Early in 2020, when I was hiding from COVID at Lisa's house, I found Ann Patchett's State of Wonder on Lisa's shelf. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Then Patchett dropped from my radar until MJV sent me Patchett's These Wonderous Days. This book of essays reignited my interest in her as an author. Reading The Dutch House convinced me to look for more of her books.
Not far from the OFH is a Half Price Bookstore, which held several of Patchett's books. Choosing Commonwealth, becasue it was among the most recent ones I hadn't read, now I'm recommending it. Likely many of you have already read it. One of the blurbs on the book jacket suggest it is the most autobiographical of her books, with which I'd agree after reading Wonderous Days. The book demonstrates Patchett's ability to weave a wonderful tale about the lives of two families.
The book opens at a christening party:
"Albert Cousins handed over the bag and Fix looked inside it. It was bottle of gin, a big one. Other people brought prayer cards or mother-of-pearl rosary beads or a pocket sized Bible covered in white kid with gilt edged pages. Five of the guys, or their five wives, had kicked in together and bought a blue enameled cross on a chain, a tiny pearl at the center, very pretty, something for the future." P. 3. The gift of gin leads to scene like the Biblical loaves and fishes. What struck me was the memory that many people giving a pastor a gift assume it has to be something religious.
Toward the end of the book Teresa is flying from L.A. to Paris, on the way to visit her daughter. She's recently retired after a career working in a district attorney's office. As the 12 hour flight landed in Paris she thought "...she had aged 20 years. Prosecutors should insist the trials of murderers and drug lords be held in economy class on crowded transatlantic flights, where any suspect would confess to any crime in exchange for the promise of a soft bed in a dark, quiet room." P. 275. That well describes my trans-Pacific flights.
Commonwealth is by turns funny, provocative and and profound. Yes, I recommend it.
Takk for alt,
Al
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