This is the Story of a Happy Marriage

 

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

Nonfiction - Essays

2013 Harper Perennial

Finished on December 8, 2022

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

"As the best personal essays often do, Patchett's is a two-way mirror, reflecting both the author and her readers." --New York Times Book Review

Publisher's Blurb:

Blending literature and memoir, Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder, Run, and Bel Canto, examines her deepest commitments — to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband — creating a resonant portrait of a life in This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage takes us into the very real world of Ann Patchett’s life. Stretching from her childhood to the present day, from a disastrous early marriage to a later happy one, it covers a multitude of topics, including relationships with family and friends, and charts the hard work and joy of writing, and the unexpected thrill of opening a bookstore.

As she shares stories of the people, places, ideals, and art to which she has remained indelibly committed, Ann Patchett brings into focus the large experiences and small moments that have shaped her as a daughter, wife, and writer.

Another winner by Ann Patchett! I tried to listen to This is the Story of a Happy Marriage several years ago, but the audio didn't work for me. I bought a signed copy of the book at Parnassus (Patchett's bookstore in Nashville) and as you can see from the above photo, it hit the mark and resonated greatly with me. 

I've always enjoyed, if not loved, Patchett's novels, but I recently read These Precious Days, which is an outstanding collection of essays. Now having read this earlier collection, I can confidently say that Ann Patchett's is not only a stellar writer, but someone with whom I would love to meet. Her essays are thought-provoking and articulate, yet conversational and personal. She prompts the reader to stop and think about something she's just written. Patchett is high on my list for "Which Five Famous People Would You Invite to a Dinner Party?"

Whatever I've become as an essayist, this collection bears the stamp of a writer who got her start in women's magazines: it is full of example and advice. I will never be a war correspondent or an investigative reporter, but the tradition I come from is an honorable one, and at times, daunting. Many of the essays I'm proudest of were made from the things that were at hand--writing and love, work and loss. I may have roamed in my fiction, but this work tends to reflect a life lived close to home. 

Prior to writing her best-selling novels, Patchett worked for eight years as a freelance writer for Seventeen magazine, GQ, Bridal Guide, New York Times Magazine, and Gourmet. In This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, Patchett shares details about her family history, her views on marriage, divorce, and her desire to not have children. Her essay about caring for her grandmother is deeply moving and intimate. She writes about her upbringing and education in the Catholic faith, her friendship with one of the nuns who taught her how to read (in third grade!), how she came to be a co-owner of a bookstore, finally accepting her husband's marriage proposal, and her absolute love for her dog, Rose.

On Writing & Revision:

One method of revision that I find both loathsome and indispensable is reading my work aloud when I'm finished. There are things I can hear--the repetition of words, a particularly flat sentence--that I don't otherwise catch. My friend Jane Hamilton, who is a paragon of patience, has me read my novels to her once I finish. She'll lie across the sofa, eyes closed, listening, and from time to time she'll raise her hand. "Bad metaphor," she'll say, or, "You've already used the word inculcate." She's never wrong.

On Hand Selling Books:

When we had our grand opening the following Saturday, an all-day extravaganza that stretched from early-morning puppet shows to late-night wine and cheese, an estimated three thousand Nashvillians came through the store, devouring books like locusts sweeping through a field of summer wheat. All of us who worked there (not a number I normally include myself in, but in this case I was among them) had waited so long for customers that once they finally came we could not stop telling them what we wanted them to read. One more joy I had failed to consider: that I can talk strangers into reading books that I love. 

As one would expect, I loved "My Road to Hell Was Paved", an essay about traveling with her husband, Karl, in a Winnebago motorhome. She states, 

I believe this is the Fourth Great RV Truth: People who don't like them have never been in one.

I feel like I went out to report on the evils of crack and have come back with a butane torch and a pipe. I went undercover to expose a cult and have returned in saffron robes with my head shaved. I have fallen in love with my recreational vehicle.

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage is an absolute joy to read! I'm looking forward to her upcoming release of Tom Lake (due out in August 2023), but until then, I have Truth & Beauty: A Friendship (which she mentions in her essay "Fact vs. Fiction") yet to read. 

Have you visited Parnassus in Nashville? I highly recommend it, especially if you love dogs! 

Photo Credit: Author's Website