Friday, January 24, 2025

Beginning ~ sounds like a cliché to me

Beginning

A girl walked into the bar.  I was hunched over, trying to open a box of Dewar's without my knife.

Taft ~ by Ann Patchett, 1994, literary fiction (Tennessee), 273 pages

When John Nickel's lover takes away his son, Nickel is left only with his Beale Street bar in Memphis.  He hires a young waitress named Fay Taft, who brings with her a desperate, dangerous brother, Carl, and the possibility of new intimacy.  Nickel finds himself consumed with Fay and Carl's dead father — Taft — obsessing over and reconstructing the life of a man he never met.  This story reminds us that our deepest instinct is to protect the people we love.

2 comments:

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

I've enjoyed every Ann Patchett book I've read. I think this might be an early book...

Literary Feline said...

I have only read one Ann Patchett book, but I did like it. I think this one sounds good! I hope you have a great weekend, Bonnie!