A lover of writers
Patchett on DiCamillo, `Cats' and the novel that went wrong
Ann Patchett is funny and thoughtful in conversation, but the key takeaway is this: She loves writers.
When asked for the highlights of her own story, the “Tom Lake” author, Pulitzer Prize finalist for “The Dutch House” covers exactly none of her autobiography (grew up in Los Angeles, studied at Iowa Writers' Workshop, moved to Nashville, wrote bestseller after bestseller).
Instead, she steers the conversation to Lindsay Lynch, whose debut novel is out and who sometimes works for Patchett at Parnassus, the bookstore she co-owns. (“Having a bookstore is like having 30 daughters. I'm always taking someone to Target to buy sheets and towels when they get their first apartment or taking them to lunch because they got dumped and they're crying.”)
More evidence? Better than a Pulitzer nod, the writer has said, is that author/buddy Kevin Wilson (“Nothing to See Here”) named his son Patchett after her.
She regularly recalls being dazzled by Louise Erdrich when Patchett, 59, cooked food for a long-ago party in her honor. Her conversation is filled with writer pals such as Elizabeth McCracken, Andrew Sean Greer and Patrick Ryan.
There's her bookstore, peddling the work of writers. And, in filmed conversations with Minnesota pal Kate DiCamillo — whom Patchett nicknamed Fluffy (after a “Dutch House” character) — she deflects questions about her work to DiCamillo's, crediting the “Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane” writer for figuring out how to end “Dutch House.”
All of which is to say: Patchett's Talking Volumes chat with MPR's Kerri Miller is supposed to be about her new novel “Tom Lake,” in which Lara — thrown together with her daughters on a family cherry orchard by the COVID-19 pandemic — reminisces about her youthful affair with a now-famous actor when they were in the play “Our Town.” But don't be surprised if the talk turns to other writers, one of whom is almost certain to be the aforementioned Fluffy.
Q
“Tom Lake” is dedicated to DiCamillo and her upcoming “The Puppets of Spelhorst”returns the favor. Did you help each other through those books?
AWe usually exchange a very small one- or twosentence email in the morning and again at night. She is so wonderful and supportive. She would always say, “I'm going down the rabbit hole. Good luck in the orchard today,” and at the end of the day she would say, “It's time to come out of the orchard. I'm holding the lantern up. Just walk towards the light.” And we talk on Sundays. It's like going to church. We save up all the things we have to work out.
Q
Did you meet at literary events?
AShe came [to Parnassus] and that's when I decided I needed to read all of her work. We had lunch and
I thought, “I'm such a jerk.” I actually wrote about this [in
“These Precious Days”]: “She's read all of my books and I've never read any of hers because I don't have kids.” And I
A needed to change that. I read I change. So there are different every one of her books and times in my life I found her and we started that I feel like “Our Town” can emailing and visiting. answer my questions. When I was in my 20s, in graduate school, and I shared an apartment with my best friend Lucy [Grealy; Patchett wrote about her in “Truth & Beauty”], she threw the I Ching all the time, and I have always thought of “Our Town” as a little like the I Ching. It's all in there. It just depends on which page you land on and where you're at when you look.
Q
That you sparked to DiCamillo will be no surprise here. She's beloved in the Twin Cities.
A
Let's be honest. She's beloved everywhere. It's not like in Nebraska they shun her.
Q
I wonder if “Tom Lake's” coziness will make adult children wish they'd moved in with their parents during the pandemic?
A
That's my M.O. That's what all of my books are about: Group of people, thrown together by circumstances, forms a society. All of them. But when I first started putting this book together it was before the pandemic, so I was just thinking, “Farm daughters come home to work on farm in the summer.” The book would have worked perfectly without the pandemic. But the pandemic just made it a little better.
Q
Thornton Wilder's 1938 classic “Our Town” — which depicts a New England town's residents in three acts devoted to life, love and death — figures prominently in “Tom Lake.” The way the characters see the play changes over time. Is that also true of you?