A Quick Review of Ann Patchett's "Taft"

Tonight I finished Taft by Ann Patchett. I read it for my Literary Criticism class and I am not impressed.

Taft is the story of John Nickel a former jazz-drummer managing a bar in Memphis. Feeling estranged from his son who’s been moved down to Miami with the mother, Nickel is finding his life rather empty. Then Fay and her brother, Carl, enter his life. They are both only kids, seventeen, he feels compelled to help them. The more he gets involved with their lives the more he finds himself dreaming of their father who recently passed away.

Nickel is the narrator of the story very much to its detriment since he doesn’t have an especially interesting perspective. He’s neither especially insightful, witty, or any number of interesting attributes that would make his narration more compelling. Possibly this is due to Patchett’s hesitancy in taking on a narrator so outside of herself (since she is neither male nor black).

The link between Nickel and Taft seems forced especially since Nickel’s feelings for Fay (who is half his age) are more than paternal. While I understand what Patchett is attempting to evoke with the flashbacks to Taft, she failed miserably. From start to finish Taft was empty, it was as hollow and lonely as a quickie Nickel has with one of his clients at the beginning of the novel.