(Pub date 6/2/2026)
Ann Patchett's novels have spanned a range of geographic settings and yet they always feel intimate and local. She writes about familial relationships and the many forms they may take. The central relationship in her newest novel, "Whistler", is that of a young girl, Daphne, and her much loved stepfather, Eddie who her mother divorces after Eddie and Daphne are involved in a traumatic accident. Though Eddie was a part of their family for only a year when she was nine, Daphne is changed forever by that bond.
The novel opens with Daphne, now 53, visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her husband, Jonathan. There they run into Eddie who Daphne has not seen since the divorce. In the ensuing pages, the narrative moves forward and backward in time to tell the story of Daphne, her sister, Leda, mother Abigail and Eddie. Patchett illuminates the many ways we misunderstand or mislead the people we love and yet how powerfully that love shapes our lives.
The strongest and most vivid characters in "Whistler" are Daphne and Eddie. Patchett has said the inspiration for writing the novel came from the loss of a close friend and mentor whose voice (not story) she recreated in Eddie. That may be why the other characters and their stories, while interesting, feel only lightly sketched in. Eddie is delightful. The reader can't help but join in Daphne's grief for all the years she missed with him.
While the theme of family relationships is the primary, overriding theme of the book, there is a slighter thread that concerns writers and the world of publishing. Patchett includes a vague structural suggestion of a book within a book but never develops it.
While this may not be her strongest book, "Whistler" like most of Patchett's novels, is an engrossing, entertaining read.
reviewed by Jean C VanNoppen
