eShop USA > Books > Taft: A Novel (P.S.)
Taft: A Novel (P.S.)
List Price: $13.95Our Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780061339226
ISBN: 0061339229
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: September 01, 2007
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: September 04, 2007
Studio: Harper Perennial
Related Items:
Editorial Review: John Nickel is a black ex-jazz musician who only wants to be a good father. But when his son is taken away from him, he's left with nothing but the Memphis bar he manages. Then he hires Fay, a young white waitress, who has a volatile brother named Carl in tow. Nickel finds himself consumed with the idea of Taft—Fay and Carl's dead father—and begins to reconstruct the life of a man he never met. But his sympathies for these lost souls soon take him down a twisting path into the lives of strangers.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Taft
I'm a big fan of Ann Patchett, so I stuck with this book and was happy I did. It wasn't as wonderful as some of her other books, but I enjoyed it and passed it on to someone else (which I don't do if I don't like the book). Certainly not a waste of time.
Rating: - Interesting read
I'm not certain why Ann Patchett considers this her favorite book, but I didn't feel that it was my favorite of her books. I'm a big fan of this author, and her talent definitely shows in this book. However, it has an unfinished or loose-string kind of feel to it, that isn't intentional. It is a good read, and I will always read Patchett's novels for her excellent writing.
Rating:  - Giving and Getting
This story effortlessly unfolds, patiently, without pretension: young Fay, yearning for her father, falls in love with Nickel, a middle-age man yearning for his son. The more Fay asks of Nickel, the more Nickel is drawn into the destructive elements of Fay's family, until tragedy strikes. Nothing about the story feels artificial. Woven through the narrative is the story of Fay's father, a humble man with extraordinary empathy and inner strength who nevertheless suffers an early death. His spirit ... Read More
Rating:  - Not believable
This is a very quick read, but I was dissatisfied after finishing the book. I was initially intrigued that a white woman was writing from a black males perspective and I wondered how believable it was going to be. Turns out, not very. I just never understood why the main character was making the decisions-radical and unorthodox-that he was making. I liked the main character and the themes he intended to embody, but nothing seemed to come together with the story. The reader knows a lot of personal ... Read More
Rating: - Excellent Writing, But Is That Enough?
I'll keep this very short since many of the other reviewers do a good job of summing this book up - Patchett can write, maybe better stylistically than anyone today, but it's not enough her to cover up a weak plot. The story about a black bar manager named Nickel who becomes involved with a brother and sister tandem that ultimately results with him shot in the shoulder seems to lack the kind of emotional intensity that Bel Canto and Patchett's other work has. The writing is clear and has a wonderful swaying ... Read More
Related Categories:
| |
 |
