fiction, historical fiction
Whistler is the name of a horse (pictured on the book cover) but this novel is not about the horse. Therefore, it was an odd choice for the book name. I suppose Whistler is a metaphor for rescue or redemption. The novel follows Daphne, is a woman in her 50s, who runs into the man who had briefly been her stepfather when she was 9 years old. They had shared a traumatic experience back then before Daphne’s mother demanded a divorce and Daphne never saw him again. This book is basically about their reconnection.
None of the characters were extraordinary. Some were a little quirky. But they seemed realistic to me. There was no big driving mystery but some smaller mysteries along the way. There was no particular climax to speak of. Rather, the pages revealed Daphne’s family’s history. It was a perfectly pleasant story with fun rapport between the characters and just enough interesting situations and characters to keep it from getting boring. I would say that the main themes in the book are impermanence, family, and death.
I’ve read several Ann Patchett novels, some of which I loved and some of which I didn’t. This one falls in the middle for me.
The author narrated the audiobook. She read with a clear voice and I always love hearing an author’s intonations, emphases, and performance of their own words. However, she spoke very slowly. I sped up the audiobook to move it along. Also, she had a very small vocal repertoire which made it hard to be sure who was speaking all the time during dialogues between the main characters. But she sang—several times—which I loved. Oddly, there were a few songs she didn’t sing and just read the lyrics. I’m unsure why she didn’t just sing them all. Anyway, weighing the pluses and minuses, I’ll give her an A- for this audiobook performance.
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