Whistler by Ann Patchett

Whistler by Ann Patchett is a nice novel that begins with Daphne Fuller running into her former stepfather, Eddie Triplett, at the museum in New York. The book then tells of their relationship and past history together.

Eddie is a book editor and was married for a year to Daphne's mother forty-four years ago, when Daphne nine and her sister Leda seven. A story that's told throughout the book is of a car accident at that time. Leda was in the hospital with appendicitis, which Eddie told their mother to check for after the school called saying she was sick, and Eddie driving Daphne and the car went over the edge of a cliff. Eddie's ankle was broken and pinned under the emergency brake, and Daphne had to get help.

Patchett writes vividly of the aftermath of the accident, and another great scene with Daphne in her early thirties taking her father, Buddy Zabriske, to Big Sur, California when he had late-stage cancer. She told Eddie that the trip was the smartest thing she'd ever done in her life. It was how she knew she wanted to be with her eventual husband Jonathan, an administrator in Buddy's hospital, and the last time she flew. 

The book is a good story of connections, and has some tremendously well-written and poignant scenes.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett is a lovely novel that brilliantly portrays the characters in the book. The setting is a hostage situation in South America, with thirty nine men and one woman held hostage by eighteen rebels. 

Hostage characters in the book include opera singer Roxanne Cross, Japanese executive Mr. Hosokawa, his translator Gen Watanabe, Hosokawa's employee Testsuya Kato, Frenchman Simon Thibault, Priest Father Arguedas, and Vice President Ruben Iglesias, whose house they in. 

Rebel characters included General Benjamin, General Alfredo, General Hector and young rebels Caesar, Carmen, Ishmael, and Beatriz. 

They were all in the house some four months and the the relationships between everyone are fascinating. Mr. Hosokawa and Cross become lovers, as did Gen and Carmen. Kato would play the piano, accompanying Cross with her singing. Caesar became a singing pupil of Cross, and Ishmael played chess and was viewed by the Vice President as a son of sorts. It's really nice writing from Patchett. 

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett is a well-written novel that's character, rather than plot, driven, and a nice read about love and relationships between people. 

In the spring of 2020, Lara is with her husband Joe and their twenty-something daughters, Maisie, Emily, and Nell, at their farm in northern Michigan during the pandemic. Lara tells of her early-twenties relationship with famous actor Peter Duke while the two of them working at a summer stock theater company, Tom Lake. 

Lara talks about her college experience with the Thornton Wilder play Our Town, her getting a staring movie role, filmed before she went to Tom Lake. She and Duke started a relationship, and Patchett writes about them, his brother Sebastian, and Lara's understudy Pallace. Also, recounted is how they all spent time at a farm (which Duke immediately and forever loved) with Lara's eventual husband Joe, and the Achilles injury that Lara suffered, changing the course of all their lives.

 Along with this, Patchett writes of the relationship between Lara and her daughters, including what they expect from their mother and what actually occurred in her life. There's a lot about how our lives not what our children think they were. The girls wanted more to the story, but it's what led to them being together. Patchett writes characters really well and provides a nice story about people and their lives.

Most Intriguing People on the "Time 100 Influential" List

The Time "100 Influential People in the World" issue published April 30th was of course populated with a veritable who's who list of movers, shakers and otherwise incredibly important people in the world.



Of these individuals, below are the fourteen (with the Time pieces hyperlinked) that stood out to me as particularly interesting and people I'd want to know more about (making this my sort of "Most Intriguing Within the 100 Most Influential" list)...

- Sara Blakely: founder of Spanx - According to an earlier vignette in this issue, the world's youngest self-made female billionaire at 41 ... if that's not interesting, I don't know what is.

- Christian Marclay: artist behind the 24-hour long clip film "The Clock" - Sounds to be a fascinating movie and both it and Marclay are featured in "The Hours" by Daniel Zalewski for The New Yorker.

- Salman Khan: founder of Khan Academy - Remarkable story of free education tutorial videos from a guy whose work featured in both a Businessweek profile and Fast Company Most Creative People in Business list.

- E.L. James: writer of the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy books - An author having the top four spots, including a 50 Shades box set, on the current New York Times Fiction Bestseller List is nothing if not interesting.

- Louie C.K.: comedian - Known for doing things completely his own way both creatively and in business with his television show Louie and self-produced and sold online comedy specials.

- Ben Rattray: founder of change.org - The site which helps enable social change became much more well-known earlier this year with its petition asking for prosecution of George Zimmerman for shooting Trayvon Martin.

- Ann Patchett: author / bookstore owner - It I'm sure helps her cause to be a best-selling author, but was a cool story of Patchett seeing her hometown of Nashville, TN being without an independent bookseller and as a result, opening Parnassus Books.

- Barbara Van Dahlen: Runs the nonprofit organization Give An Hour devoted to assisting with the mental health of veterans and their families. Seems a great mission and reminds me of the Joe Klein cover story "The New Greatest Generation" for Time.

- Hans Rosling: Became known for a 2006 TED talk on worldwide socio-economic development told through statistical models... now with 4 millions views on the TED site.

- Walter Isaacson: Biographer who wrote both the bestselling Steve Jobs (which I reviewed here) and similarly acclaimed works on Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.

- Erik Martin: 33 year old general manager of the site Reddit, which I first heard about a Jason Fagone piece for Wired written about in this blog post.

- Cecile Richards: The leader of Planned Parenthood and responsible for providing health care and advocating rights for many women in need nationwide.

- Virginia Rometty: IBM CEO who has helped the company to its current position of financial strength and (as the Time piece on her states) she's someone known for pushing the company in the area of corporate responsibility.

- Hillary Clinton: Someone who has obviously lived many lifetimes in terms of her influence and has by almost all accounts done an exemplary job as U.S. Secretary of State.