San Marcos Public Library

Whistler

by Ann Patchett

Library Journal Patchett (Tom Lake) probes the profound relationship between Daphne (an English teacher and the daughter of a thrice-married woman) and the man who was briefly her stepfather when she was nine, until Daphne's mother's divorce harshly severed the bond. Now 54, Daphne runs into Eddie at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and rekindles their warm bond. Meeting Eddie opens up Daphne's feelings for her father, who was mercilessly disparaged by her mother. But Eddie knew and liked him, so Daphne can rehab her father's image. Despite the horse on the book's cover, this novel resolutely focuses on observing humans as they suffer loss and betrayal yet manage to love and forgive. Patchett is a clarion voice who can persuade any reader to devour her books without pause. Her latest is no exception, with strong characters, compelling circumstances, and the one detail on which lives can pivot to ruin or to happiness. VERDICT Patchett devises for her characters an incident with edge-of-one's-seat suspense in this novel overflowing with rewards for all.—Barbara Conaty

Kirkus A chance meeting in a museum unlocks a long-closed door in a family’s past. Of a piece with her last three novels—Commonwealth (2016),The Dutch House (2019), andTom Lake (2023)—Patchett’s latest explores the evolution of families over time, romantic secrets, and step-relationships, again giving these topics the wry and tender treatment that is distinctively hers. As it begins, Daphne Fuller’s attentive husband, Jonathan, notices that a man has been following them through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At first they chalk it up to the fact that “old guys love [Daphne],” as she told Jonathan decades ago, a notion he has held onto "like a souvenir postcard from another era." But it turns out that, though Daphne doesn’t recognize him, Eddie Triplett is her former stepfather. Like the author herself, as recalled in her 2020 essay “Three Fathers,” Daphne has had three dads. Her biological father, a deep-sea fisherman named Buddy Zabriskie, left the family early; her current stepfather, Lucas Ekker, lives with her mother in retirement in Massachusetts. Ekker is an unprepossessing sort Abby met working as the publicist for his self-help books,Positivity!,Positively Positive!,The Positivity Workbook!,Positive Every Day!, ad infinitum. The man in the museum, Eddie Triplett, was also someone her mother met through her job in publishing, and once Daphne realizes who he is, she remembers that “[their] hearts were forever stitched together.” This is because Daphne and Eddie were in a serious car accident when she was 9 years old, after which her mother immediately divorced him and evicted him from their lives. The details of that accident—among them lies the reason the novel is named after a horse called Whistler—are gradually wheedled out of Daphne by her younger sister, Leda, a clinical psychologist in New York and a reliable source of insight on the narrative’s key issues. “‘You make it sound like I’ve been keeping all this from you, but I’m not,’ [Daphne] said. ‘Who goes through life thinking about what happened when they were nine?’ ‘It’s all people think about,’ Leda said.” An evocative and moving tribute to the death-defying, heart-opening, infinitely redemptive power of storytelling. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly Patchett follows 2023’s Tom Lake with another perfectly executed and quietly profound family drama. Daphne, a 53-year-old happily married English teacher, is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City with her husband, Jonathan, a retired hospital administrator, when she runs into Eddie Triplett, who was once her stepfather. Though he was only married to her mother, Abigail, for two years, Daphne and her sister built a life-changing amount of trust with him. Abigail and Eddie abruptly divorced following a car accident in which he and Daphne drove off the road in a snowstorm in Winchester, Mass., which resulted in nine-year-old Daphne climbing out of the wrecked car to find help. The story takes place in the weeks after her reunion with Eddie, as Daphne learns the truth of why he and her mother divorced and revisits the accident and its reverberations. Somewhere along the way, the novel becomes a meditation on mortality, long marriages, and what it means to love well. “It’s an awful business.... Loving another person,” Abigail tells Daphne, reflecting on her three marriages, each with their share of successes and failures. Daphne also reflects on how Eddie, when they were trapped in the car, told her an intense story that still haunts her, about a rancher named Mary who hovers on the brink of death after an accident. Like many of Patchett’s works, this beautiful and generous novel feels effortless, never straining for effect. It’s one of her best. (June)

Book list Jonathan insists that an older man is following Daphne as they make their way through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Not that Jonathan is exactly young; he's a 70-year-old retired hospital administrator. At 53, Daphne is teaching English at a private girls’ school. The man who was thunderstruck by Daphne is Eddie, a 76-year-old, much adored book editor and Daphne’s first stepfather. They haven’t seen each other since she was a child. Their long-banked familial love instantly rekindles, promising intriguing flashbacks. Patchett is even more entrancing, radiant, and heart-seizing than she is in Tom Lake (2023) in this tale of complicated marriages, secret love, fear, fury, courage, and reconciliation. As Eddie and Daphne reconnect, Patchett loops back to tell the stories of Daphne’s parents; the brief marriage between her mother, a book publicist, and Eddie; Daphne’s clinical-psychologist sister, Leda; their second stepfather, a once best-selling self-help author who fails to follow his own advice; and what led to Eddie’s banishment. As for the title, Whistler is a heroic horse in a tale of miraculous rescue Eddie told nine-year-old Daphne when they were in danger. Salvation in various modes propels this resplendent novel rich in hilarious and poignant dialogue, cascading realizations, and profound and surprising moments of kindness, forgiveness, and love.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Patchett's artistry, stature, and popularity rise with every book.

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