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REALLY WONDERFUL THINGS ABOUT BOOK TOUR:
1) Every time I get on a plane I am grateful that I am not afraid to fly.
2) Every time I give a reading I am grateful that I am not afraid of public speaking.
3) After years of grousing about living in Nashville I have discovered that home is the
most beautiful place in the world.
4) Basically, everyone and everything I loved before book tour started I love much, much
more now.
5) My first tomato ripened on July 3rd, and I was home to see it. What a beautiful tomato.
6) At every reading I get to plug my top three books: Elizabeth McCracken's NIAGARA FALLS
ALL OVER AGAIN (a truly brilliant book, and I should know because I read every draft of
it. It will be out August 1st), JULIE AND ROMEO by Jeanne Ray, my mom, just out in
paperback and climbing the NY Times list, and Fred Plotkin's OPERA 101, because it
taught me everything I know about opera.
I'm committed to this whole idea of being positive about things. There is so much
to be positive about. I've met some wonderful people, my favorite this week being Barbara,
my media escort in Portland, who works as a probation officer, raises pet llamas, baked me
cookies, and was a deeply fascinating person. I am well aware that without book tour I
never would have met her. And, without book tour, I would not have had dinner with my old
pal Debra Minkoff who has moved to Seattle. How often do I get to Seattle? I adore Debra.
She watched me read at Eliot Bay bookstore and said I would be better off going from city
to city pouring coffee in diners. I loved her because I felt she understood what I was
going through. Without book tour I never would have found those great white netted wings
for Lila Davis who enjoys dressing up as the birthday fairy and making appearances at
people's parties. Good wings are hard to find. I especially enjoyed Powell's bookstore. I
had a heartbreaking introduction from a young woman named Elizabeth. It was so kind. If I
had a copy I would read it every night before I went to bed. The Powell's audience was an
unusually good group. I met a woman in line who said some very touching things about THE
MAGICIAN'S ASSISTANT, and we both started crying. In the audience were the aunt and uncle
of my first college boyfriend and long time good friend, Jack Baughman. I met Jack's uncle
Jim at Jack's wedding last summer, and so they came to take me out for a drink. You never
really get to know your ex-boyfriend's families until they get married. I despise coming
back to hotel rooms late at night after a reading and was really grateful to Jim and Carol
for the transitional time.
Things fell apart a little in Seattle --- a very late plane, a very late reading (the dear
people at the University Book Store held on for over an hour!). The hotel reservations
were mysteriously canceled, which turned out to be fine because I very sensibly chose to
check myself into the Alexis, my favorite hotel anywhere. I caught a really wretched cold.
However, I did get a long visit with Debra, and the cold convinced me to give up on the
pre-reading cigarette, which probably wasn't doing me any good anyway.
I've started reading THE TRANSIT OF VENUS by Shirley Hazzard, which is great so far.
I wish I could explain how book tour is. I know I sound hideously ungrateful complaining
about it. The people are wonderful, and at times, the interactions are genuinely touching.
People are so incredibly generous to me --- the escorts, the audiences, my friends who
show up where I least expect them. I appreciate all those decent, diligent souls who are
trying to sell this book and any other book. But while I may be made for the book store,
I'm not made for the road. I just get more and more run down by the day, and it seems like
poor sportsmanship on someone's part to keep sending me out there. Sometimes I think I've
developed the Stockholm Syndrome with my publicist. She's the one who makes all the plans
and yet I feel like I'd die if she left me. I don't think my state of mind is completely
healthy right now.
If I'm not mistaken, there's a tornado coming so I should probably sign off. I'm not
joking about the tornado, by the way. It is summer in Nashville. I'm going to go outside
and cover my tomato plant with my body.
There's only one more trip and one more installment, then we can all just walk away from
this.
Please visit my website at www.annpatchett.com.
--- Ann Patchett
(c)
Copyright 2001, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
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