Redhead by the side of the road (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

On the whole I have enjoyed Anne Tyler’s novels, and re-read several of them a few years ago. I hadn’t planned to acquire any more. But this month’s reading group choice was ‘Redhead by the side of the road’, one of Tyler’s more recent book. It was first published in 2020. I was able to buy it used earlier in the year, and looked forward to reading it.

I was surprised at how short the book is - less than 200 pages - and I finished it in just a couple of days. The main protagonist is a forty-something man called Micah. He lives on his own in a fairly minimalist flat, where he has a caretaking role. At first it appears that he’s taken on the duties because he cares about everything being done properly; it turns out that he’s paid to do this, and has his flat rent-free.

This is a good thing because his main job is as a freelance technical consultant. He gets calls for help most days, and earns sufficient for most of his needs, but it wouldn’t be enough for rent. He’s evidently good at his job, and quite likes it, although many of his clients are elderly ladies who know very little about computers or how to solve minor problems. 

I wondered at first if he was going to be another character on the autistic spectrum - there seem to be a lot of them in modern fiction - but I don’t think that’s the case with Micah. He structures his life quite rigidly, following the same morning pattern of exercise, showering and eating, and has a weekly pattern of cleaning his apartment. He’s quite picky about having everything looking perfect, but he does this in the morning, not last thing at night. And as we learn later in the book, he does this because he grew up in a large, noisy and chaotic household where chores rarely happened, and there was clutter everywhere. His neatness and organisation are in stark contrast. 

Micah has a lady-friend called Cass, and he’s quite happy with their relationship. She works as a teacher, but they sometimes see each other in evenings. At weekends, they spend nights together at her place or his, but he has no wish for anything more permanent. He quite likes living on his own. But he’s not very good at picking up on cues or hints, and this leads to a breakdown in their relationship…

As with most of Tyler’s books, this isn’t a story with a lot of plot. It’s about people, some of them quite quirky, and the ways they relate to each other. Micah has some very strange quirks (such as talking to himself with a pseudo-French accent when he’s cooking) but he’s basically a kind, caring person. I liked him very much. I liked Cass, too, and could sympathise with her frustration when he seems not to understand what she would like him to do. I found his huge extended family rather confusing, and loved the way the descriptions mention only a few by name; I didn’t need to know what everyone was called, and apparently Micah didn’t either. 

The ‘redhead’ - mentioned more than once - is not a person at all, but a fire hydrant which he notices every morning when out jogging. He’s quite short-sighted, and imagines tit is a short redheaded person by the side of the road. Not just the first time he goes out, but day after day… a kind of metaphor for his somewhat tunnel-visioned attitude, I suppose. 

The novel shows Micah thrown - somewhat - out of his routines, partly by Cass deciding to end their relationship, and partly by an unexpected young man turning up on his doorstep. Yet he deals with both situations in positive ways. 

The writing is so good, I could hardly put the book down at times, even though there’s not much action. Anne Tyler has such a gift of observation, of wry pithy comments, and of getting inside her somewhat eccentric people. It doesn’t feel as if they are weird at all while reading; they feel entirely reasonable in their thoughts and behaviour, at the time.

In one sense it’s not a particularly profound book, but I liked reading it very much, and found it quite thought-provoking. The ending is, on the whole, positive, too.  Recommended, if you like observational character-based writing.

 Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews

The Tin Can Tree (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m glad I decided to reread some of my novels by the American novelist Anne Tyler, but I think I’ve probably had my fill, at least for a while. I’ve just finished ‘The Tin Can Tree’, which I last read in September 2007.  Unsurprisingly, I didn’t remember any of it. But I’m not sure that I’ll recall much of it even a year from now, let alone another fifteen or sixteen years.

James is the main protagonist of the book; at least, I think he is. It’s hard to tell. It’s essentially about a mini community of quirky individuals who live next door to each other in a small American town. James lives at one end of a block of three attached houses with his hypochondriac brother Ansel. At the other end are the Pike family, and the book opens with the funeral of their young daughter Janie Rose. Mr and Mrs Pike are, of course, devastated, grieving and feeling lost. Their son, ten-year-old Simon, who is quite mature for his years, is feeling as if he’s lost his parents as they barely notice him. 

In the middle house of the three are two elderly and rather twittery ladies, who like to bake cakes and cookies, and always know all the local gossip. But they don’t actually play much of a part in this novel. 

Then there’s Joan, Simon’s young adult cousin, who lives with the Pike family. She felt like a visitor growing up in her own family, and she mostly lives in her bedroom in the Pikes’ home. She is trying to hold the family together after their tragedy, but feels unsure what she should be doing. 

Joan and James are - somewhat - romantically attached, but James doesn’t feel as if he can leave Ansel, and Joan knows she can’t live with Ansel. So they’re rather stuck at the start of the book… and nothing much changes. 

I know not to expect a lot of plot with Anne Tyler’s novels. They’re essentially character studies, sometimes with quite amusing dialogue. But this one is all about the aftermath of a terrible loss - there’s no humour in it, or, at any rate, nothing that I found even mildly humorous. I wasn’t all that attached to any of the people, either. Joan is a bit clueless, James panders far too much to his brother. Ansel is frankly irritating. The only person I thought likeable is Simon, and he doesn’t feel like a typical ten-year-old.

As a piece of social/cultural history, or character study, it’s an interesting read. It was originally published in 1965, so is naturally dated; but people's behaviours and motivations are recognisable. The writing, as I expect with Anne Tyler, is excellent. But I prefer novels with a bit of plot, and with some conclusion where changes have happened, or where there’s at least some hope for the future. 

The theme of this book seems to be that people might temporarily alter when tragedy strikes, but on the whole they don’t change at all.  Or, as the saying is, 'plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.'

I prefer other books by this author, but if you love her style it’s worth reading. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

A Slipping-Down Life (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

On the whole I’ve been enjoying re-reading my collection of novels by the American novelist Anne Tyler. She has a quirky style, with many wry observations that sometimes make me smile. Her characters tend to be larger than life, many of them caricatured, but then some of the situations are so strange that I don’t take them too seriously.

I just finished ‘A Slipping-Down Life’, which I read in 2006. I had entirely forgotten what it was about, but saw that on GoodReads and LibraryThing I had given it just three stars. I nearly bypassed it, but sometimes my opinions change, particularly after more than fifteen years. And it’s a very short book, more a novella than a novel, with just over 150 pages. So I knew it would be a quick read.

Unfortunately, it’s a  rather depressing book which I didn’t find amusing at all. Evie is the main character; she’s seventeen, very overweight, living a drab kind of life with a father who loves her, but has little in common with her. She’s not sporty, or academic, and her only friend is the even more overweight Violet. 

Evie spends a lot of time listening to the radio, and hears an interview with a guitarist known as Drum Casey. She is virtually tone deaf, and finds most rock music over-loud and incomprehensible, but for some reason the radio interviewer inspires her to find out more about him. This leads her to going with Violet to a rock show where Drum is performing. 

All of which could have been quite interesting, but Evie doesn’t enjoy the concert, and doesn’t understand Drum’s songs. But she starts to become obsessed with him, although she’s certain he’ll never notice her amongst the crowds of attractive fans.  Then something happens - something that made me feel squeamish, as if I didn’t want to continue reading the book, but I did keep going. And gradually Drum - who is very self-centred - starts to notice Evie.

And from then on things get worse… Evie is temporarily contented after agreeing to something so unlikely that I couldn’t believe she would go through with it.  But things go wrong for Drum, and while Evie tries to help, she eventually realises they have nothing in common. 

The ending is both depressing and inconclusive. I suppose it’s a testament to the pace and style of the writing that I kept going, but overall I found it a disappointing book that seemed to have little point to it: rather like Evie’s life at the start of the novel.

Not really recommended, unless you love Anne Tyler's style and don't mind a rather depressing read with dull, dislikable characters. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

The Amateur Marriage (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m mostly liking the Anne Tyler novels that I’ve been re-reading, appreciating her style and the quirky way she looks at everyday situations. So I decided to re-read ‘The Amateur Marriage’, a book I read in 2005 just a year after it was published. I had totally forgotten the characters and the story in the intervening eighteen years.

The book opens by explaining that everyone knew how Pauline and Michael got together. The year is 1941, and young men in the United States are being invited to enlist in the army or navy. But Michael, aged 20, works in his parents’ grocery store. His mother was widowed some years earlier, and his brother died of a degenerative disease, so Michael is her only support. 

Michael is tall, gangly and somewhat shy. Then Pauline walks into the store with some of her friends, and her forehead is bleeding. Michael not only leaps to the rescue with some first aid, but goes out with the girls to watch a military parade, almost forgetting about his mother. He is smitten.  And when it becomes apparent that Pauline expects him to enlist too, he does…

Their marriage happens fairly quickly, as was so often the case in the war years. Michael is wounded and released from service, and when he proposes, Pauline doesn’t feel she can refuse although she keeps wondering if she did the right thing. And this is, perhaps, a preview of the next thirty years. Pauline is generous, kind and very impetuous. She also gets muddled at times, forgetting what she’s doing or where she’s going. Michael is purposeful, reserved and logical. We would possibly say, today, that he’s on the autistic spectrum.

The couple have three children: Lindy, George and Karen. Lindy is rebellious and independent. George is stolid and reliable. Karen is a person of strong opinions who is independent without rebelling. And they grow up in an atmosphere that alternates anger and peace, love and apparent hatred, and the inconsistencies inherent between two such different parents.

The book is set over a period of about sixty years, each chapter leaping ahead but making it clear where the story is fairly quickly.  Pauline and Michael never do really get the hang of marriage - hence the title of the book - although they realise that their friends may well be going through similar ups and downs. 

It’s a generational saga in 300 pages which I found quite readable, though not gripping. I quite liked Pauline so was shocked at something that happened ‘off set’, so to speak, prior to one of the final chapters. I found Michael mostly incomprehensible in his rigidity. Karen is an interesting person but when she moves out we don’t hear much of her. And Lindy is an unknown quantity whose actions early in the book overshadow almost everything that happens in the rest of it. 

As I’ve come to expect from Anne Tyler, the writing is impeccable, the people observed with sufficient empathy to make them realistic, and some caricatured quirks to make them memorable. The author manages to turn everyday activities and disagreements into readable, interesting fiction despite the lack of any real storyline. And even the ending, which I found somewhat disappointing and inconclusive, still kept me reading, even though I realised that probably nothing more was going to happen.

I suppose it’s a satire on family life - particularly American family life of that generation and culture - and as such it works pretty well although I don’t suppose I’ll remember it a year from now, let alone another eighteen. I don’t think I’d recommend ‘The Amateur Marriage’ as an introduction to Anne Tyler, unless you’re a fan of this kind of anecdote-based novel without any real story. But it’s not a bad book, and if you do like this kind of easy reading with a little bit of a bite here and there, it may be worth trying. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

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

Earthly Possessions (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

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. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

Re-reading my collection of Anne Tyler novels nearly twenty years after first reading them, I’ve entirely forgotten the storylines as well as the characters. That’s good in that it means they feel almost like new books - but since I generally don’t check in advance what I thought of them previously, I might sometimes re-read a book which I didn’t much like first time round.

I last read ‘Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant’ back in 2004. So I had no recollection of it at all - and was slightly surprised at the opening paragraph, which informs us that Pearl Tull, a woman in her eighties, is dying. She’s bedridden and almost blind, but her mind is still active. Her son Ezra is with her, and she starts thinking about the past…

The book, set in small town America, takes the form of reminiscences over the decades. Each chapter is written from the point of view of one of Pearl’s three children in turn, and one or two other characters too, later in the book.  Cody, her eldest, is smooth-talking, generally popular, and rather a narcissist. He’s extremely competitive, and has always been jealous of his brother in ways that sometimes have quite unpleasant repercussions. He’s quite manipulative and not above cheating at times… and yet he’s oddly appealing as a character.

Ezra is the middle child, possibly her favourite. He’s intelligent, but slower-moving than his brother, more relaxed and accepting, and far too trusting. Ezra likes to keep his family close, to organise gatherings and meals. He is the owner of a restaurant and in the course of the book he tries to arrange several family meals at his restaurant, only to have them turn out badly for various reasons.

Jenny is the youngest. She’s highly focussed and academic right from the start, determined to be a doctor. Jenny barely remembers their father, who walked out when she was a child - and, bizarrely, Pearl kept pretending, for years, that he had just left on a long business trip. 

So the book gradually unfolds, showing us snapshots in the lives of each of these three, with different perspectives as we see events through different eyes. Pearl, it’s clear, has been extremely stressed over the years and in many ways was an unpleasant, almost abusive mother - and yet her adult children have turned out reasonably well, and stay in touch with each other, albeit loosely. 

The writing is good, as is the characterisation, but the pace is a bit slow for my tastes, and when I picked up the book some evenings I had to re-read a couple of pages to remind myself who was speaking and what was going on.  Anne Tyler has a gift for observation, and I love some of her phraseology; yet this book didn’t really grab me. It’s a circular kind of book, starting with Pearl on her deathbed, seeing her children growing up to the present date, right up to - and after - the point where she dies. 

It’s a character-based book, without a great deal of plot, and I wouldn’t particularly recommend it as an introduction to this author’s work. But it’s a pleasant enough story, and I might even read it again in another couple of decades.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

Morgan's Passing (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m re-reading the novels I’ve acquired, over the years, by Anne Tyler. She’s an American novelist whose work I was first introduced to about three decades ago when we lived in the United States for a couple of years. I very much like her quirky style and her way with words, but recall almost nothing about any of the books. I last read ‘Morgan’s Passing’ in 2002, although apparently I didn’t review it afterwards. 

The novel opens with a village fair, and a puppet show. The children are getting a bit fidgety as Cinderella and the Prince are having a conversation at the ball, and even more so when the puppets disappear entirely. A young man emerges from the puppet booth, offers everyone their money back, and asks if there is a doctor in the house.

My first thought was that someone (‘Morgan’, perhaps?) had died, and that the book would then flash back to his life, or possibly move forward into the aftermath. However it turns out to be a different kind of emergency, affecting the young man’s wife. Morgan is the man who comes forward and takes charge, dealing competently with the problem and then driving the couple to the hospital.

However Morgan is not all he appears. Or, rather, he appears to be a good many different people, and everyone knows him differently. He’s eccentric in his dress - with many hats and outfits in his possession - and a neglectful tolerance of his own family. His wife Bonny looks after him well, if a little haphazardly, and they have five daughters, most of them teenagers when the story starts. 

But for some reason Morgan becomes obsessed with the young couple he has helped, and starts stalking them. It seems rather creepy in today’s society; but this book was first published in 1980, when, perhaps, such things were considered less unacceptable. It’s not that he intends any harm; far from it.  Sometimes he isn’t sure why he doesn’t go right up to them and start talking. He’s not even very good at hiding, since the couple are aware of his presence, but they feel too embarrassed to speak to him.

I wondered if they were going to continue in this way, never actually getting to know each other, but they do in fact meet at last, and become quite friendly.  Morgan’s wife Bonny likes them too, but to leave it like that would not produce a story. Instead, Morgan does something irresponsible and immoral, which made me entirely lose my mild liking for him and for the other person concerned.

I kept reading; the writing is good, the dialogue clever and light-hearted in places. There are some caricatures (such as Morgan’s mother and sister) which are rather sad, although probably intended to be amusing. Morgan himself is so weird that I never really believed in him. And the ending all seems rather depressing.

It took me over a week to finish this; the chapters are short and it’s not heavy-going, but I found that after two or three chapters my mind started wandering. I was never gripped, nor did I care much what was going to happen next.  Definitely not one of Anne Tyler's best novels. I didn’t hate it, but it’s not a book I expect to read again.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

Breathing Lessons (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m glad I decided to re-read my books by Anne Tyler. She’s an American novelist who writes in a quirky, light style with amazing attention to detail, and a depth of understanding of human nature that makes the books surprisingly profound and thought-provoking.

It’s more than twenty years since I last read ‘Breathing Lessons’, and all I remembered about it was that it took place over the course of one day, when a middle-aged American couple made a car journey. Essentially, that’s the plot. In the hands of almost any other author, it could be mundane, or long-winded, or possibly just very short. But Anne Tyler has managed a remarkable novel despite the majority of it taking place inside a car.

Ira and Maggie have been married for twenty-eight years, and we meet them when they’re about to set off to a funeral in the next state. They have had very short notice about this, and Maggie has to pick the car up from the repair shop before they can leave. As we quickly learn, Maggie is quite scatter-brained, leaping to conclusions and regularly getting things wrong .But she’s also very well-meaning and kind.

Ira, by contrast, is quieter, more organised and likes a bit of structure in his life. He isn’t into spontaneity, nor does he befriend everyone he meets, like Maggie does. Ira has a lot of responsibilities and has shouldered them without reproach; he runs a framing shop as his father, who owns it, is chronically sick. Ira has two sisters, one of whom is mentally disabled. The other is plagued by phobias and won’t leave the house.

Ira and Maggie have an adult son, Jesse, who is divorced and hasn’t seen his only child for about five years. And Maggie decides that on the way back from the funeral, they could call in to see her former daughter-in-law and grandchild. Ira thinks this is a terrible idea, and that they should phone first…

The book covers conversations, memories - with flashbacks - and meetings with various people. At the funeral, of Maggie’s schoolfriend Serena’s husband, she becomes re-acquainted with some of their former classmates, and is persuaded to re-run some of the songs from Serena’s wedding. Maggie goes with the flow and chats to everyone, Ira hangs back.

As a personality study, I thought it excellent. Caricatured a little, perhaps, but Ira seems likeable and realistic, and Maggie believable too, in a fluffy, somewhat irritating and yet extremely well-meaning way. I could entirely understand her need to think the best of everyone, to imagine she knows something, or heard something, and then to embroider a little, in the hope of healing emotional wounds or bringing people together. Ira and Maggie are completely different, and have a lot of arguments, but they still love each other very much.

The writing is extremely good, meaning that even though nothing much happened I kept reading, feeling myself drawn into the lives of these two people, seeing others from Maggie’s point of view, even if frustrated at times by her well-meaning (but clearly wrong) advice or comments.

Recommended if you like this kind of character-driven novel that’s gentle on the surface, but quite probing and thought-provoking too. First published in 1988, 'Breathing Lessons' won the Pulitzer Prize, and is still in print, including in Kindle form.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

The Beginner's Goodbye (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

I discovered some of Anne Tyler’s books when we lived in the United States for a couple of years in the early 1990s. But I didn’t begin acquiring some of them for myself - mostly secondhand - until the turn of the century. I always liked her style, so when I saw one of her books that I had not previously come across, ‘The Beginner’s Goodbye’, at a church book sale, it was an easy decision to buy it.

The novel sat on my to-be-read shelf for some months - and I’ve just read it in the past couple of days. I found it almost unputdownable, and I’m not entirely sure why, as there’s not a huge amount of plot. As I recall, this is typical for this author. Her books are character-driven, and her characters, if a tad eccentric at times, are delightfully three dimensional.

The story is narrated by Aaron, a young man who works as an editor for what used to be called a Vanity publisher, though they also publish some of their own books. Most of them start with ‘The Beginner’s guide to…’ which, I’m sure, was the reason for the title of this book although it’s a novel rather than non-fiction.

Aaron has recently been bereaved. His wife Dorothy died in a tragic accident, which we learn about a few chapters into the book. But she’s started appearing to him - not as a ghost, but as a physical being who moves, and talks, and even has a scent of her own. This is never really explained, and Aaron himself doesn’t understand it, but in the first chapter they are walking side by side, rather confounding some of their neighbours.

The timeframe of the story moves backwards and forwards, although it’s done well and it’s always obvious what’s going on. So we learn about the circumstances of Dorothy’s death, and we learn about how she and Aaron first met. The plot moves forwards as Aaron moves in with his sister for a while, and employs a builder to renovate his house, but it also flashes back to previous events in his life. And there are scenes with Dorothy, re-appearing unexpectedly, having unsatisfactory and rather brief conversations.

Aaron desperately misses his wife, although he acknowledges that she had some annoying quirks, and that they weren’t as close as some couples; and in their brief interactions he discovers a little more about himself, and even one or two things about Dorothy. There are scenes in the office where he works, and at his sister’s home… and an encouraging and positive, if slightly unexpected, ending.

There’s gentle humour, irony, cleverly written descriptions, a low-key romance, and some poignancy too although less than one would expect, given the subject matter. All in all, I liked this book very much, and am now planning to re-read my collection of Anne Tyler novels, some of which I haven’t read for a couple of decades.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's Book Reviews

Digging to America (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s a long time since I’ve read anything by Anne Tyler. She’s an American novelist, who writes character-based, often quirky books which rely more on observation and conversation than any real plot. In the right mood I enjoy her books very much, but don’t tend to re-read them. When I spotted ‘Digging to America’ on a church book stall, and knew I hadn’t read it, it was an easy decision to buy it, but it sat on my ‘to-read’ shelf for rather a long time.

I finally picked it up to read a few days ago, and I found myself liking it almost immediately. It’s a book about cultures and contrasts, but it opens at an airport. Two families are waiting for the arrival of Korean babies, whom they’re going to adopt. The most obvious family is an all-American one, with the whole extended family adorned with badges labelling them ‘mom’ or ‘grandma’ (etc), and all kinds of gifts. They’re loud, and excited, and there are lots of photos and also a video being taken.

It’s only after their daughter, Jin-ho, arrives that the other family is spotted: an Iranian couple, and a grandmother. Their baby, whom they rename Susan, is smaller than Jin-ho, and doesn’t look as healthy.

The American family - with parents in their early forties - are determined to respect Jin-ho’s culture, and are blatantly accepting, with a wholesome, ‘earth mother’ approach to child-rearing. They think it important that she and Susan become friends, so they start inviting the Iranian family to their parties - and a friendship is struck. Susan’s adoptive mother Ziba is elegant but a little insecure. Although she admires Jin-ho’s new mother Bitsy, she often feels a bit put down by her comments, even though they are kindly meant.

There are a lot of people in the story, most of whose names I couldn’t remember from one chapter to another, but it didn’t much matter. Bitsy has two brothers, who are married with children; they appear at most family parties, but the only one I recall is a dorky teenage boy, the only one amongst several girls. Bitsy’s parents are quiet, likeable people although it’s clear that her mother is quite ill, unlikely to live much longer.

We learn a little about Ziba and her husband Sami’s past through his mother Maryam, who is widowed, and around sixty when the book starts, but young at heart. Politics are touched on lightly, and there are huge feasts as each family offers increased hospitality to the others. They’re all modern, accepting people but there are inevitable cultural clashes and misunderstandings, and I found it quite thought-provoking.

The blurb on the back claims that the book is full of ‘hilarious moments’ and I can’t say I spotted any of those, although there were one or two places where I smiled at an incongruity, or a particularly wry observation. I do like Anne Tyler’s writing style, her way of painting portraits of people in remarkably few words, and of switching viewpoints and time frames without it feeling awkward. I felt caught up in these family’s lives, particularly empathising with Maryam who’s a quiet, thoughtful person who loves to help anyone she can, but doesn’t feel as if she quite belongs anywhere.

There are more poignant moments than funny ones, in my view, and a great deal that’s thought-provoking. The American side is of course larger than life and caricatured, yet perhaps not as much as it seems to this non-American. And the point is made that some people don’t fit into their own culture, and that some people really don’t like huge parties and endless socialising.

The novel takes place over the course of a few years, and is entirely character-based with almost no plot. The two babies from Korea develop very distinct characteristics, not always liking each other; there’s a low-key possible romance amongst two of the adults, and there are many different social gatherings.

It doesn’t sound like a terribly exciting book, but in Anne Tyler’s hands it is very readable, sometimes moving. Several of the characters got under my skin, and the novel includes issues that may remain with me for some time to come.

Recommended if you like this style of book, but don’t expect much plot or even a decisive clear-cut ending.

Review copyright 2021 Sue's Book Reviews

A Patchwork Planet (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

I first started reading Anne Tyler's novels, recommended by a friend in the USA, about 15 years ago. I had mixed reactions to start with, but over the years they have definitely grown on me.

So I was delighted to be given 'A Patchwork Planet' for my recent birthday. I finally picked it up to read a few days ago, and found it very readable. It's full of beautiful observations, gentle, wry humour, and some pathos too. Typical for this author, and very enjoyable.

It's told from the first person perspective of Barnaby Gaitlin. He's a young man who has grown out of his wild teenage years, helped by the trust of his grandfather. He now works for a company that does odd jobs for the elderly. His wife has left him, and he finds his family rather stressful. But he's reasonably contented with his small apartment, his monthly visits to his daughter, and the occasional family get-together.

Then he meets the organised, trustworthy and attractive Sophia. He feels drawn to her, feeling at first as if she is some kind of angel (his family specialise in angelic visits). He wonders if she has been sent to turn him into a worthy human being who will fit in better with other people. So he's slightly surprised when he realises that Sophia is actually rather keen on him. And naturally, he is flattered...

There's not much more plot than that to 'A Patchwork Planet'. The enjoyment of the book is in Barnaby's observations and musings, not just about his family and friends, but about the various people he works for, and the jobs they ask him to do.

I did find the ending slightly inconclusive, as I often do with Anne Tyler's novel. I also found some of the reflections on the inevitability of old age to be rather depressing.

But overall, I thought it a very good book. Recommended.

Review copyright Sue's Book Reviews, 7th June 2009

Back when we were grownups (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

I like Anne Tyler's novels. Oddly enough, I didn't when I was first introduced to them, in my thirties. But now, some years later, I find them increasingly enjoyable. I had this one on my wishlist for a while, then managed to find it recently in a charity shop in the UK.

'Back when we were grownups' is Tyler at her best, in my opinion. It's about Rebecca, who is 53, and works as a party organiser in the USA. She also looks after her late husband's 99-year-old uncle, Poppy. She was widowed at a young age, but brought up three step-daughters and one daughter of her own.

Rebecca seems to enjoy having relatives trooping in and out of her house, and also babysitting her various grandchildren. Then one day, she suddenly starts to wonder what happened to her quiet, shy, teenage self, who was engaged to the geeky Will. This was before she fell in love with Joe, dropped out of college, abandoned Will, and adopted a much more extraverted and enthusiastic persona than she had previously. What, she wonders, would her life have been like if she had continued with her degree course, and married Will?

Caught up in these concerns, Rebecca is distracted, and tries to get in touch with people from her past. But alongside her thoughts and dreams, the present keeps intruding.

This book is typical Tyler; perhaps too slow-moving for some, and without a great deal of plot, but delightfully done. There's a lot of introspection, brilliant (if slightly caricatured) characterisation, and wry observations about everyday life. Her style is easy to read, yet surprisingly thought-provoking; I found that the people seemed real in my mind, and I thought about them at odd moments even when I wasn't reading. Some of the people are a bit shadowy and undeveloped, but others seem very clear.

In the early chapters of the book, there are a huge number of people introduced, which I found rather confusing. But they soon fell into place, mostly believable, with some inevitably having more major roles than others. The ending of the book was satisfying, as Rebecca finally works out what really matters to her, and why she is feeling so morose. She also finds a role for the future. I found it encouraging and certainly expect to read this again in a few years.

Review copyright Sue's Book Reviews, 10th July 2008

The Tin-Can Tree (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

I find Anne Tyler's novels intriguingly different from most others. She uses rather bizarre characters, on the whole, and very little plot. Her situations are caricatured, and also very American. Yet her writing is extremely good, her observational skills excellent, and I keep finding myself coming back for more.

Having said that, 'The Tin Can Tree' was not one of my favourites. It opens as a funeral ends: it's the funeral of six-year-old Janie Rose. Her mother is grief-struck, and the novel really revolves around Simon, Janie's ten-year-old brother, who begins to feel unloved and unimportant.

Simon and his parents live in a close community of three joined houses. One is owned by two elderly spinsters; one by two young men: the likeable James and his hypochondriac brother Ansel.

 Simon's family have his grown-up cousin Joan living with them for a while, and she spends a lot of time with him. She tries to hold the family together as they grieve, and also wonders where her long-standing relationship with James is going - if anywhere.

It's nice writing, as always with this author, and some issues do get resolved by the end of the book, though not all. It's probably a good pen-portrait of working people in that part of the USA in the 1960s, so useful from the social history point of view. But it didn't really move me much. I felt that there was a bit too much minute detail for my tastes, and it was rather slow-moving.

Still, pleasant enough as a light read for odd moments.

If morning ever comes (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

Apparently 'If morning ever comes' was the first book Anne Tyler had published. It's not particular long, but already reveals the kind of clever observation and characterisation that her books are full of.

This novel is about a typical Tyler family, with a young man (Ben Joe) who is a student at university - yet he worries about the rest of his family. He decides, on a whim, to return home for a bit after learning that his married sister has left her husband.

I don't know quite how the author manages to make the most unlikely and quirky people seem real, but she succeeds every time. Are there really families like this? If so, I haven't come across them, but I'd like to!

The skill of this author is in the clever characterisation, because there really isn't much plot. We learn about Ben Joe's various sisters through his eyes, and the general family problems and hidden skeletons gradually get revealed through everyday life.

The ending is a bit abrupt. It is basically satisfactory, but does not really answer any questions. Still, I enjoyed it while I was reading it.

A Slipping-Down Life (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

I was a little disappointed with 'A Slipping-Down Life'. I usually find Anne Tyler's novels to be a little bizarre and caricatured, but enjoyable and thought-provoking nonetheless. She has an amazing eye for detail, and a great gift in portraying incidents with a touch of irony, and without excessive description.

Those traits were still true in this book, but I found the characters so unappealing that it was hard to relate to any of them. The main protagonist is a 17-year-old girl called Evie, who is a bit overweight, bland, and generally nondescript.

The novel is set in the 1960s in the USA. Evie lives with her father and spends her time listening to the radio. She becomes interested in a local rock singer, and takes her even more overweight friend Violet to listen to him at a club. She then does something completely out of character which changes her life.

The singer ('Drum' Casey) is rather a dead loss as a person, and the relationship, such as it is, which he develops with Evie is basically dull. Evie does grow up somewhat during the book, but Drum is so shallow and self-centred that it was hard for me to find anything good about him.

I finished the book - it was well-written, as always with this author, but the conclusion seemed to happen much too fast and left too many questions open.

Not really recommended.

The Amateur Marriage (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

Unusually for Anne Tyler, there are quite a number of characters in the novel I have just finished reading, 'The Amateur Marriage'. However, it mainly revolves around Michael Anton, who is a rather awkward grocer's son. He falls suddenly in love with the flighty Pauline, and then enlists in the army for World War II.

The novel follows their rather tempestuous lives, their children, and even grandchildren, over a space of more than fifty years. As always with this author, there are some clever observations that made me stop and think alongside the storyline.

There were also some caricatures that were real enough to make all the main characters immediately recognisable. I suppose, too, that there's an element of social history since it's set in a particular time period.

I found the story a bit slow to get going.  Part of the reasons was that so many minor characters were being introduced, as well as some almost indistinguishable extras. Still, I thought it was well worth reading, and by the end I found it difficult to put down.

Recommended. 

Ladder of Years (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

The more I read by Anne Tyler, the more I appreciate her. She usually writes about ordinary people in strange situations. There is often just one main character whose life she observes. She expresses these observations with such fine detail that they seem sometimes more real than those around them.

The novel 'Ladder of Years' features Delia, a forty-year-old mother of three. She seems to be reasonably content in her conventional life, married to a doctor who is somewhat older than she is. Out of the blue - although we know this will happen, due to the prologue of the book - Delia walks away from the family on a beach holiday, and doesn't return. She gets a lift to another town, and begins a new life there.

The book gives us her situation shortly before she does her vanishing act, and then takes us through the next year where she becomes independent for the first time in her life. Of course, the plot is outrageous. I can't imagine any family allowing this to happen (for of course they trace her), or any mother being able to distance herself so thoroughly from her offspring, the youngest of whom is only 15. Yet at the time, reading the book, it seems totally believable.

Nothing very exciting happens - it rarely does in Tyler's work - yet it was a thoroughly enjoyable book. It's one which I kept reading almost compulsively. I had no idea how it would end. Although I would have liked a few more details tidied up in the conclusion - Tyler often leaves things hanging somewhat - I found the ending reasonably satisfying.

Definitely one to re-read in a few years. Recommended. 

Earthly Possessions (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

Charlotte - who narrates the book 'Earthly Possessions' - is planning to leave her husband. As the book opens, she goes to the bank to get some money and becomes involved in a hold-up. The armed robber, whose name is Jake, takes Charlotte as a hostage and escapes.

It's a dramatic start to a novel which then proceeds to a fairly typical Anne Tyler story. In other words it's very much a character-based plot in which reality is slightly suspended... and yet because she writes so well, it all seems believable at the time.

Jake manages to steal a car and he and Charlotte set off for Florida. Charlotte gradually gets to know Jake as they travel, and as readers we get to know Charlotte, since alternate chapters take us back to her past. She reflects on her life from her childhood up to her marriage, and then gives some glimpses into her married life, eventually revealing the reasons why she was going to leave her husband at the start of the book.

As is usual with this author, most of the characters are somewhat eccentric and also slightly caricatured. But slowly, cleverly, their motivations are revealed and appear to be entirely reasonable. I found myself developing sympathy for them all, even including Jake. It's easy to judge a bank-robber and hostage-taker as being a terrible criminal, but Jake is obviously quite human, and - in his own way - a moral person who does what he thinks is right. What justification could there possibly be for robbing a bank? This does actually become clear towards the end of the novel.

But the book is really about Charlotte. Her life has been fairly traumatic, although she's quite a cheerful person who copes remarkably well with her enforced captivity by Jake. As I read the flashbacks to her childhood, I found myself relating to some of her childish wonderings, and sympathising with others, even though her circumstances were far removed from mine. She always felt the odd one out for many reasons, but then perhaps we all do to some extent.

Later chapters tell us about how she became involved with her husband, and why she married him. We see both sides of the marriage, albeit described from Charlotte's point of view. But even through her eyes, her husband's opinion becomes clear too. Perhaps they should never have got married, and yet there was little else for Charlotte. I never did decide if she was better off with him, but her narrative raised some interesting questions about the lot of many women in similar situations.

I find Anne Tyler at her best in this kind of novel, basically just two people in a car talking and remembering. The plot - such as it is - is a vehicle (so to speak!) for character-development. The stories and flashbacks are interspersed with stops for food and petrol, coping with car problems, wondering if the police are going to catch up with them. Just the right amount to hold our interest and remind us of the unlikely scenario in which the book is set. But Charlotte - after the initial shock - is surprisingly unworried about what will happen to her. After a brief concern with her children, she throws herself into dealing with the present and future while pondering her past.

Anne Tyler's novels are full of cleverly-written observations about people. She's not at all politically correct; instead she describes things as they are, usually through the words and thoughts of her characters. It's not exactly a relaxing book: she doesn't write with the 'feel-good' approach of family saga novels, and despite the lack of plot it's quite fast-paced in style. I often find I enjoy Tyler's novels more the second time around when I can take them more slowly and appreciate the writing, so I shall almost certainly read this again in a few years.

Recommended to anyone who likes this kind of book.

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (by Anne Tyler)

(Amazon UK link)

'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant' is a novel by the popular American writer Anne Tyler. It was written in the early 1980s.

Pearl Tull is dying. She's eighty-one, and still in possession of her senses, although she finds it hard to speak. As she lies in her bed, she's aware of her middle-aged bachelor son Ezra; but as she's nearly blind, she can't actually see him. Her thoughts drift back to the past.

She thinks of her oldest son Cody, remembering how she and her husband Beck decided that one child was enough, until Cody developed croup. Back in 1931 it was quite a serious condition and they had decided it would be better to have another child, just in case something happened to Cody. However Cody lived, and after Ezra arrived they worried about him too, so Jenny was born.

Of course Pearl never stopped worrying about her children. She realised eventually that each child simply led to more worries rather than being a potential replacement for an older sibling. And as she ponders their childhood, she thinks back to her own life and the difficulties she had with the children, particularly after her husband Beck left her unexpectedly. Cody is an extravert, pushy and materialistic, who is nonetheless irrationally jealous of his younger brother. Ezra is a quiet, slow-moving person, who doesn't have an unkind word for anybody, although he can be extremely stubborn at times. Jenny is bright, efficient and mostly cheerful, loving both her brothers and often clashing with her mother.

And so the Tull family are introduced with their different personalities in the first chapter. The rest of the book follows them as they grow up. It's a nice example of a 'circular' novel: a book which starts with a situation (Pearl on her deathbed) and then back-tracks to events leading up to it, only returning to the original scenario in the final chapter. I used to find books of this sort frustrating. I would race through them, trying to find what came next, and would feel cheated if there were only a few pages coming chronologically after the first scene.

But as I've grown older, I've begun to appreciate this thoughtful style of writing which looks at people's backgrounds, and which doesn't give any big surprises at the end. Anne Tyler (a prize-winning American novelist) is an expert at this kind of character-based novel which gives readers a series of glimpses into the lives of ordinary people, made extra-ordinary by the astuteness of her observations.

One of the pieces of blurb on the back of the book announces that 'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant' is 'Funny, heart-hammering, wise...' I think that's a bit of an exaggeration, personally. There's certainly some gentle humour in places, but nothing I would have called funny. Nor did I find any of the book to be 'heart-hammering'.

We know in the first chapter that Pearl lives until she's over eighty, that her husband vanished years previously, and that her three children have survived whatever illnesses and traumas they experienced as children, and are now adults. One is at her deathbed, another arrives soon afterwards, so they haven't even been estranged. There are a few mild tensions in the book, but nothing that made my heart speed up - and it doesn't take much for me to feel disturbed.

As for wise - well, there's certainly some wisdom in the writing, in the way Anne Tyler so cleverly draws the relationships within the family, and gradually reveals more and more depth to them. There's wisdom too in the gentle way she changes viewpoints, so we see differing perspectives without any abrupt break. The book starts with Pearl's thoughts, but gradually we see more and more behind the eyes of each of her children, and it works well. I could relate to Pearl as a generic mother, to Ezra as the quiet yet immovable character, and to Jenny as a busy, fairly helpful person. But I never did quite get into Cody's mind, nor understand his strange and sometimes irrational behaviour when relating to Ezra.

It's not gripping, it's not particularly moving, it's not exciting, and it's not particularly humorous. But it's well-written, it's a good reflection on family life, and it's a pleasant way to while away a few hours. It's based in the United States, but I didn't find that jarring as I do in some American novels. Overall I thought this a good book which I may well read again one day.

Recommended.