Ladder of Years (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m glad I decided to re-read the novels I’ve collected by the American writer Anne Tyler. Her style is a bit different from my usual preferred reading, and I sometimes wonder where her stories are going - but they’re very readable, sometimes light-hearted, and sometimes thought-provoking. The one I’ve just finished is ‘Ladder of Years’, which I first read in September 2005. After eighteen years, it’s not surprising that I had entirely forgotten everything about it. 

Delia Grinstead is the main, viewpoint character, though it’s told in the third person. Unlike some of Tyler’s novels, this doesn’t take place over the course of just a day or two, but about sixteen months. It all starts, we’re told, when Delia is in the supermarket and a young man asks her a couple of questions about produce he’s looking at. She’s clearly a friendly, chatty person, and also very big-hearted.

So when this man asks her to pretend to do something very strange, she agrees, seeing it almost as a joke. It doesn’t backfire - he ends up paying for her groceries, although she’s missing most of the things on her list, and has, instead, acquired some of the things he had put in the trolley. But when she gets home she can’t get him, or the encounter, out of her mind…

Delia is forty, the youngest of three sisters who recently lost their father. Delia is married to Sam, who’s a doctor (as her father was) and  they live in the family home with their three offspring: Susie, Ramsey and Carroll. Susie has a boyfriend called Driscoll, Ramsey has a girlfriend called Verma, and Carroll is 15, still at school. Delia’s unmarried sister Eliza lives with them too, and their other sister Linda lives in another state, with her twin daughters. 

It seems that Delia is going through a kind of mid-life crisis, as she starts fantasising about the man she met at the supermarket, hoping to see him again. And then, when the extended family are on a beach holiday a month later, she does something very bizarre, for no obvious reason… and ends up in a completely different location. She hasn’t mentioned to anyone that she’s going, so this inevitably starts a nationwide hunt, and suspicion falls on Sam, implying that he has done something to drive her away.

Delia, meanwhile, finds somewhere to stay, telling herself at first that it will just be for a few days while she gets her mind in order. But then she starts to get to know people, and looks for a job… 

It’s not the most exciting book, and I can’t say I really related to Delia. I could not imagine myself doing what she did under almost any circumstances - and her personality, so outgoing and friendly, is far removed from mine. She learns a lot about herself, and how to be independent and appreciate it; she’s never lived alone, having got married at nineteen. She’s convinced her children will barely notice she’s gone, now they’re grown up (or almost grown-up in Carroll’s case), with their own lives and concerns which rarely seem to impinge on hers.

‘The Ladder of Years’ is a pleasant read, but not particularly memorable - however in places it’s quite thought-provoking, as Delia starts to examine her attitudes to parenting, and independence, and tries to figure out who she is on the inside. It’s primarily character-based, and the story goes full circle; I couldn’t recall how it ended, and was pleasantly surprised by the final chapter, though a bit sorry for some other people who Delia ended up abandoning.

Recommended in a low-key way if you want something a bit different. Anne Tyler’s writing style is excellent, and there were a few observations or exchanges that made me smile. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews