Write What You Know

I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but I'm disappointed with Ann Patchett's latest book "Run".  An Patchett is a really good writer.  Her prose is beautiful.  So why pick a topic that she has such a deaf ear to?

All writing classes say "write what you know."  So why is Patchett writing from the perspective of three black kids, one from the projects and the other two adopted into a rich and powerful family?  Even if she's spent the last few years with kids just like that, how can she presume to know how to represent their thoughts on class, race and discrimination?

The whole thing just rang so false to me - and believe me, I love the author.  Her prose is always lovely, but she came across sounding limited here, like she never gets out.  You don't have to speak with many people of color about discrimination before hearing the phrase "you'll never understand what it's like" (usually spoken right after you say, naively, "I know just what you mean!")  So, Ann, how about some more books about the friendship between women, the pain and glory of becoming a writer, adult relationships, career self-doubt, and grown-up families?  How about books about quests and failures and success and patience?  How about some more books about what you know because you've been there?

I recently read Maya Angelou's "Heart of a Woman" (and wrote my thesis on "Invisible Man", and have read a bit of African American fiction over the years).  Reading about the black experience from a primary voice is much, more moving and convincing.  And helps you realize that as a white person you can never know "what it feels like to be black". "Run" was a presumptuous stretch that didn't succeed.  I also wholeheartedly agree with the reviewer I. Peters "Miezekatze" on Amazon who said, "Issue is piled up upon issue and not a single one is tackled in depth".