While You Wait for Whistler
Ann Patchett's newest novel Whistler has quite the hold list at our library. Like her previous novels, this one is character-driven with a focus on how relationships shape our lives. I found some great read alikes to keep you engaged while you wait for a copy of Whistler.
On a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daphne and her husband Jonathan notice an older man following them. He soon reveals himself to be Daphne's former stepfather, Eddie, who she knew for only a short time when she was 9.
Despite their brief relationship, Eddie had a profound and lasting impact on Daphne's life. Now it's like no time has passed and the duo is unwilling to let anything separate them again. However, Daphne and Eddie know they must finally talk about all the reasons they were pulled apart so many years ago.
Ann Patchett's latest work is a moving story of two adults who have the chance to look back on their lives and the choices that changed everything. With a beautiful simplicity Whistler examines life, loss and the power of human connection.
As promised here are four other character-driven and moving stories that explore complicated familial relationships. This is also a great opportunity for you to go back and read the rest of Patchett's work if you haven't already done so.
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
On a 1985 summer night in a suburban neighborhood, two families are forever changed. Three teenagers are involved in a car crash on Division Street, but only two walk away with their lives and a devastating secret.
Decades later Ben Wilf, father of one of the crash survivors, is a retired doctor who has developed a friendship with his new 10-year-old neighbor, Waldo Shenkman. Unbeknownst to the little boy, he met Ben before.
Both the Wilf and Shenkman families are harboring secrets. The more time that passes, the more the two families find themselves bound to one another in ways they never imagined possible.
Like Whistler, this novel explores family, lingering memories, and the power of connecting with others in the process of healing. Both novels also flip between different time periods to draw you deeper into the story and allow you to reflect on the role time plays in life.
“Signal Fires could only be written by Dani Shapiro—and only now, when she's undoubtedly at the height of her powers. One gets the sense this is the story she has been building toward all these years: a parabolic family drama about the way certain moments echo through time. I'll never stop thinking about it.” –Mary Laura Philpott, author of I Miss You When I Blink
Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman
The seven Shaw siblings have faced many challenges. First, their mother died when they were young. Then one of the sister's got pregnant as a teen. Now as adults they are dealing with parenthood, addiction, divorce and caring for their aging father. The siblings wonder how the past shaped them and how to move forward.
How did the death of their mother really impact them? What secrets are holding them back? How can they help one another heal?
Told in alternating perspectives and across time, Chorus will fully immerse you in the lives of the Shaw family and the events that pull them apart and piece them back together again. With a larger cast of characters than Whistler, Chorus is a more complex family narrative, but there is still a lightness to the story that will have you reading well past your bedtime.
"Rebecca Kauffman is one of our finest literary architects. With unusual empathy, she drafts complex portraits of people, revealing the humanity present in even the most flawed being. In Chorus, she elegantly charts the nuanced connections and fractures between family members, crafting her story from fleeting moments, slivers of understanding, always illuminating the sweetness and sorrow that exists in even the smallest detail." –David Connerley Nahm, author of Ancient Oceans of Central Kentucky
When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén
If you are looking for another heartfelt novel exploring the complexities of child and parent relationships, this Swedish novel might be the story for you. When the Cranes Fly South is told from the perspective of an aging father as he struggles with his health and relationship with his son. You may need some tissues while reading this novel as it’s a bit more hard-hitting emotionally than Patchett’s.
Bo's time is running out. He spends his limited days in the quiet solitude of his home with only his home care team and beloved dog Sixten to keep him company. However, the joy Bo finds in having his dog around is now under threat.
Hans, Bo's son, has come to take Sixten and rehome the dog because he knows his aging father is getting too old to care for Sixten properly. Bo and Hans' already rocky relationship is further strained the more Hans urges his father to accept the reality of his situation and let Sixten go.
As emotions reach an all-time high, Bo is forced to take a hard look at his life and relationship with his son. In the limited time he has left, is it possible to reconcile with his son or has his chance to show his love passed him by?
"One of those ‘you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll want to buy twenty copies and give them to everyone you love’ books.” –Fredrik Backman, bestselling author of A Man Called Ove
A Reason to See You Again by Jami Attenberg
Complicated parental relationships aren't limited to just the father's figures. In A Reason to See You Again a mother's relationship with her two daughters is strained. This novel is reminiscent of Whistler with its familial reconnection but has its own dramatic flair with characters who are somehow both lovable and frustrating.
Rudy, the patriarch of the Cohen family, died and with him went the glue that kept everyone together. The youngest sister Shelly runs off to pursue a new tech career. Her older sister Nancy enters into a questionable marriage. Left behind is the matriarch, Frieda, alone and drowning herself in booze.
No matter how much the Cohen women try to escape the trauma of the past, they just can't. With running no longer an option, Frieda, Shelly and Nancy are forced to decide what they really want as a family and what it will take for them to finally move on.
Spanning several decades, this novel is an unflinching look at a complicated group of women trying to navigate the American workforce, family dysfunction and trauma. Will love be enough to help them overcome what haunts them?
"Entertaining and empathetic... Attenberg knows how to imperil her characters and love them at the same time... Readers will happily sit with these women through it all.” –Booklist
