Writer:

Patchett was born in Los Angeles. She was the younger of two daughters of Frank Patchett, a Los Angeles police captain and Jeanne Ray, a nurse (who later became a novelist). The couple divorced and her mother remarried, moving the family to Nashville, Tennessee when Patchett was six years old.

In 2010, she co-founded the bookstore Parnassus Books with Karen Hayes; the store opened in November 2011.In 2016, Parnassus Books branched out with a mobile bookmobile, piggybacking on success of food trucks, and expanding the reach of the bookstore in Nashville.In 2012, Patchett was on the Time 100 list of most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.

She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband, Karl VanDevender.

She runs a place for all of us with books.(R.1)

Story:

The acclaimed, bestselling author—winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize—tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families’ lives.(R.6)

Good novels are like good parties: You get the right mix of people together, and you never quite know what will happen.

Handsome, impetuous Bert Cousins sets, Bert Cousins, a lawyer acquaintance of Fix Keating, who already has a wife, three children and another on the way. when he arrives uninvited at a christening party carrying a bottle of gin, but his fateful kiss with Beverley will shut down "the entire shivering length of his spine." and a new start of his life.

The Keatings have two children; the Cousins have four, and the messy relationship of two families merging in the suburbs and comprises the backbone of "Commonwealth."

When Bert and Beverly marry, they break up two families and reconfigure everyones destiny. They move to Arlington, Va., and bring Beverlys two young daughters, Caroline and Franny, with them. Beverlys ex-husband, Fix, remains in Los Angeles and sees his daughters infrequently. Berts four children, Calvin, Holly, Jeanette and Albie, spend summers in Arlington, but Bert finds reasons to spend more time at work in the summers, leaving Beverly to care for six children.

They are living a worse "Brady Bunch" life. Berts ex-wife, Teresa, who got divorced with Bert at the end for the sake of Cal’s death, achieves a modicum of revenge by sending the 4 children on a flight from Los Angeles to Arlington with no luggage.

Ann: Probably it has to do with my childhood. If I could stretch out on the couch for a minute ... my parents got divorced when I was young and my mother married someone who had four children and we moved to the other side of the country — albeit not to Virginia — and I think that being thrown together, being pulled out of a family and put into a family has always been very interesting to me. But the wonderful thing about publishing this book at 52 is that I know that I am capable of working from a place of deep imagination. Now I just feel like I own every part of myself and my life and my imagination and the rocky terrain of my own brain, and that feels really good.(R.7)

Highlights vs self- reflection:

1.p. 169: Your sister needs her family. Calvin needs his uncle. And I could use a brother. I am very far away from home.

2.p.173: He wondered if this was what people were doing-were they making dinners with their family, holding babies, recounting days? Was this what life was like for them?

3.p.239:A novel isn’t the worst place to hide things.

4.p.308:No stupidity in happiness

5.p.308:The thing that’s going to kill them is already on the inside.

6.p.322: Franny’s mother wasn’t in the kitchen anymore but the light was still on beneath the door to Bert’s study.

7.p.310: unable to map out all the ways the future would unravel without the moorings of the past.

8.p.311: the party always seems like such a good idea in the abstract

9.p.253:Fix looked at Teresa there in the backseat, like one of those little featherless birds that’s dropped out of the nest and onto the side walk, still breathing but completely translucent, everything at the wrong angle.

10.p.257:The bee was right there on him, like someone who commit s murder and then sticks around.

11.p.274: Cal’s death had flung each of them to their own far corner.

Golden Sentence:

1.p.147: Albie gave a small smile at such an impossible thought, and in that smile she saw something of the brother she had known.

2.p.174: Sometimes it was a contract and he was to wait for a signature before riding it back to where it had come from.

3.p.230: there was always the chance that fate could reverse itself

4.p.177: with that smile the receptionist felt that she had been given a gift in return

5.p.286: I didn’t think about changing my life. My life had already been changed. I just had to get through it.

6.p.314: Age arrive d at different rates of speed, in different ways.

7.p.41:Never be in a rush to have someone poison you

8.p.42:You have to be willing to put in the time if you’re serious about finding it

9.p.253: Cancer really was the devil’s handshake

10.p.257: It’s better that we stay together.

Conclusion:

1.      Parent doesn’t mean perfect, but a simple person willing to learn from his own mistakes.

2.      Digamy like Gin mixed with different flavor, sadness, happiness, caring and sharing, drink it with joy, salut to our life! If you don’t like the taste, then make it good to drink.

3.      All people we met is helping us find out the answer of life

4.      Home is a place you can stay as long as you wish till you are well prepared to go out to fight against the world.

5.      Life is simple, holding hands and making meals together.

6.      Gin will taste better if it mixes with other flavors. Gin goes with orange juice is the best taste of the sunrise cocktail.

7.      Kids become more cooperate and take good leader place of divorced parents.

8.      Orange goes with gin tastes so mesmerized, orange tree brings the bee also cause fatal attraction. Who got the wisdom to keep the beauty and the sadness in balance?

9.      Once rooted from the Brady-Bunch family, later will count into one.  Follow the flow, enjoy the commonwealth. It could be the best taste of Gin cocktail.

10.   Simone de Beauvoir(1908-1986) “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman) No matter marry or remarry, women need to take care more for the chores. Better fight than flight! You might got blamed , like Teresa, and end up with divorce but you are the one to spoil your own body and mind alone! Don’t forget to love yourself, woman!

11. One broken marriage make two family reshuffle into a different world. Beyond our imagination, kids become more mature than parents to face the new situation via helping each other, even more help parents to deal with death. There is no bad situation, but the way you face it. Their open-minded way to deal with problems give us a great lesson. But it’s a pity, most of the kids follow their parent’s pattern to face divorce. 

Commonwealth Questions by Faye:

Summery of Commonwealth                                            

                              Reading assignment of November,2018

The book , Commonwealth,  is a fiction by Ann Patchett, the story is about two family, the cousins and the Keating and their 6 children.  Mr. Bert Cousins is a lawyer married to Teresa and has 4 children, Cal, Holly ,Jeanette, and Albie.  Mr. Fix Keating is a policeman, married to Beverly and has 2 girls name Caroline and Franny.  One day, Mr. Cousins came to Keating’s house for a christening party, which was giving to the baby Franny by the Keating’s family.  Bert and Beverly loved each other at first sight, and soon divorce to their spouse and married to each other.  Beverly and Bert took both side’s 6 kids age from 3 to 7 lived together, many things happened to the kids and affected to their life.  The marriage was tough for both Bert and Beverly.   The story extended over 50 years, each child encountered their difficulties and had different fate, some made it through independently, some depends on the help and the support of the siblings due to the family love. 

The high light of the story comes to the chapter 6 and 7 when Franny meet with the famous writer Leo

Posen and fall in love with him, they had vacation at a well know movie star’s beach house.  The award winning book that Leo published and became a big hit is call Commonwealth which based on the real life of the Cousins and Keating’s lead to their youngest and long missing brother Albie show up at the beach house and almost fight with Leo.

At the chapter 7, Franny and her lawyer sister Caroline visit their 92 years old father and found out that Mr. Cousins’ first wife Teresa was very ill and help to sent her to the hospital. Teresa died in the hospital. However, up to this point, both of this two reputable persons were managed to live in a peaceful life and well loved by their children.

Many questions and events to think about it in this very interesting novel, just to name a few to lead our discussion:

1.      How each child …Cal, Caroline, Holly, Jeanette, Franny and Albie affected by the divorce and neglect that results? How does each child grow to respond to the family difficulties? Do they become a family again in the wake of divorce?

All the Keatings and Cousins’ 6 divorced kids get together during summer time taken care by overwhelmed Beverley, they do real things, steal gun, swim in the forbidden pond, no one got caught till Cal is shut by accident. Everyone carries different part of the sad story and effect their lives.

Holly is a Zen learner, Franny is a mistress of a much older novelist Leo who wrote Commonwealth based on Franny’s two divorced family clan. Jeanette is a biomedical engineer, after she got pregnant, worked as a service engineer and her hub is an epidemiologist. Albie has been out of contact with the family for years, living in California and working as a heroin-addicted bike messenger. He quickly finds work in NYC as a bike messenger, and stays with Jeanette and Fodé.

Caroline is a lawyer, her hub is a software designer and he is the one to make Caroline laugh.

Each has a distinct personality. Franny has a big heart, Caroline is practical and calculating, Calvin is an instigator, Holly is a follower, Jeanette is a dreamer and Albie, the youngest, is a hapless victim.(R.13)

2.       In what way are the siblings good for and to each other?                                                     

Jeanette and Fode open their arms to invite Albie to stay together.

p.174:Albie made money, he started giving half of it to Jeanette for rent, Dayo’s education or her education.

3.      Describe the 4 parents characters , Beverly, Fix ,Teresa and Bert.  How does the ageing of all four parents affect their feeling and behavior related with each other and the children?

Fix: lazy, male chauvinism, logic, positive , problem solving, mean.

Beverly: kind, sweet, enthusiastic, hospitably, tolerance, sexy

Teresa: selfish, chubby, unattractive

Bert: playful , charming, tender, irresponsible

4.       After writing his novel based on the life stories of the siblings, Leo Posen said: it is my book”and Abie asked: how did he end up with my life? Shall there be regulations and ethical issues for writing about others without their consent?

Writing is a mental therapy for the client, so it’s important to keep it confidential unless they are ready to confront

5.      Why do you think Franny and Leo were willing to overlook their age difference.

They have a highly mental commitment and it’s beyond age.”I like three things in the world. Sun. moon and you. Sun for the morning, moon for the night. You forever. Franny is Leo’s day and night forever.

6.      Bert blame Teresa all things are her fault, is it fair?

He needs to find a scapegoat for himself. But till the end, he do confess that the most unforgiven thing is Bert forgot to bring epinephrine for the allergic Cal.

7.      Love at first sight, do you believe in that?

Love at the first sight, and duty comes to the priority. There’s no free lunch!

8.      Holly choice meditation at Zen center as a way of dealing with her stress and suffering, is this a healthy response? To what extend is this true?

Meditation is a good way to calm down and spend more time to introspect yourself.

I wish all of you would bring more questions for us to talk about it.

See you all real soon.

Summary by Clive

I got the feeling that many members didn’t love this book which sort of surprises me.  I thought it was a beautiful story.  The opening scene is set up like artwork. You understand the background of the characters, the pace of their movements, the absurdity of their choices. You feel the heat of the summer day,  understand the lives that the characters lead and the small town that they live in. You feel the music, the alcohol, the excitement, the dramatic turn of events that awaits. You feel some characters sliding out of focus while others are becoming more intensely illuminated even electrified. It’s as if a magic spell has been cast over the christening party with the the arrival of the handsome uninvited DA, his enormous bottle of liquor and love of oranges. The tension and magic builds feverishly until the kiss between Bert Cousins and Fix Keating’s beautiful wife, Beverly.

“Commonwealth” starts out as a gorgeously written story about two families disrupted so casually, so brutally by this kiss at a christening party.  The writing is so tight, so vivid, and the storyline is riveting.  It follows the lives of the children and the parents in the aftermath of divorce.  Each chapter is it’s own short story, jumping in space and time from the last. There are characters to love, to pity, to sympathize with, to worry about, to mourn for.   The characters are all so human and the essence of humanity is explored through each of them.

The chapters pertaining to the children growing up together, especially the ones taking place during the summer when all six children are together are astonishing.  They are so well written and seem to contain so much truth.  The amount of abandonment experienced by these children and hatred for their parents is astounding.  The children were on their own to do as they pleased and Albie, the youngest, was the only thing holding them back.  So, what did they do?  They drugged him.

Interestingly, this book is semi-autobiographical with many parallels to Ann Patchett’s life.  She grew up in a blended Catholic family.  Her father was a policeman.  

Then, there is a chapter about how Franny becomes Leo Posen’s muse.  This writer, who is Franny’s lover, basically manipulates her life story into a novel, entitled Commonwealth, which is entirely her life and at the same time, not at all her life.

This story asks so many existential questions.  How important is a moment in time?  What would have happened if that one day had gone differently?  Would the outcomes have been similar?   What is important in the end?  How does family shape us?

As much as I adored the character development and the first three quarters of the novel, I must admit that some of the magic of it had departed by the end, for me.  The characters were dispersed geographically and emotionally.  As much as Ann Patchett gave me exactly what I wanted in the end, which was an understanding of all the mysteries and a knowing of how each character of these two families fared in life, this part was far less interesting to me.  Still, Ann Patchett is a brilliant, gifted writer and I was awed and amazed for at least the first three quarters of this book.  

Conclusion from Correspondence Florence

We had a great discussion on the book Commonwealth under the lead by Faye, Faye was so thoughtful to talk about every detail, and brought us into the discussion. At the very beginning, we feel it is just a very ordinary book which is only two married man and woman abandon their families and get married that lead the two families children live together, but Fayes questions drag us to discuss many affairs, Helen is concerned about the social problems of the kids who are from marriage-broken families, and the psychological effects on children; of course, we also talked about each character of the four grown ups, Bert, Beverly, Teresa, Fix. as well as the affections among Albie, Holly, Jeanet, Carolrine and Franny. Thanks, Clive always bring us some affairs that we have never imagined and thanks to Faye for her delicate heart and patience to lead us.

Related Reading:

1.       Ann Patchett: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Patchett

2.       Bookmobil by Ann Patchett: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/25/business/media/a-bookstore-hits-the-road-with-dogs-in-tow.html

3.       Sell her own book in her own bookstore: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ann-patchett-parnassus-books/

4.       Ann Patchett Commonwealth: https://sandbookwich.com/commonwealth-ann-patchett/

5.       Ann Patchett: Writer, and purveyor, of books: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ann-patchett-parnassus-books/

6.       Commonwealth Review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28214365-commonwealth

7.       Commonwealth, Ann Patchett first autobiophical novel: https://www.npr.org/2016/09/08/493142355/ann-patchett-calls-commonwealth-her-autobiographical-first-novel

8.       It was a very good year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bhNz6saaE8

9.       It was a very good year: https://mojim.com/twy101028x99x14.htm

10.    Gin cocktail: https://www.nutmegnanny.com/sunrise-gin-juice/

11.    Holly Review:

http://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-patchett-commonwealth-20160831-snap-story.html

12.    Albie Review

http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-commonwealth/chapanal005.html#gsc.tab=0

13.    Kids review: https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/sc-commonwealth-ann-patchett-books-0915-20160908-story.html

14.    Cal review: https://www.goodreads.com/questions/887523-just-finished-the-book-and-am-having-a

15.    Beverly review: https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/sc-commonwealth-ann-patchett-books-0915-20160908-story.html

16.    Brady Bunch: https://www.today.com/popculture/11-things-about-brady-bunch-you-may-not-know-t103016