Review: This is the Story of a Happy Marriage

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was about to say this book only made me cry three times but then I read the last page. Goodness this woman is a wonderful writer- storyteller and has had a very interesting life. I've never read any of Ann Patchett's novels and this is a collection of Essays she's written over her time as a writer. They cover everything from school, friendships, marriage(s), nuns and dogs. This book has been on my to read list for two years and I'm glad I read it now instead of when I added it. I don't think I would have seen it the same way.

My favorite essays are "The Sacrament of Divorce", "The Right to Read", "Introduction to The Best American Short Stories of 2006", "The Bookstore Strikes Back", "This is the Story of a Happy Marriage" and "The Mercies". Honorable mention to all the ones about her dogs- omg the tears and the ones about her grandmother. There's a lot of good stuff in here.

Several of her essays address the readers specifically and I loved a quote where she said that once the book is in the readers hand the author should stay out of it cause the relationship is now between the book and the reader not the author and the reader. I agree! I've always felt bad for authors who get pestered about their characters after the book is finished, if they'd had more to say don't you think they would have written more? Tangent.

Anyways I liked this book a lot and would recommend it. I'm not sure if I'll read any of her novels, I'm such a fan of her essays now I want more of those- she talked about how her novels are all made up stuff and her essays were written because she was trying to make a living as a writer so I don't know...

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