paul becomes a dealer, putting John's business in jeopardy. Fay decides she's in love with John and keeps finding excuses to be near him. His girlfriend and the boy return to Memphis, perhaps for a visit, perhaps to stay, but John has made the mistake of having sex with her sister. Then things really turn bad.
The title, oddly enough, refers neither to Fay nor her brother but to their father. There are flashbacks, apparently from out of John's imagination, about him and his kids back home.
This wonderful little novel leaves hints that maybe, just maybe, some of us really can go home again.
Black musician/bar manager John Nickel has grown
In an essay at the end, Patchett laments “the curse of the second novel” (in her case, Taft), and admits that it might be her favorite despite its “failure to thrive” in the marketplace. It’s one of my favorites by her, too.