Details
Synopsis
This novel tells the simple story of a man's intense desire to be reunited with his son. John Nickel is a Black musician in Memphis. A protective man by nature, he sympathizes with Carl and Fay Taft, a young white brother and sister who seek work at his blues bar. Despite the trouble they cause him, the pity they induce in him helps him to define his morals. The narration is in Nickel's voice, alternating between the dark events of the story and his imagination.
| Size | | Length: | 305 pages | | Height: | 8.8 in | | Width: | 5.8 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 18.4 oz |
Publisher's Notes
First Line: "A girl walked into a bar."
Industry Reviews
"Comparisons are tempting: to the unabashed romanticism of Laurie Colwin, the eccentric characters of Anne Tyler, the enchantments of Alice Hoffman. But Ann Patchett is unique: a generous, fearless, and startlingly wise young writer...Expect miracles when you read Ann Patchett's fiction."
New York Times Book Review - Diana Postlethwaite
"Ann Patchett's young, she's fearless, she's uncommonly smart and skillful--that rare thing, a born novelist...Taft jostles easy assumptions with grace and daring. A brave, disturbing book."
Beverly Lowry
"Not only has (Patchett) written one of the most winning evocations of a father's love that I can think of, but she has lodged it in a first-person narrative by the middle-aged black manager of a Memphis bar....Patchett manages the lightness and the sorrow with an equilibrium that does both justice."
Los Angeles Times - Richard Eder (10/06/1994)
"Patchett writes with remarkable conviction and attention to telling detail....She is excellent at portraying the steady love and interest that holds the family members together."
Mirabella - Jane Smiley
"What's really peculiar...is the unself-conscious way this amiable novel reaffirms a writer's imaginative access to any and all experience....The tone is so steady and strong that the increasingly dangerous surprises delivered here catch you up every time."
Foner
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