“Whistler” came highly recommended by several individuals including my main ‘go to’ recommender, Penny in Norwich, Vermont.  I had loved Patchett’s 2002 book “Bel Canto” and also enjoyed “Tom Lake” published in 2023, so I had high hopes for this novel.

Most of those hopes were met, but it fell short of my expectations.  That’s not to say that it’s not worth reading.  O contraire.  It’s a powerful and beautiful novel, just not the Great American Novel I was looking for.

The book begins with Daphne and Jonathan Fuller at the Met where Jonathan notices an older man following them.  He turns out to be Daphne’s long lost step-father, Eddie Triplett.  The book moves back and forth in time between the present as Daphne, her sister, Leda, and their mother Abigail try to adapt to the re-entry of Eddie who had been married to Abigail for only one year into their lives.  There are also flashbacks to a car accident in which the 9 year old Daphne and Eddie almost die.  Along the way we learn about Daphne and Leda’s father, Buddy, a fisherman from Gloucester who Abigail divorced because he loved the sea more than his family and about their current step-father, Lucas.  We also get to know the Darien-based lawyer Skip Hottaling, Eddie’s Yale roommate and best friend and Skip’s wife, Polly.

Surprises abound, as the novel unfolds and they’re all about love. Buddy’s love for his vocation on the ocean.  Eddie’s forbidden love for Skip.  Daphne’s love for Jonathan and for her sister, Leda.  Love all over the place in every shape and size, and at the end of the day, the most important thing in these characters’ lives.

There is a horse theme here, though I’m not sure why or how.  While at the Met before meeting Eddie, Daphne is absorbed in a sculpture by Charles Ray of two horses, and during their near death experience in the car accident, Eddie keeps Daphne’s mind off their danger with a story about the eponymous Whistler he had read in a book he was editing.  Horses, young girls, loyalty—not sure.

Patchett is a fine story teller, and by the end of the book, I was cheering for Daphne (It helped that she had taught school in Newton,MA), Eddie, Abigail, Leda, Jonathan, and even poor, sad closetted Skip.  Excellent beach reading for sure, but doubt it’ll get the Pulitzer or National Book Award.