This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

I’ve read almost everything by Ann Patchett (Magicians Assistant is one of my all time favorite novels) so I was clambering to read this collection of her essays.

I was surprised to find it available for checkout as an ebook though the S.F Library system – Score!

It’s lovely to have this collection of her personal essays from various sources (New York Times, Harpers, Granta, etc.) all in one place.  As I hoped, the essays give an insight into the author;  her writing career, her marriages, her dogs, her discovery of opera and her bookstore -Parnassus Bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee.  If you’re an Ann Patchett fan you will definitely enjoy this.

However, there was one essay “Do Not Disturb” which disturbed me.  She has a house full of guests getting on her nerves, so she ditches them to her husband’s care and flies to LA to check into the Bel-Air – seriously? She is a successful author and can certainty afford it, but this seemed over the top.

Otherwise these essays are fun, insightful, not too sticky-sweet and very readable.

Some favorite quotes:  “Playing the cello, we’re more likely to realize that the pleasure is the practice, the ability to create this beautiful sound, not to do it as well as Yo-Yo Ma, but still, to touch the hem of the gown that is art itself.”

“The love between humans is the thing that nails us to this earth.”

“There can be something cruel about people who have had good fortune. They equate it with personal goodness.”

(On her husband Karl) “He encouraged me in everything I did.  His answer to every question was yes.  He was proud of me, and he never found a way to undermind my success or spoil a happy moment.”