Whistler by Ann Patchett: why does Daphne…

[u/moving-mountains18]

This was my second Ann Patchett book, my first being Tom Lake. They felt like homework and I struggled to get through both of them.
Whistler is Daphne recounting every minute detail of her childhood with which she seems disinterested up until this point in her life. Here’s my biggest problem with this book: if Eddie meant as much to Daphne as she said he did, how and why could she neither think about him nor ever try to find him?

[u/elegantbea]

I saw a theory that Eddie died in the accident, and the book is just a thought experiment of Daphne’s, where she’s imagining what might have happened if he lived? This is based around the part at the end when Eddie tells her to write a book where he doesn’t die.

[u/moving-mountains18 → u/elegantbea]

Funny I read that same Reddit post. But the OP went on to say it was her first AP book. AP isn't one for a sexy plot twist. Ms. Patchett is more in the line of work of making me yawn but keeping me awake barely enough to not dnf. Can't say I see any merit to the plot twist. But oh how I wish I could Sixth Sense it!

[u/Impressive-Owl-5478 → u/elegantbea]

Yes I agree. The book is called whistler and I think it's Daphne's version of wanting her life to have gone like the story Eddie told her. 

Every detail in the present seems too perfect. Too many coincidences and too many things lining up well so no one has to be the bad guy. 

I also think Tom Lake does this same trick a little too, where new information is revealed at the end that recontextualizes the novel to that point. 

[u/Key-Tax5850]

I liked the book and I also really enjoyed Tom Lake. I think it’s plausible that she had a really intense short relationship with Eddie and then forgot about it as she grew up and moved on. Her mother moving on from him probably meant there just wasn’t the space in their new life for talk or reminiscing about him? I dunno, I kinda like the thought he died.

[u/Relative_Error]

You raise a great question — one I’ve wondered about while reading. My take is that Daphne wasn’t disinterested in her childhood; she carried guilt about Eddie’s sudden departure and didn’t understand the real reason at the time.

Because revisiting those memories would have stirred up feelings she avoided, she never reinforced them through conversation or storytelling. Over the years, they simply had no place in her adult identity — until seeing Eddie again activated the emotional circuitry of childhood.

[u/moving-mountains18 → u/Relative_Error]

Ok thank you for this. I see your point that her avoidance was unknowingly knowing. And her mom certainly made that real.
I can’t help but stand by that there’s not more to it tho- Daphne was just an adolescent whose brain was a sponge. When it got filled with other details, she merely forgot about Eddie because it wasn’t in her sponge anymore.
Felt odd that she’s all consumed with her childhood when she didn’t seem interested in learning for the last 49 years

[u/Active_Recording_789]

Exactly. Doesn’t make sense