A black man named John Nickel runs a bar in Memphis. He meets Fay Taft and hires her as a server, despite the fact that he believes she is underage. Her brother, Carl, is mixed up with drugs. Their father (the titular Taft) has died, and their mother is not around. Nickel begins imagining the life of their father, though they had never met.

Nickel is an interesting character. He is an ex-drummer. He is estranged from his ex-girlfriend and mother of his son, who has moved to Miami. He made some mistakes earlier in life, which he acknowledges, but very much wants a relationship with his son. I think we are supposed to admire him but his actions make this difficult.

For me, the structure of this story does not work very well. It mixes up what is real (Nickel’s life) with what is imagined (Taft’s life with his kids). I am not sure I understood the point of the imagined storyline. Perhaps Nickel is dreaming a fatherhood he would like to have with his own son? If so, it was a weak link. I think it would have been much more effective if the storyline had focused on Nickel. The plot takes a strange twist toward the end, which did not work for me. It was okay but not Patchett’s best in my opinion. ( )

John Nickel is a black ex-drummer, managing a Memphis bar. He is settled into a comfortable routine, until he hires a white, teenage waitress and his life slowly begins to upend. I like the characters and the writing is mostly fine but the storytelling never really took off. A bit of a misfire for Patchett but it was only her second novel. ( )

Ann Patchett is one of my favorite writers. This is an early book by her and admittedly it is not up to the same level as her later works. That being said it is an interesting story that takes place in Memphis. It involves race relations but is more about people being pulled in different directions while trying to figure out how to conduct their lives. It is a good story about the South and the pull of family that takes us into the less than positive directions when it comes to our personal decisions. A worthwhile introduction to Patchett but if you are short on time then skip to her later stronger works. ( )

John Nickel, the manager of a restaurant in Memphis, hires a new waitress, Fay Taft. Her brother Carl seems to be part of the deal but they bring complications in their wake.

There were times when I wondered where Ann Patchett was going with this and why I should be interested in any of this. I was confused in the parts involving Fay and Carl's late father, unsure whether this was what happened or whether this was what Nickel imagined their life before coming to Memphis was like. I still hadn't reached any conclusion by the end of the book, but it did feel much more cohesive and I wanted to know what happened next to Nickel, his son, the Woodmore sisters, and Fay. ( )

Reading the negative reviews lowered my expectations. But as I got into this short book I still had hope. Ann Patchett put together some interesting characters in relationships that it was easy to relate to. The focus was on the Black man who started out as a drummer in Memphis only to fall for a woman who wanted more and demanded he get a real job which eventually lead to him managing a bar. He gets her pregnant but does not give her the support she needed. She holds him at bay while he feels more and more about the son he misses. And then there's the young white girl with the problematic brother and the dead father. Patchett creates believable characters who get into the problems you can see coming. But the end of the book is where it all falls apart. Patchett decides to leave everything unresolved so it builds to a hot mess and then just leaves us wondering what happened next. If that's enough for you you'll like this book. But if you want the author to finish what they started this is a skippable book. To make matters worse if you're like me and get squeamish when you're dragged through descriptions of surgery this book is not for you. Now I understand the reviews. ( )