These Precious Days
By Ann Patchett
Published 2021
Read Jan 2023
This is the first non-fiction book of Anne Patchett’s read by this reader. It’s a series of essays about people she knows/knew, most of whom she loves/loved. The author is honest about her age-57 at the time of writing- about her decision to not have children, and her lack of flinching when another writer told her a writer can’t be good unless they’ve had children. After helping a friend clear out her father’s home of many decades, Patchett decides to start clearing out her own—she’s reached the age of disposition after having passed the phase of acquisition. She poses the project to her husband as “pretend we’re moving” when she’s really approaching this as she prepares to die—not now hopefully but inevitably. Interestingly she reveals she always worries she’ll die before finishing whichever book she’s in the process of writing. Mortality is definitely something that’s often on her mind. Maybe that’s why she’s so good at writing about people and having them feel very real.
A good part of the book is about writing and publishing books—what to ask for from your publisher etc. That part was somewhat interesting to this reader. A large section is devoted to her relationship with Tom Hank’s assistant whom Patchett invited to stay with her during her chemotherapy during the Covid pandemic shutdown. Although this essay apparently went viral when it was published in Harper’s, this reader didn’t find it among the most engaging but it certainly told much about Patchett’s willingness to meet new people and invite them to stay in her home, even if she wasn’t going to be there. A sort of amiable way of interacting with multiple stories not her own.
A very important aspect of this book was that it left this reader with the desire to write down some of her own stories, whether anyone else would read them or not. Writing is what makes the content real and subject to review by the author—is this the intended message or not.
This reader will likely read more of Patchett’s essays as her writing can be so engaging and often witty regardless of the topic.
MarshaReads.com 