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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
I loved this book about a woman who walks away from her family while on a family vacation. I happened to read it while on a family vacation which became the running joke. Every time I would get a bit ahead of my kids while we were walking they would say, "she's making a run for it'! Anyway, Anne Tyler is a master of capturing all the complications of real family life. I especially loved this passage:
Didn't it often happen, she thought, that aged parents die exactly at the moment when other people (your husband, your adolescent children) have stopped being thrilled to see you coming? But a parent is always thrilled, always dwells so lovingly on your face as you are speaking. One of life's many ironies.
Beautiful.
Didn't it often happen, she thought, that aged parents die exactly at the moment when other people (your husband, your adolescent children) have stopped being thrilled to see you coming? But a parent is always thrilled, always dwells so lovingly on your face as you are speaking. One of life's many ironies.
Beautiful.
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
Following up with another Anne Tyler book. This one, published in 1995, tells of Delia who walks away during a East Coast beach vacation with her family of a doctor-husband, two college-age children and one still in high school, and two sisters, one single and one divorced with young twins. Delia ends up in a small town and begins a new freeer, simpler, and almost impersonal life, living in a boarding house and getting a job in a lawyer's office, then as a housekeeper for a divorced teacher and his son. Over the next year and some months, there are reflections on life, marriage, aging, and families. Very Anne Tyler.
my kinda gut-punch. a miserable woman, plagued by her mediocre, ungrateful family, abandons all and chases her fancy while she struggles to figure out where it all went wrong. empowering, desolate and honest. recommended.
This was absolutely awful. From the use of words like fiddlesticks from a not-even-middle aged woman to a kid that said golly, it was just all so prim and proper and bizarre.
But the worst part? Her screwing off and leaving her kids struggling without her so she can start a new life.
Ok, fine, you do you, Delia. But damn, did you need to screw over the people in your NEW life too, and leave them hanging? Yikes. This makes me just cringe and wish nobody wanted Delia in their lives.
But the worst part? Her screwing off and leaving her kids struggling without her so she can start a new life.
Ok, fine, you do you, Delia. But damn, did you need to screw over the people in your NEW life too, and leave them hanging? Yikes. This makes me just cringe and wish nobody wanted Delia in their lives.
An enjoyable book, like all Anne Tyler's books, which had a plot that felt a bit slow at times, but again with great character development and setting.
reflective
slow-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes