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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
What a great storyteller Anne Tyler is. I loved "Ladder of Years " and recently scooped up a number of her other titles at a used book sale. If only I had more time!
Read a while back and then again this week. Enjoyable story and characters.
Enjoyed this book even more the second time around. The family dynamics. A mother's expectations of her child, for her child. The examination of aging - How we care for the elderly and how being elderly changes how one relates with the world. Class dynamics, and coming of age, 30that is ;)
Something about this story just clicked with me. I must admit the ending to me seemed to just wander off, but not in a bad way.
Anne Tyler manages to write very sweet stories without ever being sentimental. It’s a gift. In this one – as usual, set in Baltimore - you have Barnaby, a young man on the cusp of thirty, with some history behind him. He was the “bad kid”, unlike his perfect brother. Once he even set his parents’ house on fire. He's always had some trouble with impulse control. He also has a failed marriage and a small daughter living in Philadelphia, whom he visits every month.
Currently, Barnaby is working for Rent-a-Back, which sends helpers out to manage all the small tasks that people can’t cope with. Most of Barnaby’s clients are quite aged, and he’s gentle, considerate, and trustworthy with them. His parents denigrate his work, thinking it beneath him, but his clients love him, and they rally when one old woman accuses him of stealing her life-savings out of the flour bin.
The main gist of this novel is the relationship between Barnaby and Sophia, a staid, respectable, motherly woman, a few years older. At first, Sophia seems to be everything Barnaby needs, and he’s smitten. But his impulses are taking him in another direction – towards Martine, the scrappy, skinny woman who also works at Rent-a-Back.
Currently, Barnaby is working for Rent-a-Back, which sends helpers out to manage all the small tasks that people can’t cope with. Most of Barnaby’s clients are quite aged, and he’s gentle, considerate, and trustworthy with them. His parents denigrate his work, thinking it beneath him, but his clients love him, and they rally when one old woman accuses him of stealing her life-savings out of the flour bin.
The main gist of this novel is the relationship between Barnaby and Sophia, a staid, respectable, motherly woman, a few years older. At first, Sophia seems to be everything Barnaby needs, and he’s smitten. But his impulses are taking him in another direction – towards Martine, the scrappy, skinny woman who also works at Rent-a-Back.
Anne Tyler is one of those authors that people often talk about and I feel I should have read. She just sounds like my kind of writer. So when I found this book, I was pleased to have a chance to try her.
It seemed very slight to start with, and while it definitely improved as it went along, and you got to know Barnaby better, there weren't any "wow" moments. But I loved the structure, which seems untidy and unplanned, but like a patchwork is suddenly all fitted together at the very end. And looking back, Tyler had sneaked in some great reflections on ageing, relationships (husband/wife, parents/children, siblings), and just growing up. Barnaby is a more likeable person at the end than at the beginning, and you feel he's turned a corner and started to grow up and have more self-respect. I also really liked the minor characters, elderly people that Barnaby helps in his work for Rent-a-Back.
I'm not wildly enthusiastic, but while she's no Alice Munro, I might read more Anne Tyler.
It seemed very slight to start with, and while it definitely improved as it went along, and you got to know Barnaby better, there weren't any "wow" moments. But I loved the structure, which seems untidy and unplanned, but like a patchwork is suddenly all fitted together at the very end. And looking back, Tyler had sneaked in some great reflections on ageing, relationships (husband/wife, parents/children, siblings), and just growing up. Barnaby is a more likeable person at the end than at the beginning, and you feel he's turned a corner and started to grow up and have more self-respect. I also really liked the minor characters, elderly people that Barnaby helps in his work for Rent-a-Back.
I'm not wildly enthusiastic, but while she's no Alice Munro, I might read more Anne Tyler.
I'm a huge fan of Tyler's but this one was a miss for me. The main character was so dim and bleak that I couldn't stomach him, and I struggled so hard to finish that I nearly put myself into a reading slump. I just kept thinking it would get better and that people in his life would stop being asshats to him, but...not so much.
My inner goth kid was happy, but the rest of me, no.
My inner goth kid was happy, but the rest of me, no.
Not my favorite of hers, but a satisfying read. It also did not end the way I expected it to, which was nice.
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The only relatable character in this novel is the 30 year old agoraphobe who pays people to bring her groceries