This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

Well the polar vortex ended last Friday and a glimpse of spring has arrived today in western Canada with 55 degree weather. That translates into Miami temps for this time of year here. We’re loving it for sure!

I’ve been meandering a bit with my reading, but just finished Ann Patchett’s nonfiction book of essays called “This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage,” which came out last November. My sister gave it to me for Christmas. I love the title; it makes you want to know if she’s being real, or if she has some secret cornucopia of knowledge about marriage. I was sure I would devour the collection in no time at all, but I’ve been enjoying it this past week more slowly like a glass of fine wine. I find there seems to be more to absorb in nonfiction and it takes me a bit longer than a novel to get through, generally speaking.

But I liked reading it slowly as it’s a great book and I would highly recommend it, especially to people who are interested in writing, or in the aspects of a writer’s life. It’s quite personal and the combined 22 essays flow together almost as if you were reading a memoir. There’s chapters on just about every facet of Patchett’s life including her childhood and family, how she became a successful writer and co-bookstore owner, her divorce and eventual second marriage, and her life in Nashville. It’s all there: her loves, losses and how writing has always been her mission in life, which she’s worked very hard at doing both as a journalist and as a novelist.

The way she writes these essays it’s almost as if you know her and she’s telling you like she would a friend, candidly and confiding. She’s often funny and self-effacing. The essays are a genuine treat to read, her descriptions and observations reveal truths about life in various episodes. I was lured into them eagerly like a bee to a bonnet. It made me wonder if Patchett’s actually a better nonfiction writer than she is a novelist. This collection made me think so. Granted, I have read just two of her novels so far, one of which “State of Wonder” I liked quite a bit; the other “Run” I didn’t care for that much. But I’d like to read her novel “Bel Canto,” which I’ve heard is her very best.

Meanwhile this nonfiction collection knocked it out of the park for me. I especially appreciated her essay “The Getaway Car,” which gives useful advice if you’re interested in writing, and a candid perspective on being a writer. I also found interesting her foray into becoming a bookstore co-owner, which she writes about in “The Bookstore Strikes Back.” And the title essay “This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage” about the long road to love she found with her second husband is a poignant piece that might remind one that sometimes you don’t realize the really good thing or person you’ve got till they’re (almost) gone.

I enjoyed about all of the essays in this book. She even writes about her very dear dog Rose in “This Dog’s Life” and “Dog Without End,” which made me happy being such a dog lover. I guess only one essay “The Mercies” about the former Catholic nuns who taught her school and befriended her I found a bit convoluted and didn’t draw me in as much as the others. But on the whole, I was quite taken with this volume and will keep it to reread pieces again in the future.

What about you — have you read this book or others by her? Or do you plan to?