Summary of Ann Patchett's This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 I have never liked Christmas. In my family, there were happy Thanksgivings and tolerable Easters, but Christmas was a holiday we failed at with real vigor. I blame this on my parents’ divorce.

#2 Christmas was a bad day for expectations and heart’s desires. My father’s presents were always the saddest because they were so consistently wrong. I never liked the presents, but I loved Christmas.

#3 My father wanted me to be a dental hygienist, unlike my sister, who was shooting the lights out in school. He thought I should be realistic about my chances of inheriting Disneyland.

#4 I loved the story, and I understood it was fiction. I knew that the narrator was a made-up person, but I still felt her pain. I understood that writers did not have to be confined by their own dull lives and petty Christmas sadness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669354819

IRB Media

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Book preview

Insights on Ann Patchett's This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 18

Insights from Chapter 19

Insights from Chapter 20

Insights from Chapter 21

Insights from Chapter 22

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I have never liked Christmas. In my family, there were happy Thanksgivings and tolerable Easters, but Christmas was a holiday we failed at with real vigor. I blame this on my parents’ divorce.

#2

Christmas was a bad day for expectations and heart’s desires. My father’s presents were always the saddest because they were so consistently wrong. I never liked the presents, but I loved Christmas.

#3

My father wanted me to be a dental hygienist, unlike my sister, who was shooting the lights out in school. He thought I should be realistic about my chances of inheriting Disneyland.

#4

I loved the story, and I understood it was fiction. I knew that the narrator was a made-up person, but I still felt her pain. I understood that writers did not have to be confined by their own dull lives and petty Christmas sadness.

#5

The first completely happy Christmas I remember was when I was twenty-two. I was in graduate school in Iowa City and Jack Leggett, who was then the director of the program, asked me to house-sit for him over the holidays.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

I was always going to be a writer. I’ve known this for as long as I can remember. I was a terrible student when I was young, but I loved writing. I knew that I wanted to write, and I felt a strong sense of loyalty to it.

#2

Writing is a natural act, but it is also one of the most difficult. We should be able to tap into the constant narrative flow our minds provide, and direct it out into a stream of organized thought. But things go wrong when we sit down to write.

#3

If a person has never written a book, they assume that a brilliant idea is hard to come by. But really, even if it takes some digging, ideas are out there. Just open your eyes and look at the world.

#4

I have learned that it is impossible to tell strangers