“This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage” by Ann Patchett (post 4): Are Novels Autobiographical?

Rose—the protagonist of Patchett’s first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars, discussed in previous posts—is never happily married. She abandons her first husband, and later abandons her second husband and daughter, all without explanation.

The title of the title essay of Patchett’s collection of autobiographical essays, “This is the Story of a Happy Marriage” (1), suggests that Rose’s story is not Patchett’s own. But the essay itself reveals that the issue is complicated.

“I know that a minimum of four generations of my family have failed at marriage. On my father’s side, six out of the seven Patchett children, my aunts and uncles, married, and five of them divorced. My sister and I have both divorced. Our parents divorced when I was four” (1, pp. 239-240).

The man, sixteen years older than Patchett, to whom she became happily married, had wanted to marry her for years. She agreed to marry him only when doctors said he had developed a serious heart disease. After they were married, it turned out the doctors had been wrong, or, at least, that he had completely recovered.

In another essay, “Dog without End,” Patchett recalls her sixteen-year loving relationship with her dog named Rose (1, p. 276).

1. Ann Patchett. This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. New York, HarperCollins, 2013.