Ann Patchett Put a Real Doctor in Her Novel ‘Whistler’: Here’s the Story Behind the Story

If you’ve ever had a great doctor who helped you or a loved one then you know the emotional urge to want to thank them, maybe even write a note of gratitude. But bestselling author Ann Patchett went a step further and included an important doctor in her latest novel Whistler, as a way to show her love for this oncologist’s efforts. It’s an Easter egg detail that has fans of her books buzzing. Here’s the behind-the-scenes, real-life story of the doctor who appears in Whistler—plus Patchett’s long history of collabing with smart scientists on her stories.

The real-life doctor who inspired ‘Whistler’s’ Dr. Ocean

If you’ve read Patchett’s latest book Whistler (spoiler alert ahead…), then you know it features a character named Eddie who has cancer. That character was inspired by Patchett’s real-life friend Jim Fox, to whom the book is dedicated. But there’s also another sweet real-life connection that eagle-eyed fans have latched onto. In the book, Eddie’s oncologist is named Dr. Ocean and is inspired by the real-life doctor by the same name—Allyson Ocean, MD—who lovingly treated Jim in New York City before he died. Basically, Patchett was so touched by Dr. Ocean’s work, she decided to thank her with a mention in the story. Patchett didn’t even change her name—she let the beautiful reference stand for itself.  So this book, which Patchett has called a love letter to friendship, is also a love letter to the hardworking doctors and caregivers who treat us.

What Ann Patchett has said about Dr. Allyson Ocean

At a recent live Q&A event where podcaster Zibby Owens interviewed Ann Patchett, the subject of Dr. Ocean came up. And Woman’s World was in the room to hear it firsthand. Patchett told the crowd tenderly, “Dr. Ocean wrote me the most beautiful letter about Jim, which I sent to Jim’s husband, and it’s just—we cherish it and her. So give her my love!”

Dr. Ocean’s heartfelt response to the book tribute

On the flipside: What does Dr. Ocean think about this name drop in the pages of Whistler? On social media, she had this to say about the special book connection: “Over the past few days, people have told me that I’m mentioned in Whistler by Ann Patchett @parnassusbooks. I was especially touched to learn that the book is dedicated to Jim Fox, Ann’s dear friend and someone I had the privilege of caring for as his oncologist.”

She highlighted one passage in the book, where a character gushes, “I love Dr. Ocean.”

The real Dr. Ocean continued, “Those words mean more to me than I can say because the feeling was mutual. I loved Jim too. Jim was courageous, witty, kind and deeply loved. Caring for him was one of the great privileges of my career. Thank you, Ann, for honoring Jim so beautifully. What an unexpected gift to find his story, and a small piece of mine, within the pages of your novel.”

Ann Patchett’s history of researching real experts

This isn’t the first time a scientist has influenced an Ann Patchett novel. The best novelists do their research to make sure their scenes feel true to life. And Patchett is no exception. She has a history of being inspired by real-life experts in their fields. She told this story from stage at a National Writers Series (NWS) event in 2023, which Woman’s World attended. She said, “When I was writing State of Wonder, I wanted to know about malaria, and I met a guy at a party who was an epidemiologist. And I said, ‘Do you know anything about malaria?’ And he said, ‘I know a guy, he’s the head malarialist at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. And here’s his email.’ And I emailed him…I didn’t say I’m a novelist, I didn’t say anything, just ‘I’m really interested in malaria, can I come and just shadow you for the day?’ And he said, ‘I’d love it.’”

So Patchett went to this facility that worked on cutting-edge vaccination studies to shadow the expert. She recalled, “I just followed this man around all day, and he never asked me why. I did at some point tell him what I was doing, and he said that they were always looking for people to test the vaccine on.”

Patchett was intrigued by the prospect of this medical experiment. She learned it worked like this: “They give you the vaccine and then they have five malaria mosquitoes bite you, and the way they do that—I don’t know why I’m going off on this tangent, but it’s a good one—they put the mosquitoes in a cup, like a plastic Big Gulp cup. They stretch some pantyhose over the cup, put a rubber band around it, and you hold it on your leg until you have five bites.”

She admitted she was tempted to do it, but it’s unclear if she ever went through with it. One thing is clear about life as a novelist: Patchett says, “It really is: adventures in research!”

Bonus: There’s another doctor close to Patchett’s heart

We’d be remiss to mention that Patchett has deep respect for the work of doctors and scientists. In fact, her husband Karl VanDevender is a retired internal medicine physician and private pilot, so she can always ask him about clinical questions that might come up in her novel research. The couple dated for 11 years before they married. They now live together in Nashville.

Patchett calls expert research the ‘most gratifying thing’

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At that NWS event, Patchett also talked about how much fun she has researching elements of her books. “This is the joy of writing a novel, getting to learn things that you don’t know anything about, and I think that for so many adults we don’t have that experience, where you just think, ‘Oh, opera, I don’t know anything about opera, I’ve never been to an opera, I’ve never listened to more than an aria, I’m gonna write a book about opera, here we go!’” Flash forward: The result of that research became Patchett’s PEN/Faulkner winning book Bel Canto!

Or talking to farmers to learn about cherry tree grafting. That book became Tom Lake.

Patchett gave another example, when she set out to “write a book about the Amazon—I’ve never been to the Amazon. I don’t know anything about vaccinations or snakes—but why not? Because you get to learn, and it is the most gratifying thing in the world to go to another person and say, ‘Tell me what you know.’”

So thank you to all the amazing doctors and scientists out there doing their work—and for Patchett for being curious enough to dig into that research and make it come alive for readers everywhere!