Earthly Possessions (by Anne Tyler)

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I’ve been enjoying re-reading my collection of novels by Anne Tyler - she has a quirky style and a good sense of characterisation. She’s not all that well-known in the UK but popular in the United States. Her books aren’t my favourite - the books are totally character-driven with not a great deal of plot - but they make a good light read over a busy period.

I’ve just finished ‘Earthly Possessions’ which I first read in 2005 and had entirely forgotten what - and who - it was about. I quickly recalled the opening chapter, albeit without remembering the detail. A woman called Charlotte, who relates the book, is waiting in a bank. She’s planning to leave her husband, when she’s caught up in a bank robbery and taken hostage… 

Charlotte and the robber, whose name is Jake, then embark on a long journey across the US - ending in Florida - and the book meanders with them. They get to know each other, somewhat, and Charlotte is surprisingly placid about the whole thing. There are flashbacks into her life and marriage; her husband Saul seems quite a likeable person, and a good father, but somewhat remote. They’ve grown apart and it’s not the first time she’s left him. 

We never discover what happened to Charlotte’s daughter, a young teenager, when her mother vanished unexpectedly. But we learn a bit about her, and also about Saul’s family. He has three brothers who live in the family home, and Charlotte seems to spend her time looking after them all. She’s been feeling a bit trapped and wants to travel… which is partly why she goes along with Jake.  

There’s some low-key humour in the way the two relate, and in Jake’s insistence that he’s not a bad man, just a victim of circumstances. Of course it’s Charlotte who is really the victim of circumstances but the irony seems rather lost on Jake. We don’t learn where he’s actually heading (or why he robbed the bank) until much later in the book by which time he doesn’t seem like a criminal, but rather naive and ‘entitled’. 

I didn’t find the book particularly gripping - it’s very readable and light-weight, but I didn’t feel any strong empathy for any of the people concerned. Perhaps they’re a tad too eccentric. The ending, when it comes, is a bit sudden and I felt a lot was left hanging. Charlotte had come full circle, but it’s not at all clear how Jake’s future is going to develop.

I’m glad I re-read it, but think I probably appreciated it more the first time around.  Maybe my tastes have changed. 

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