Taft : [a novel

Best-selling novelist Ann PatchettвЂTMs second, "strikingly original"* novel tells the moving story of John Nickel, an ex–jazz musician who wanted nothing more than to be a good father. When his lover takes away his son, heвЂTMs left only with his Beale Street bar. He hires a young waitress named Fay Taft, who brings with her a desperate, dangerous brother, Carl, and the possibility of new intimacy. Nickel finds himself consumed with Fay and CarlвЂTMs dead father— Taft—obsessing over and reconstructing the life of a man he never met. A stunning artistic achievement, Taft confirms Ann PatchettвЂTMs standing as one of the most gifted writers of her generation and reminds us of our deepest instincts to protect the people we love. Kirkus Reviews* From Publishers Weekly Following her well-received debut, The Patron Saint of Liars , Patchett convincingly portrays a bar manager's conflicted feelings for a teenage waitress in this tale of fatherhood and unfulfilled dreams. Narrator John Nickel runs a bar called Muddy's on Memphis's Beale Street. He took the job to help provide for his lover, Marion, and their 10-year-old son, Franklin, who have since moved away, leaving him concerned that the boy lacks paternal guidance. When 17-year-old Fay Taft shows up at Muddy's, lies about her age and asks for a job, Nickel is touched by her neediness and hires her. But he doesn't bargain on her growing desire for him, or on her drug-dealer brother, who brings sleazy clients to the bar. Another complication is the issue of race--Fay is white, Nickel black--but the author concentrates on the color-blind moral problems that any family faces. As Nickel contemplates his own predicaments, he imagines scenes of the Tafts in a stable home before their father died. His sincere sense of responsibility--to his son, to Fay, even to Fay's no-good brother--is conveyed with visceral power, although the hard-boiled dialogue often resembles parody. Patchett's characters may include tough cookies with hearts of gold, but the novel is at its best when she mutes the melodrama and focuses on basic moral issues. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal This second novel from the author of the well-received The Patron Saint of Liars (LJ 4/1/92) is narrated by John Nickel, an ex-drummer who manages a Memphis bar that is a sort of anti-Cheers. He is also African American, a fact you can soon forget. For one thing, in Patchett's Tennessee, everyone, regardless of age, race, sex, class, or locale, speaks nearly the same flat language. John is obsessed with his young son, who has moved to Miami with John's ex-girlfriend, and his longing for the child is the pivotal and most convincing aspect of the novel. In the meantime, 18-year-old Faye Taft enters the bar and John's life, with her drug-addicted brother in tow. They're running from a family destroyed by their father's sudden death. Strangely, John starts imagining the Taft family before the death in passages that are vividly realized yet so disassociated from the narrator that you begin to wonder if he is receiving ESP transmissions. Patchett is a fine writer, but here we are most aware of her ideas for the novel-the fiction itself rarely takes off. For large public library collections. Brian Kenney, Brooklyn P.L. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. An ex-jazz drummer wants nothing more than to be a good father in this moving family novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Dutch House.When his lover takes away his son, he's left only with his Beale Street, Memphis bar. He hires a young waitress named Fay Taft who brings with her a desperate, dangerous brother, Carl, and the possibility of new intimacy. Nickel finds himself consumed with Fay and Carl's dead father—Taft—obsessing over and reconstructing the life of a man he never met.A stunning artistic achievement, Taft confirms Ann Pathcett's standing as one of the most gifted writers of her generation and reminds us of our deepest instincts to protect the people we love.“What could be merely a literary parlor trick—keeping three stories in the air at once—becomes...as resonant as a blues song, each story harmonizing with and answering others.... Expect miracles when you read Ann Patchett's fiction.”—New York Times “A moving emblem of fatherhood's rarely explored passion.”—Los Angeles Times'Patchett writes with remarkable conviction and attention to telling detail.... [She] is excellent at portraying the steady love and interest that holds the family members together, even though that love and interest isn't always successful in preserving the members from danger.”—Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Golden Age “Strikingly original.”—Kirkus Reviews Taft is the story of John Nickel, a black ex-musician who wanted nothing more than to be a good father. But his son is taken away from him and he is left with nothing but the Memphis bar he manages. When he hires a young white waitress named Fay Taft, he doesn't know that he is taking on her desperate brother, Carl, as well. Nickel's sympathies for these two quickly become a dangerous path into the lives of strangers. As the ominous events of the story unfold, Nickel is consumed with the idea of Taft, Fay and Carl's dead father. Through imagination, he begins to reconstruct the life of a man he never met. Through Taft, he begins to define the priorities of his own life. The voice of John Nickel is a stunning artistic achievement. The story it tells is universal in its appeal to our instincts to protect the people we love. Taft confirms Ann Patchett's standing as one of the most gifted writers of her generation. The Story Of Fay Taft, A Your White Waitress, Narrated By The Black Bar Manager Who Gave Her A Job. The Manager's Feelings For Her Are Paternal, But Hers For Him Are Sexual. What's More She Has A Brother Who Is A Drug Dealer And Brings Sleazy Friends Into The Bar. By The Author Of The Patron Saint Of Liars. Ann Patchett. A Richard Todd Book.