Whistler
Ann Patchett
Bloomsbury, RRP $35.00

Reviewed by Wendy Tucker

This is the eleventh novel by Ann Patchett. Her breakout novel was Bel Canto (2001) which won the prestigious Woman’s Prize (then called the Orange Prize), many other literary prizes and was an international best seller. The six novels that Patchett has written since have all been acclaimed best sellers.

Patchett is one of the most influential people in publishing. She helped Virginia Evans publish her debut novel, The Correspondent, which won this year’s Women’s Prize. Patchett also owns a bookshop in Nashville, Parnassus Books. She posts weekly from there, with recommendations and with visiting well-known authors. She has many famous friends, both literary and otherwise. Her last two books were read for audiobooks by Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep respectively. This time Patchett has read her own novel for the audio version.

Patchett, who combines Catholicism and Buddhism into a philosophy of kindness, says in interviews that she has purposely written a kind novel about platonic love.

Whistler tells the story of Daphne Fuller and Eddie Triplett, a stepdaughter and stepfather. Eddie was Daphne’s stepfather for only a year when she was nine. There was an instant connection of like minds, interests and the love of reading. Eddie was a respected editor at a prestigious publishing firm where her mother also worked. While Daphne’s younger sister is in hospital, Eddie decides to take Daphne on a drive up the mountain to see the Strawberry Farm. It’s mid-winter with deep frost and light snow. The car slides off the mountain road and plunges halfway down the mountain. Eddie has a broken ankle and Daphne has a large cut on her face. The situation is dire. Eddie keeps it calm and almost magical. He tells the story of Whistler, a horse who saved its owner from death. This story within the main story has echoes throughout the novel. Once rescued and hospitalised, Eddie is totally and immediately banished from the family for his irresponsibility. Daphne mourns for the stepfather she adores but is powerless.

Forty years later Daphne and Eddie meet by chance. The relationship is rebuilt. Secrets are revealed. Patchett is at her best here with her ability to structure, revealing the right amount of the past at exactly the right time to keep the reader longing to know more.

But this is a novel for a friend. Patchett’s dear friend, and best reading-friend, Jim Fox died two years ago. A year later she began this novel. In an ABC interview, Patchett said, `I’m going to take all the love that Jim had for me and all the love that I had for Jim, and I’m going to put it in this book.’

And she has done this with Daphne and Eddie. Could a novel where the characters are essentially good be boring, even saccharine? Not with Patchett in control.