Talk About Books

Ann Patchett's latest novel follows six siblings over a period of 50 years. An embrace at a christening party between a man and woman married to other people leads to multiple divorces and remarriages. Patchett follows the two semi-connected families for the next 50 years, as the children become adults and the grown-ups become old. The nine chapters, which feel at times like short stories, proceed mostly chronologically, with regular flashbacks and occasional depictions of the same event from more than one person’s perspective. Insofar as there’s a main character, it’s Franny, who after babyhood becomes an avid reader, drops out of law school, dates a successful novelist and remains devoted to her family. Patchett's books are intelligent and engaging. In 2011 she started an independent bookstore in Nashville, becoming a heroine in the world of modern publishing.  She once wrote, “Writing is a job, a talent, but it’s also the place to go in your head. It is t...

At the close of the Civil War, weary veteran Malcolm Hopeton returns to his home in western New York State to find his wife and hired man missing and his farm in disrepair. The repercussions of events that ensue ripple through a community with spiritual roots in the Second Great Awakening. Hopeton goes from the horrors of war to far worse while the people around him try to make sense of it all. M any are damaged but stronger for it: a veteran profoundly changed by war, a father tormented by the loss of his daughter, a Seneca man more powerful than others realize, a boy forced too early to become a man. In this 19th century male world, women, too, are assuming new strength—through the roles they take on, and the loves they allow themselves. Lent was born in Vermont and grew up there and in western New York State on dairy farms. No doubt he draws from his life experience to render a time and landscape so vividly that story, characters and place are inseparable.