Anne Patchett's WHISTLER-Whistle Loud for this Blissful Proud Family Drama

The award winning author, Anne Patchett has written another novel about family ties over time and generational divides. Her latest novel, WHISTLER, explores the the connections between Daphne and her mother Abigail's second husband Eddie Triplett. Though the marriage lasted only two short years, the impact the relationship made on both their lives was lasting. The novel begins in the NY Metropolitan Museum where Daphne, now a Lit teacher in a private girls school is spending the day with her husband, Jonathan. It's Jonathan who notes an older dapper. man who seems to be tailing them.  When confronted by Jonathan, the gentleman reveals his identity hoping that Daphne will remember him. The serendipitous reunion invokes a torrent of tears from Daphne. "Why did I cry when I realized Eddie was Eddie? Why was I so close to crying again now? Because I had loved him and I had ruined his life" Daphne tells us which draws us into this beguiling novel. Eddie and Daphne reminisce about the years in which he was stepdad to her and her younger sister, Leda. So reignites a bond that was forged between Eddie, so kind and caring at a time when the sisters and their mom were unsettled and struggling following their mom's divorce from their father. It doesn't take long for Daphne to find herself enraptured by the erudite and charming editor. As Eddie brings Daphne into his social whirl and work place, he proudly introduces her as his daughter to her own delight. Leda, now a family therapist is married with a family on the UWS. The girls mother has been remarried to her third husband for decades with two grown sons. The end of the marriage between Eddie and the girls mother ended abruptly following an enigmatic accident which looms over the story. The remarkable details of the cataclysmic car accident involving Daphne and Eddie are revealed towards the end of this irresistible novel as Eddie hosts a brunch in his Chelsea apartment for the sisters, their spouses and their mother. So too is the story of a horse named Whistler revealed as told by Eddie to nine year old Daphne as a distraction from their dire situation. Patchett uses her adroit skills for conjuring up fully fleshed characters whose lives we're eager to embrace. From most characters there exudes compassion and kindness bestowing the novel in a feeling of benevolence. There's a story of Eddie's repressed love due to the social norms of homosexuality in his earlier years. Nonetheless, the pervasive memes of WHISTLER are acts of human kindness and intriguing familial ties told within an ingratiating novel that is impossible to put aside. Leda gives Daphne her professional and personal assessment of their upbringing. " Our parents, Leda said, did not depend on us for their sense of identity. They had their lives and we had ours. Bless them."