ANN PATCHETT’S, “THESE PRECIOUS DAYS.”

Ms. Patchett’s, “These Precious Days: Essays,” is very simply PRECIOUS. Whether it be her nonfiction, fiction, or essays, her work contains the one quality that all great writers are able to achieve and that is ‘honesty.’

Her insights into human behavior and how we humans interact with the environment we are a part of is reminiscent, in the strangest of ways, to Joseph Conrad’s works. Their styles of writing are completely different, but the affects of their work is very similar. Joseph Conrad is my favorite writer, and when I compare someone’s works to his that is the highest compliment I can pay to a writer.

Their is not an essay in Ms. Patchett’s collection that I did not like, but there are quite a few I found to be outstanding, such as the one titled ‘These Precious Days,’ which deals with Tom Hanks’ assistant Sooki Raphael’s fight with pancreatic cancer, during the Covid pandemic, and the amazing friendship that springs up between Ms. Patchett and Sooki over a three year period.

Another is “To The Doghouse,” which is about Peanut’s cartoon character, the amazing Snoopy and his transformations into Joe Cool, and into a World War 1 flying ace and his dogfights with the Red Baron, and his love of reading such classics as “The Heart Of Darkness.” Snoopy is a writer who often ends up on top of his doghouse with his typewriter typing “it was a dark and stormy night.”

Ms. Patchett started reading Peanut cartoons when she was still a child, but like Snoopy she followed his example that one does not have to write in a beautiful studio to be a great writer but anywhere you might get inspiration like on your kitchen table, and that even though Snoopy got rejection notices from publishers he never gave up and why, because like Mr. Patchett his imagination is too great and his brain is full with too much information and stories not to put down in writing.

Ms. Patchett seems like the kind of person you would meet and come away with the impressions of her, she leaves you to believe in these essays: a caring, loving, dedicated lady, with a big heart.

Sadly, if I ever did have a chance to meet her I would decide not to unless I could be around her for an extended period of time. I worked in a very famous restaurant (which was more like a saloon) with the best food in town. When given a chance to meet two of my idols, Paul McCartney and Frank Sinatra, I decided not to and the reason why is because if they seemed standoffish or unpleasant that experience would have an affect on me every time I heard their music. I simply could not take that chance.

Yet, some of the best pieces of writing I did were about superstars like Sam Shepard, Don Rickles, and Ray Liotta but with them I had the pleasure of talking to them for long periods of time and over years.

“These Precious Days: Essays,” are a must read for those familiar with Ms. Patchett’s works, and even for does who are not.