Taft
by Ann Patchett
April 12 was a bright sunny day. We had a good turnout, with all seven of us in attendance. We were in general agreement that Taft is a good yarn, the voice of John Nickel, a young Black man captured skillfully by a White woman writer. The fact that John is Black came as a surprise as he does not speak like a Southerner. He seems intelligent and capable, yet lost and floundering, having random affairs and living with no clear focus. The story raised many questions for us: why does he go out of his way to help Fay and Carl? Is it because he feels guilty for having treated Marion badly? Why does Marion not “get over” it, after all, John is trying, and he did send her to nursing school. His channeling of Taft seems accurate, but why does John idealize a father who is White? Why does Ruth want him to be a drummer again? Can he do nothing better than to manage a bar? (To which someone answered that there is nothing much else in Memphis.) What does the ending suggest about the future of John and Marion and Franklin?
2 comments:
Great recap, Ann.
Did we ever figure out why this book is called Taft when Taft is a relatively minor character?
Thanks for your comment, Mairtin. I wondered about the title, too. I read somewhere that Patchett did not think Taft the best title for this book. One way to look at it might be to say that Taft the character drives the narrative -- he (actually his death) sets things in motion for Fay and Carl. Also, to some extent John becomes a substitute for Taft, a sympathetic father figure, and imagines what he must have been like. The idealized Taft serves as a counterpoint to John’s own struggles with fatherhood and perhaps a chance for John to reflect on his own situation?
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