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Biography & Autobiography. Literary Criticism. Nonfiction. HTML: The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays. "The elegance of Patchett's prose is seductive and inviting: with Patchett as a guide, readers will really get to grips with the power of struggles, failures, and triumphs alike." â??Publisher's Weekly "Any story that starts will also end." As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart. At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores "what it means to be seen, to find someone with whom you can be your best and most complete self." When Patchett chose an early galley of actor and producer Tom Hanks' short story collection to read one night before bed, she had no idea that this single choice would be life changing. It would introduce her to a remarkable womanâ??Tom's brilliant assistant Sookiâ??with whom she would form a profound bond that held monumental consequences for them both. A literary alchemist, Patchett plumbs the depths of her experiences to create gold: engaging and moving pieces that are both self-portrait and landscape, each vibrant with emotion and rich in insight. Turning her writer's eye on her own experiences, she transforms the private into the universal, providing us all a way to look at our own worlds anew, and reminds how fleeting and enigmatic life can be. From the enchantments of Kate DiCamillo's children's books (author of The Beatryce Prophecy) to youthful memories of Paris; the cherished life gifts given by her three fathers to the unexpected influence of Charles Schultz's Snoopy; the expansive vision of Eudora Welty to the importance of knitting, Patchett connects life and art as she illuminates what matters most. Infused with the author's grace, wit, and warmth, the pieces in These Precious Days resonate deep in the soul, leaving an indelible markâ??and demonstrate why Ann Patchett is one of the most celebrated writers of ou… (more)
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Yet if death has no interest in essays, her essays often show an interest in death, even as focused as they are on the joy of living. The title essay, easily the longest in the book, tells of the close friendship she established with Sooki Raphael, who worked as an assistant for the actor Tom Hanks. She met Hanks while promoting his book âUncommon Typeâ and through him met Sooki.
The two women exchanged emails, but the friendship developed only after Sooki was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Patchett's husband, a physician, suggested Sooki could get the most advanced treatment for her particular cancer in Nashville. Patchett offered her a room in their home near the Nashville hospital. Sooki said she would stay with them for a few days but ended up living with them for months because of two developments: their intense friendship and Covid. These days were precious to both women, in part because they both knew Sooki's disease would likely soon end in death. It did.
In "Three Fathers" she writes about her father and her two stepfathers, all now deceased, and the influence each of them had on her life. Elsewhere she tells us more about her father, the Los Angeles police detective who arrested Sirhan Sirhan after the Robert F. Kennedy assassination.
The essay "What the American Academy of Arts and Letters Taught Me about Death" tells of her acceptance into the academy, which has no more than 250 members at one time. In other words, one American writer must die before another can be accepted.
Other essays show a lighter touch. "My First Thanksgiving" tells about her being stuck at college one year at Thanksgiving and preparing her first Thanksgiving dinner from recipe books, inviting several other stranded students to share it with her.
"My Year of No Shopping" tells how she abandoned all non-essential shopping for an entire year and how this helped her appreciate what she already had â and allowed her to donate more money for the benefit of others.
"There Are No Children Here" explains her decision not to have children.
In "Sisters" she writes not about her sister, as you might expect, but her mother, who has always looked so youthful that people frequently have asked if she and her daughter were sisters. (My ever-youthful wife was often asked if she and her son were siblings, so I know how this can happen.)
These and the other fine essays in the book confirm the truth of Patchett's title, even if death does lurk in the background, seemingly uninterested.
I have admired Patchett's writing greatly (Bel Canto) and bailed in deep disappointment (Commonwealth). I admire her bookstore venture (Parnassus Books in Nashville) and, here, her trenchant, humane, clear-eyed essays. I admire the fact
So I say to Ann Patchett: thank you for "There Are No Children Here," a litany of the condescending, mansplaining, maybe-well-intentioned-but-not-getting-it lectures about "what you're missing," "you'll change your mind," and "you'll be sorry if you don't." I desperately want to know who "Q" is, the male writer who admonished her at a book festival discussion: "You can't be a real writer if you don't have children." And it strikes her that she can "reach into this man's chest and pull out his heart in front of an audience. 'Emily Dickinson,' [she] said to him. 'Flannery O'Connor, James Baldwin, Eudora Welty, Henry James.'" You go, Ann!! (I would just add: Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, all the Brontes, Samuel Beckett, Paul Gallico, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Beatrix Potter, Kate DiCamillo... okay, I'll stop.) Some of us Just. Don't. Want. Them. There's nothing wrong with us, we DO know what we're doing, we are rational creatures capable to deciding our own lives, thank you very much, and what's it to you, anyway?!
I say thank you for the scathing and yet good-humored talk to the deans of graduate humanities programs about her years in academe: first, the attentive, encouraging support she got from the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence as an undergrad: Allan Gurganus, Grace Paley, Russell Banks... ! Then on to the outrageously incompetent free-for-all that was the University of Iowa graduate program, to this day billed as the be-all-and-end-all of writing programs (and hopefully, improved from her time). I thank her for the wonderful survey - from both a writer's and a bookseller's point of view - of how book covers are chosen and designed. Nice to know I'm not the only one who shakes my head in despair over bad cover imagery, especially women with their heads or faces obscured or simply decapitated. (I feel lucky that my publisher agreed to use a gorgeous landscape photo taken by a friend of mine for my novel, Opulence, Kansas, as Patchett was able to have covers of her own choice by artist friends on hers.) And I thank her from the bottom of my heart for "How to Practice," about getting rid of "stuff." Clearing the closets, clearing the cupboards, clearing the cabinets of the detritus that reminds us of who we aren't really and who we never were, while acknowledging the power of those objects that do the opposite. How many other people are there who will weep over a typewriter? (I did.)
As is to be expected, other pieces are less successful, mostly because they simply go on too long. I had more than enough about her husband's passion for planes. Knitting, admittedly, is a difficult topic with which to fascinate people who aren't already in the fold. And for all the poignancy and love evinced in the title piece (and Patchett seems to have an extraordinary gift for deep, loyal, unselfish friendship), long pages of analysis of same can just be...too long, even when realistic and true to the experience.
Overall, a rich, enjoyable, and often moving collection of stories told by a serious, dedicated, often funny and earnest writer.
And many more.
And really, who else can pull off an essay about how Snoopy is her role model as a writer, teaching her valuable lessons about rejection letters and how a writer doesnât need a fancy studio? Ann Patchett is a wonder.
FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.
There are a few entries dealing with the loss of a parent of a very special friend, wherein she captured the emotions so very eloquently.
I believe this will be on of my top favorites of the year!
very personal esssys. I feel like I know Ann PatchettâŚor I wish I did.
In âFlight Planâ, Ann relays her doctor-husbandâs love of piloting his plane, and how even though she worries when he takes off, she knows how much joy it brings to his life. The title essay, âThese Precious Daysâ is the best of the book. Ann met Tom Hanksâ assistant Sooki at an event and was drawn to her right away.
Sooki had a serious illness, and one of the medical trials for her condition was taking place in Nashville, where Ann lived. Annâs husband was able to get Sooki into the trial, and Ann insisted Sooki stay with them during the trial. Shortly after Sooki arrived the pandemic hit, and she ended up staying with Ann for much longer than expected. Sooki staying with Ann and her husband changed their lives, and this essay is one of the most moving I have ever read.
âCuriosity is the rock upon which fiction is built.â
âShe had managed to peel off other peopleâs expectations in order to see what a life that was entirely her own would look like.â
âI promote the books I love tirelessly, because a book can so easily get lost in the mad shuffle of the world and it needs someone with a loud voice to hold it up and praise it. I am that person. As every reader knows, the social contract between you and the book you love is not complete until you can hand that book to someone else and say, Here, you are going to love this.â
On the power and importance of certain essays, Patchett wrote, âIt wasnât until I wrote the title essay, âThese Precious Days,â that I realized I would have to put a book together. That essay was so important to me that I wanted to build a solid shelter for it.â
I so enjoyed the bookâs title essay about taking Steve Martinâs multi-talented assistant, Sooki, into her home while she was in town for treatments for her pancreatic cancer. Patchett said this about it all, âIt wasnât until I wrote the title essay, âThese Precious Days,â that I realized I would have to put a book together. That essay was so important to me that I wanted to build a solid shelter for it.â Patchett had started communicating with her while setting up an event where Patchett interviewed Martin on stage. When Ann tells her husband Karl (a leading doctor in Nashville), about Sookiâs condition, he gets her into a research study and Ann offers to put her up indefinitely. They have a three-story house with plenty of rooms and they are constantly offering a room to visiting friends, relatives, and writers for events.
Then the pandemic came and extended her stay. By the time a jet was available, months later, they were referring to each other as sisters. They talked, cooked, and did meditation and yoga together twice each day. During the shutdown, Karl was home from working in the hospital, and the three of them became quite close. As for how long Sooki would stay, it was always left at, âfor as long as it takes.â Sooki would try to give them money for their generosity, but Patchett simply said âDonât do that.â
âShe kept saying she wanted to be the one to help me for a change. But all Sooki did was help me. She was the magnet in the compass. The very fact of her existence in our house kept me on track.â Later, Tom Hanks wrote that, âSooki is all that is good in the world.ââ Patchett does mention at one point, that the life around a writer is always potential material, and this essay proves that.
Patchett tells of one quiet moment with her house guest. âWe were standing in the kitchen in the late afternoon, the time before dinner and between two yoga practices. âI like myself here,â she said softly.â And when plans are in the works for Sooki to finally return to her family, she says, ââIâm afraid that if I leave, Iâll never see you again.â While I was reading the book, I dreaded the following information, Sooki Raphael died on April 25, 2021.
Patchett seems so very kind and human in all she writes, yet, I still always think of her as a stiff, but well-mannered Southern lady, but what do I know? She is quick, smart, funny, caring, and kind. So many of Patchettâs essays are wonderful and moving. Any of them that touch on literature and having a bookstore were things of beauty for any lover of bookstores. I found it impossible to not think about my late wife while reading her words.
The Peanuts comic strip is used by Patchett to explain about being a writer. âSnoopy taught me that I would be hurt and I would get over it. He walked me through the publishing process: being thrilled by acceptance, ignoring reviews, and then having the dream of bestsellerdom dashed: âItâs from your publisher,â Charlie Brown tells Snoopy. âTheyâve printed one copy of your novel. / It says they havenât been able to sell it. / They say theyâre sorry. Your book is now out of print.ââ
Reflecting on being a bookstore owner, Patchett was on the exact same page as my late wife and I. âThatâs what owning a bookstore has been like for me: it reminded me of what I loved about graduate school. It made me realize that I could use the tools Iâd been given in ways I never knew they could work. Iâve made a soft place for an ever-expanding group of friends and strangers to come and exclaim and argue over books.â As well as when she says, âSo many possibilities can arise as a result of intelligence, education, curiosity, and hard work.â I did notice that she made no mention of financial success or woes, but that has more to do with my history and what ended our bookstoreâs 22-year history, and took us away from the best jobs we ever had.
Iâm sorry that this is such a poor excuse for a book review, but my emotions and the connection I felt to Patchettâs writing was so very intense, that a complete and objective review just isnât in the cards.
It was, quite simply, a delight to read through these personal essays. I enjoy Patchett's writing style, simple yet often
âHow other people live is pretty much all I think about. Curiosity is the rock upon which fiction is built.â
âAs every reader knows, the social contract between you and a book you love is not complete until you can hand that book to someone else and say, Here, youâre going to love this.â
I adore Ann Patchett. Her last essay collection, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage was excellent. She returns to this format here, after writing a couple of novels and delivers a bullseye once again. Her writing is beautiful and insightful and draws the reader in, no matter how mundane the subject matter is. A book pal (Bonnie) recently commented that Patchett may be a better nonfiction writer. This is arguable but what is not, is that she is a helluva writer. This is also a terrific audiobook experience, with Patchett narrating herself.
The first essay, Three Fathers, is a lovely tribute to the three men her mother married. First Thanksgiving was a delightful look back at Patchettâs first year of college, in which she was one of only a few students spending the Thanksgiving holiday at school. Eudora Welty, an Introduction inspired me to immediately buy Weltyâs Collected Stories for my Kindle. Patchett also writes about how knitting helped her through difficult times, and reluctance to preserve her body of work. Some essays provide a behind-the-scenes look at her career and her craft.
But the most powerful essay by far is the title piece, which explores Patchettâs friendship with Sooki Raphael. The two met when Sooki worked for Tom Hanks, and began a correspondence that blossomed into friendship. When Sooki came to Nashville for medical treatment, there was no question she would stay with Ann and her husband, Karl. This was early 2020, and lockdown measures suddenly meant Sooki would be staying with them indefinitely. For some people this would be very stressful, but in this case the time spent together had a profound impact on both women. The bookâs epilogue is a moving denouement to their story, and is a fitting way to conclude this outstanding collection.