Commonwealth

Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth is a semi-autobiographical novel that she describes as “the book that all her other books are based on.” She explains that the common thread among all her books is throwing two different groups of people together to create a community. One of the reasons Ann Patchett wrote this story is because there “was no book as big and messy as my family or my friend’s families.”  Being a child in a divorced family, whose father was a cop, whose family was a Catholic-blended one, who moved from one side of the country to another you certainly realize the parallels in her own life with this book. However, as Ann Patchett’s mother says, “None of it happened and all of it is true.” The truth in the novel is the emotional content.  As Ann, herself explained, the story is not what happened in her life. It’s between what she was afraid would happen and what never happened.

 

Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth was met with mixed reviews by the 6 of us who had read and discussed the novel. The overwhelming consensus was that the book was confusing and hard to follow at times – it seemed disjointed from one chapter to the next since the chapters (which were like short stories in and of themselves) were not in chronological order and there were large gaps in time. That being said, Margie and Libby were pretty positive about their reactions to the book. They both felt that reading reviews of the book helped to give them a different perspective which then led them to more favorable impressions. Libby captured it well when she talked of the book being “like a brilliant puzzle.”

 

On the other hand Sheri had the opposite reaction. She felt “manipulated” while reading it because as one chapter ended there was no closure on what happened. Additionally, she did not think the book was realistic. Mary Lib, Libby and Margie felt that it was realistic of the era of the 60’s when Moms were ‘stuck’ and kids pretty much were out running wild all day doing whatever  they did without their parents having much awareness.

 

There was lots of conversation regarding the characters (Saran thought Leo was ”creepy”); specific chapters (Sheri and Libby loved the swimming chapter; Saran thought the Amagansett chapter was “fascinating” and Libby thought it was “painful”);  the  purpose of specific plot elements (Sheri was “puzzled by the gun part”); and themes within the story (aging, how one incident can have such a wide ranging effect; family; bonding, loyalty and love).

 

Mary Lib suggested that your age and what stage of your life you were in would make a difference to the reader as they progressed through the book. She related an interesting experience she had recently had when she and Denny were traveling and they returned to a place and time from their past to visit the ‘path not taken.’  Certainly there were numerous points in the novel where one could ponder on different outcomes had certain events not taken place or had they happened differently.

 

Margie wondered about the numerous rave reviews and wide-spread acclaim that this book had received based on the mixed reviews of our small group. That led to an intriguing question from Libby: “Is this book valuable as a piece of literature?”

 

Shortly after the book group gathering Linda, Margie, Libby and Annie went to hear Ann Patchett speak. She was delightfully entertaining regardless of your take on her latest novel.