{"id":33808,"date":"2016-12-14T06:30:32","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T17:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=33808"},"modified":"2016-12-13T21:10:58","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T08:10:58","slug":"what-im-reading-commonwealth-by-ann-patchett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/12\/14\/what-im-reading-commonwealth-by-ann-patchett\/","title":{"rendered":"What I’m Reading: “Commonwealth” by Ann Patchett"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"commonwealthbyannpatchett\"<\/a>On November 7 I did a somewhat longer than usual “Just Arrived” post for Commonwealth, titled:<\/p>\n

“Commonwealth<\/em> by Ann Patchett, with a Riff to Bel Canto<\/em>, Inverse Correlations and Pascal”<\/a><\/h4>\n

There, I hope that title whets your appetite a little, because I do think it’s worth a read in its own right. However, I have now read Commonwealth<\/em> so that’s what I need to talk about today, rather than my great and enduring love for Bel Canto<\/em> and all the consequences of that. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Overall, I think Commonwealth<\/em> is a fascinating book. It’s a tale of two families that sort of become one family—and also don’t. It’s also a story about the individual people that make up those two families and the criss-cross of personal connections between them. I think the book captures childhood and the fraught intense relationships between children—as well as what they become in adult life—brilliantly. The look at relationships between adult human beings in all their patchiness and light and shade is also captured with an unerring eye.<\/p>\n

Overall, as a lens on family and experiences that shape people within those bounds, I think Commonwealth<\/em> is exceptional writing.<\/p>\n

The second story woven through the first is that of one sibling, Franny (who is the central although not the sole protagonist in the book) who shares her family’s history with her novelist lover, Leon Posen. (Whose surname may or may not be an allusion to “Poser”; one wonders.) Leon then proceeds to turn Franny’s personal story into fiction—hugely successful fiction, which also sends shock waves through the adult family.<\/p>\n

The backcover blurb in the edition I read suggested that this sequence of events was what the Commonwealth<\/em> story was about—and I can only say that was not my experience of the book. It’s part of it certainly, but the book I read was about family and the individuals within families in all their permutations, far beyond the ripple effects of Leon Posen’s novel.<\/p>\n

Another pertinent (imho) observation is that Commonwealth<\/em> is a gentle story, including in terms of pace. I do not say that as a negative, because in fact there is plenty of fabric-of-life grit in the book, but those who prefer their contemporary realism grimdark or action packed may be disappointed.<\/p>\n

One other noteworthy (to me) fact gleaned from reading Commonwealth<\/em> is that the US state of Virginia is officially a commonwealth, hence the title of the book (although of course it has wider implications—such is the nature of titles.) But I enjoy learning new facts, however small, so was glad to add this to my grab-bag of such things.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, I enjoyed Commonwealth<\/em> greatly and found it a very satisfying read. I believe it will appeal, not only to fans of Ann Patchett’s other writing, but to those who have enjoyed books like Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes At the Museum<\/em>,\u00a0 Michael Cunningham’s The Hours<\/em>, and Kate Grenville’s The Idea of Perfection<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"commonwealthbyannpatchett\"<\/a>—<\/p>\n

Additional Information:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I purchased and read the paperback edition of Commonwealth<\/em>, <\/em>326 pages, published by Bloomsbury in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On November 7 I did a somewhat longer than usual “Just Arrived” post for Commonwealth, titled: “Commonwealth by Ann Patchett, with a Riff to Bel Canto, Inverse Correlations and Pascal” There, I hope that title whets your appetite a little, because I do think it’s worth a read in its own right. However, I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-im-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33808"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33817,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33808\/revisions\/33817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}