Author Ann Patchett to Visit Ft. Collins Nov. 5

If you're in a book club, you've probably read one of the novels of international best-selling author Ann Patchett. Patchett is author of best sellers Bel Canto, State of Wonder and Commonwealth. Patchett is also the co-owner of Parnassus books in Nashville, Tenn.

Book club geeks and others will get a chance to see Patchett speak live at the Fort Collins Hilton Hotel Nov. 5, sponsored by Fort Collins Reads. Tickets are $10 and are expected to sell out quickly.

“Writing is a job, a talent, but it’s also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon,” Patchett has written.

Recently, Patchett answered a few questions from Ft. Collins Reads Co-Chair Sara Hoffman.

Q and A with author Ann Patchett:
In Commonwealth, fictional author Leo Posen writes a novel (aptly named Commonwealth) based on stories that his girlfriend Franny Keating told him about her dysfunctional family. Where did you draw your inspiration for the families in your book?

There are plenty of parallels between the families in the book and the families I grew up in. The things that happened to these people didn’t happen to us but emotionally we were similar. Writing about a writer who appropriates family stories he has no business appropriating was a great way to work through some of my own fears about writing this book.

The children in your novel grow up into adults who defy the expectations of their families. Do you think the children would have grown into the adults that their families expected if the parents had never divorced and remarried?

Who knows? The older I get, the more I believe in nature over nurture. It seems like people turn out the way they’re destined to turn out regardless of what happens to them as children.

In the United States, fifty percent of marriages with children will end in divorce, and a whopping sixty percent of second marriages will also fail. What do you think a divorcee, or even an adult child of divorce, can take away from reading your novel?

I was interested in the wide-reaching and long-term ramifications of a drunken kiss at a party. Lives are certainly changed but they’re not destroyed. This isn’t a book about the disasters of divorce but more about the ways in which many lives are changed forever. I’ve heard from a lot of people who came from those big, messy families that are the products of divorce and remarriage. They could relate to the story. I go back so often to “Our Town” by Thorton Wilder. It’s such a lovely idea that you could marry someone you’ve always known and love them and be happy with them.

Do you think "typical" or "normal" families exist? If so, what could a "normal" family learn from the Keatings and the Cousins?

Either we’re all typical and normal or none of us are. There isn’t a gold standard for family life. I like to think a good novel shows us lives other than our own and in doing so, fosters compassion.

In addition to being an author, you're also the co-owner of Parnassus books in Nashville, TN. What kind of impact do you think bookstores can have on children, families, and communities?

I think it’s huge, and I see it in action every day. Parnassus is a community center. People come there to meet friends, to be alone, to hear authors, to bring their children to story time. Everyone is welcome, everyone in the family can find something that’s interesting to them. We’re creating a positive association with reading. You come to this place full of books and people are interesting and kind and there are a bunch of dogs and art and a piano. It’s hard to beat.

Commonwealth is your seventh novel. Is there a common thread that runs through all of your books? If so, what is it?

A group of strangers are thrown together by circumstance and form a community. They learn to work together. It’s in all of my novels, plus someone always gets stitches.

When did you know you wanted to be an author, and who was a mentor for your early writing?

I was very small, maybe six. I can’t remember ever wanting to do anything else. I had a lot of support. My friends, teachers, family, everyone said I would grow up to do exactly what I’m doing. My mother was particularly supportive. I was very lucky.

Fort Collins Reads is a one-book-one-city program supported by independent bookstores and local libraries, encouraging discussion of specific books. Tickets for Patchett's appearance can be found here: https://www.fortcollinsreads.o...