REVIEW:

I finished this marvel of a book several days ago, and I’m still swooning.

Sometimes you pick one up and feel like you mesh with it so perfectly that it might have been written just for you. This was my experience with Ann Patchett’s 2021 essay collection, These Precious Days. Twenty-two essays (plus an introduction and epilogue) that were written during the COVID lockdown, when she found writing fiction impossible but still needed to put pen to paper.

Of course it helps if you have a personal connection to the topics she covers, and with 22 to choose from you likely will. For me, these were: no shopping/minimalism, having a husband who likes to fly teeny tiny (scary) planes, childlessness, book cover love, and (sigh) cancer.

The titular essay, “These Precious Days,” refers to her unexpected friendship with a woman named Sooki Raphael (Tom Hanks’s assistant) who stayed with her and her husband for cancer treatments in 2020 while the world was shut down. (That’s one of Sooki’s paintings of Patchett’s dog on the cover.) It was previously published in Harper’s Magazine, and you can still read it online if you can’t get your hands on the full book.

But if you love eloquence and wisdom, and listening to a voice of an author that quickly becomes a dear friend, then I give the audiobook my highest recommendation. Patchett narrates it herself, and the days I spent with her in my ear were, in a word, precious.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays.

“Any story that starts will also end.” As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart.

At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores “what it means to be seen, to find someone with whom you can be your best and most complete self.” When Patchett chose an early galley of actor and producer Tom Hanks’ short story collection to read one night before bed, she had no idea that this single choice would be life changing. It would introduce her to a remarkable woman—Tom’s brilliant assistant Sooki—with whom she would form a profound bond that held monumental consequences for them both.

A literary alchemist, Patchett plumbs the depths of her experiences to create gold: engaging and moving pieces that are both self-portrait and landscape, each vibrant with emotion and rich in insight. Turning her writer’s eye on her own experiences, she transforms the private into the universal, providing us all a way to look at our own worlds anew, and reminds how fleeting and enigmatic life can be.

From the enchantments of Kate di Camilo’s children’s books to youthful memories of Paris; the cherished life gifts given by her three fathers to the unexpected influence of Charles Schultz’s Snoopy; the expansive vision of Eudora Welty to the importance of knitting, Patchett connects life and art as she illuminates what matters most. Infused with the author’s grace, wit, and warmth, the pieces in These Precious Days resonate deep in the soul, leaving an indelible mark—and demonstrate why Ann Patchett is one of the most celebrated writers of our time.