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A Clinker
Like any form of criticism, literary criticism is entirely subjective, and though you’ll find hundreds of glowing reviews online, for me, Whistler was a clinker. Patchett is a prolific author. Her best novels, Bel Canto, State of Wonder, and Tom Lake, for instance, are transcendent. Others, like Run, and Patron Saint of Liars, leave me flat. Without giving anything away, the story revolves around a chance encounter that reveals some family secrets, none of which have been particularly important to the narrator for over 40 years and which only remained secrets because the narrator, Daphne, and her mother tend to live their lives in the present and don’t dwell on the past. The book is pleasant enough and well-written, but it lacks the urgency and evocative description of her best work. The Audible version is narrated by the author, a decision some reviewers have lauded. However, there were numerous sections of dialogue where I lost track of who was speaking because her voice never varied.
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