This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

 

This book was much more like a memoir than stories of non-fiction that I had thought it would be. Most are quite moving as the author reveals intimate detail about her life. Some very personal that I found disturbing. Here are some notes I made along the way on the best of the twenty two stories.

HOW TO READ A CHRISTMAS STORY

The very first words in the book are "I have never like Christmas.". Her stepfather "had the great misfortune to be born on Christmas Day". As someone with the same birthday, I can sympathise. Birthday and Christmas on the same day is all too much. 

THE GETAWAY CAR

This story is all about being a writer, not about writing. Starting with college, all the people who inspired her, and a residency at the Fine Arts Work Centre in Provincetown Massachusetts. (Somewhere I had actually been). A secluded spot in winter to write that novel that had been in her head for a year. She gives one piece of advice: "Even if you are writing a book that jumps around in time, has ten points of view and is deep in flashbacks, do your best to write it in the order it will be read". And ending with "Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything else in the world".

THE SACRAMENT OF DIVORCE

Not for the faint hearted. "There was something liberating about failure and humiliation".

THE BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE

I defy anyone who reads this story not to become emotional as Ann, at 30, suddenly becomes entranced by opera. She describes how she spent a fortune on travelling from Nashville to other cities to see an opera wherever she could find it. That is until they are shown live in her local cinema where she has that "best seat in the house".

MY ROAD TO HELL WAS PAVED

A short story about hiring a Winnebago and going travelling with her husband Karl.

THE WALL

Ann's father was in the LA Police Department for 32 years. While Ann is at college, he wants her to try out for Police Academy. She agrees as it would be something she could experience and write about. He father does not know this. The detail about all the tests is not so interesting, or the interviews. Some are awful, but she somehow gets 100% for the oral tests and that gets her through. 

FACT V FICTION

This is the Convocation Address of 2005 at Miami University. All about her huge friendship with Lucy and about their separate paths in writing.

MY LIFE IN SALES

Actually all about book tours. From visiting bookshops for her first novel when hardly a sole turned up to hear her. "I could still fly halfway across the country to a room full of empty chairs. Who knew I was scheduled to read in Chicago on the night of an NBA play-off game". To her successful fifth and crowds in hundreds. "We are a country obsessed with celebrity, and trying to make an author into a small scale Lindsey Lohan does nothing but encourage what is already a bad cultural habit". But the last page says it all.

THE LOVE BETWEEN TWO WOMEN

When Ann goes to Clemson University to talk about "Truth and Beauty", her book about her friendship with Lucy, it's Ken Wingate who leads a malicious theological backlash before her arrival.

THE RIGHT TO READ

Clemson again and Ann's address to the Freshman Convocation of 2006. A truly wonderful speech includes references to "The Great Gatsby" and "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

DO NOT DISTURB

Ann finds she is torn between all her friends who take up so much of her time, and the necessity for some peace and quiet as she is the guest editor for "this year's American Short Stories" for which she has to read and review . Lots of them. So off to the swanky Hotel Bel-Air in LA.  I lovely piece. 

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2006

Only a short extract from what is a separate book. This is about short story writing and ends before we get any reviews.

LOVE SUSTAINED

A nice story about her grandmother and how it was only into her nineties did she gradually deteriorate.

THE BOOKSTORE STRIKES BACK

The title could have been "Ann and Karen open a book shop". How it all happened makes for a lovely story.

THIS IS THE STORY OF A HAPPY MARRIAGE

This piece gives the book it's title. Ann starts with all the marriages that end in divorce in her family going back generations. Both her father and mother are re-married. Her mother was excessively beautiful. Ann marries Dennis. Why? A failure from the start. The break up, divorce, and a relationship with a David who then runs off with someone else. Ann is determined that is the end of having one person in her life. The intimate detail of these relationships is quite extraordinary and somehow weird? Short term affairs end with Karl. Eleven years together but despite constant offers of marriage, Ann does not want to know. Separate houses until a scary event leads Ann to finally accept. Moving into Karl's house she finds "empty space, empty closets, empty rooms". She tells Karl "It's like you never actually moved in". His reply says it all: "I didn't want to do too much until you got here". No big ceremony to marry, just some paperwork and it was done. "We went out later on and bought a lawnmower".