Thumbs up for the post except …
I doubt anyone suspects that Patch fathered Misty’s baby. Patch and Misty had long gone their separate ways, meeting years later that one night in Boston. They didn’t meet again for years. I wondered if Misty’s parents even knew who fathered Charlotte. Of course, her mother does eventually. (Doesn’t Charlotte look like her mother, more than Patch?)
You don’t think Patch is Charlotte’s father? I definitely do — I thought it happened that last night they were together, and that the math worked.
Darn, I’m out of town for a few days and accidentally left my book at home, or I’d go searching!
Oh, yes, definitely Patch is the father.
You mentioned in an earlier post that in the small town of Monta Clare that “everybody would know Misty had Patch’s baby.” I don’t think so because … well … because by that time there’d be no reason to think so. Patch and Misty had parted ways years earlier. No one could have known about that night in Boston.
Ah, I see! I misunderstood. 
Patch notices physical changes to the town when he returns after his long absence, and of course, older characters pass on and new characters are born; but in its essence, Monta Clare still feels like a small town to me from beginning to end.
As for the country, Whitaker does a good job of weaving in historical events as “markers,” to keep us situated in the time period.
Re events of historical significance (or not 
), here’s another coincidence in the novel, but it’s a funny one and I think intended to be so: The June 1965 issue of Playboy magazine saved by Patch just happens to feature Ursula Andress, the actress with whom Tug is infatuated. And it’s historically accurate: https://www.amazon.com/Playboy-Magazine-Ursula-Andress-June/dp/B0762RD59W
I think in an alternative universe, Patch and Saint would have been very happy together. They understood each other well and met each other’s needs. They could have had a nice family and settled in their little town or wherever Saint went with her academic prospects. She was a very bright woman. Of course, they had family members who needed them—Saint’s aunt and Patch’s mom.
They were a much better match than Misty and Patch ever were, or Saint and her husband who turned abusive.
I guess Saint almost gets a daughter even if it’s not the child she gave up for adoption. I feel like she really got a raw deal.
Yes, Saint got a pretty raw deal, but she had agency and made choices. She had a lot of potential.
I felt the author didn’t really identify with any of the women and never really fully fleshed them out—Scout, Misty, Grace, etc.
I wasn’t overly bothered by that because it’s primarily Patch’s story.
Yes, but sometimes other authors do a better job of fleshing out supporting characters.
I think Whitaker was trying to do so much — mystery, thriller, history, sociology, romance, psychological study, you name it — that there was never an opportunity to fully develop his characters and make them feel multi-dimensional.
I think this is especially true of the supporting characters. Sammy, for example, was an alcoholic lothario with a heart of gold. Whitaker’s descriptions of him (half drunk, bedding every woman in town) became repetitive to me after a while. As did descriptions of Himes, the father-figure FBI boss who liked to eat 24/7. Norma was better, but again, I’m not sure we needed multiple repetitions of the “she’s a lesbian (but not really)” joke.
Yet I have to say that none of the above made me want to stop reading. Whitaker’s ability to craft twists and turns, no matter how far-fetched (or maybe even because of how far-fetched), kept me turning pages.
Yeah, if he could have cut down on some of the repetition and had more editing it would have been a more enjoyable read, imho. We never learn for example where Sammy got his considerable fortune, unless it was from his bedroom charms. (If it was another source, I missed it.)
Sammy was paid off by Mary Meyer’s father and he used the money to buy a Mark Rothko painting, which was eventually worth millions:
Patch helped him over to the bed. Sammy lay back and let the room spin as Patch looked around at the opulence. “How do you have so much?”
“Painting,” Sammy slurred.
“You painted?”
“I bought a painting. I was a little younger than you are now. Rothko. I saw the state of his mind where others merely saw the color.”
I guess that makes sense. I missed it. There were just so many side stories it was tough focusing.
You may have noticed that one of the motifs running through the book is the song “The Rainbow Connection.”
Saint plays it on the morning of her wedding. “It’s a song by a frog with an introspective soul,” she tells Norma.
Years later, Charlotte mentions the song to Patch when he tells her about Grace:
“She is…she was real,” he said, matching her whisper.
“So she’s it,” Charlotte said.
“What?”
“Your rainbow connection.”
“What’s that?”
She rolled her eyes in a move that echoed her mother. “Everyone on this earth is placed here for someone else. You follow your dreams and find them, and you make a match and nothing else matters. Haven’t you heard the frog sing it?”
He shook his head.
She stood beside him and together they watched the green frog clutch a banjo.
When Saint lets Patch escape, she hugs him, and Whitaker writes: “Behind them the clouds eased apart for a rainbow of light they did not notice.”
A song sung by Kermit the Frog seemed oddly cutesy for a book with such dark themes, but the last verse is fitting:
Have you been half asleep, and have you heard voices?
I’ve heard them calling my name
Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the sameI’ve heard it too many times to ignore it
It’s something that I’m supposed to beSomeday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me
We can start choosing our June book at any time!
I think we’ve mentioned The Correspondent but it may still be hard to get. Also we considered My Friends last time.
and I still want to read Hello Beautiful though I no longer remember why I want to read it. 
New suggestion: Lafayette in the Somewhat United States Nonfiction but since it’s the U.S.'s 250 anniversary it would be relevant. Library Journal: “This brief but detailed work on Lafayette and the Revolutionary War is both accessible and fun.” Seems like good timing. (Has nothing to do with the college but I can’t seem to make the color change back to black.)
I’m starting the Three Lives of Cate Kay for another book club
I like all of the suggestions from @ignatius , including Lafayette. Have we read nonfiction before? Sarah Vowell writes “fun" history; it’s been a while, but I’ve read some of her other books. Here’s a review:
https://www.npr.org/2015/10/21/448932918/somewhat-united-brings-lafayette-down-from-his-pedestal