Ann Patchett is amazing, she writes so well no matter what voice, or subject, or format. I don't know the American South but reading Taft I felt it like I was in it. It was such an effortless, enjoyable read, I have to put all her books on my to-read list pronto.
The story is mostly about fatherhood but also touches on jazz and race and relationships in general. The story mostly takes place at a bar in Memphis that John (a black ex-jazz drummer) runs, where he hires a young white waitress named Fay. John's ex-girlfriend has taken their 9 year old son with her away to Miami, and when he learns that Fay and her younger brother Clay have lost their own father, somehow John begins looking after them, in a benign way at first but (in a brilliantly real and un-contrived sort of meandering fashion) then becomes dangerously involved and the suspense is awesome.
There are constant perspective shifts as the story goes back and forth between John's present and Fay and Clay's father's past; and it's interesting not knowing if the Taft story is actual or if it's John's interpretation or reconstruction of a life he never knew.
The story is mostly about fatherhood but also touches on jazz and race and relationships in general. The story mostly takes place at a bar in Memphis that John (a black ex-jazz drummer) runs, where he hires a young white waitress named Fay. John's ex-girlfriend has taken their 9 year old son with her away to Miami, and when he learns that Fay and her younger brother Clay have lost their own father, somehow John begins looking after them, in a benign way at first but (in a brilliantly real and un-contrived sort of meandering fashion) then becomes dangerously involved and the suspense is awesome.
There are constant perspective shifts as the story goes back and forth between John's present and Fay and Clay's father's past; and it's interesting not knowing if the Taft story is actual or if it's John's interpretation or reconstruction of a life he never knew.
