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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
I love Anne Tyler, but I did not quite believe this story. I prefer a Spool of Blue Thread
I am still thinking about this book two weeks after finishing it. My impression of it changed between reading it in my 30s and reading it in my 40s. There is a lot to unpack. I kind of wish that Anne Tyler was a little more clear about what she thinks of Delia so that I could argue with her (if necessary) instead of arguing with myself. But maybe the debate I have going on in my head will bear more fruit than if I could just say “yes” or “no” to the author and move on. See, I just can’t land anywhere with this book, and that’s unsettling! But not in a bad way. I think. Maybe.
Great self discovery book. Reminded me of "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin. A mother walks out on her life one day at the beach and sets up a new life in a small town. Good book to remind women about not giving up everything of themselves to their family.
Another great book by Anne Tyler that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Delia lives with her doctor husband and three almost grown children. She is at that stage of her life where everyone in the family begins to take the woman - the wife, the mother for granted. Her kids don't need her as much as they did when they were actually kids. As for her married life, well, that is settled into monotonous routine and Delia is often filled with doubts if love ever existed between the two.
Like every year, Delia and her family takes a vacation to a beach resort(not sure where exactly). One day she is taking a walk and before she realises, she finds herself far away from her family with no intention of going back....atleast for now...? She just walks out of their life and soon finds herself living another life with different people and at a place so far and so different from her own.
The idea of a woman walking out on her family might struck absurd to some but reading about Delia's life, I did not find this very idea offending at all. I genuinely felt that this random act, actually prooved to be good for her and for the readers too! As it is in this new place where one gets to meet the most bizare, the most amazing and the most lively characters.
The writing, as expected from Anne Tyler, is brilliant. What I love about Tyler's writing is that it's very real - she not only captures just the high level feelings and some major parts of life but even the every day mundane thoughts or events. This is the kind of stuff that other writers might not even think about penning down but Tyler does and that too beautifully.
What came as a pleasant surprise in this book was the humor. There were scenes when I laughed out loud...that too in public - after which I decided to never to read this book in public places.
Overall a great good-feel book. I did not love it as much as I loved A Spool of Blue Thread but immensly enjoyed it nonetheless. If you are an Anne Tyler fan, like me, you should definitely read it and in case you are not, you should anyways try it because this book will make you smile....often.
Delia lives with her doctor husband and three almost grown children. She is at that stage of her life where everyone in the family begins to take the woman - the wife, the mother for granted. Her kids don't need her as much as they did when they were actually kids. As for her married life, well, that is settled into monotonous routine and Delia is often filled with doubts if love ever existed between the two.
Like every year, Delia and her family takes a vacation to a beach resort(not sure where exactly). One day she is taking a walk and before she realises, she finds herself far away from her family with no intention of going back....atleast for now...? She just walks out of their life and soon finds herself living another life with different people and at a place so far and so different from her own.
The idea of a woman walking out on her family might struck absurd to some but reading about Delia's life, I did not find this very idea offending at all. I genuinely felt that this random act, actually prooved to be good for her and for the readers too! As it is in this new place where one gets to meet the most bizare, the most amazing and the most lively characters.
The writing, as expected from Anne Tyler, is brilliant. What I love about Tyler's writing is that it's very real - she not only captures just the high level feelings and some major parts of life but even the every day mundane thoughts or events. This is the kind of stuff that other writers might not even think about penning down but Tyler does and that too beautifully.
What came as a pleasant surprise in this book was the humor. There were scenes when I laughed out loud...that too in public - after which I decided to never to read this book in public places.
Overall a great good-feel book. I did not love it as much as I loved A Spool of Blue Thread but immensly enjoyed it nonetheless. If you are an Anne Tyler fan, like me, you should definitely read it and in case you are not, you should anyways try it because this book will make you smile....often.
Book 79
First sentence: This all started on a Saturday morning in May, one of those warm spring days that smells like clean linen.
Quotes:
Delia wondered how humans could bear to live in a world where the passage of time held so much power. P. 213
On the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, the lanes were so crowded that she gathered herself inward, as if that would help their car slip through more easily. P. 274
She had never realized before that worry could be dumped in someone else's lap like a physical object. She should have done it years ago. P. 288
"The thing of it is," he said, "you ask yourselves enough questions--was it this I did wrong, was it that?--and you get to believing you did it all wrong. Your whole damn life. But now that I'm near the end of it, I seem to be going too fast to stop and change. I'm just...skidding to the end of it." P. 307
Nat said, "Do any of you know the photographs of C.R. Savage?"
The grown-ups turned courteous, receptive faces in his direction.
"A nineteenth-century fellow," he said. "Used the old wet-plate method, I suppose. There's a picture I'm reminded of that he took towards the end of his life. Shows his dining room table set for Christmas dinner. Savage himself sitting among the empty chairs, waiting for his family. Chair after chair after chair, silverware laid just so, even a baby's high chair, all laid in readiness. And I can't help but thinking, when I look at that photo, I bet that's as good as it got, that day. From there on out, it was all downhill, I bet. Actual sons and daughters arrived, and they quarreled over the drumsticks and sniped at their children's table manners and brought up hurtful incidentsfrom fifteen years before; and the baby had this whimperthat gave everybody a headache. Only just for that moment," Nat said, and his voice took on a tremor, "just as the shutter was clicking, none of that had happened yet, you see, and the table looked so beautiful, like someone's dream of a table, and old Savage felt so happy and so--what's the word I want, so..."
But now his voice failed him completely, and he covered his eyes with one shaking hand. "So anticipatory!" he whispered into his plate, while Delia, at a loss, patted his arm. P. 320-1
Ladder Of Years is not for everyone (you may find it tedious or plotless), but, for me, it's five stars. It's a character dive into Delia, a woman in her early 40s, with kids mostly grown, who walks away from her life mid-family vacation. Tyler captures the bland, monotony of daily life, as well as the invisibility of matriarchs, the gears that keep patriarchal societies in motion.
I speculated about the ending throughout my reading, worried that no possible version would feel satisfying. ***** Spoiler Alert***** It wasn't, which is a credit to the author for enabling the reader to empathize with and be invested in Delia.
Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors.
First sentence: This all started on a Saturday morning in May, one of those warm spring days that smells like clean linen.
Quotes:
Delia wondered how humans could bear to live in a world where the passage of time held so much power. P. 213
On the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, the lanes were so crowded that she gathered herself inward, as if that would help their car slip through more easily. P. 274
She had never realized before that worry could be dumped in someone else's lap like a physical object. She should have done it years ago. P. 288
"The thing of it is," he said, "you ask yourselves enough questions--was it this I did wrong, was it that?--and you get to believing you did it all wrong. Your whole damn life. But now that I'm near the end of it, I seem to be going too fast to stop and change. I'm just...skidding to the end of it." P. 307
Nat said, "Do any of you know the photographs of C.R. Savage?"
The grown-ups turned courteous, receptive faces in his direction.
"A nineteenth-century fellow," he said. "Used the old wet-plate method, I suppose. There's a picture I'm reminded of that he took towards the end of his life. Shows his dining room table set for Christmas dinner. Savage himself sitting among the empty chairs, waiting for his family. Chair after chair after chair, silverware laid just so, even a baby's high chair, all laid in readiness. And I can't help but thinking, when I look at that photo, I bet that's as good as it got, that day. From there on out, it was all downhill, I bet. Actual sons and daughters arrived, and they quarreled over the drumsticks and sniped at their children's table manners and brought up hurtful incidentsfrom fifteen years before; and the baby had this whimperthat gave everybody a headache. Only just for that moment," Nat said, and his voice took on a tremor, "just as the shutter was clicking, none of that had happened yet, you see, and the table looked so beautiful, like someone's dream of a table, and old Savage felt so happy and so--what's the word I want, so..."
But now his voice failed him completely, and he covered his eyes with one shaking hand. "So anticipatory!" he whispered into his plate, while Delia, at a loss, patted his arm. P. 320-1
Ladder Of Years is not for everyone (you may find it tedious or plotless), but, for me, it's five stars. It's a character dive into Delia, a woman in her early 40s, with kids mostly grown, who walks away from her life mid-family vacation. Tyler captures the bland, monotony of daily life, as well as the invisibility of matriarchs, the gears that keep patriarchal societies in motion.
I speculated about the ending throughout my reading, worried that no possible version would feel satisfying. ***** Spoiler Alert***** It wasn't, which is a credit to the author for enabling the reader to empathize with and be invested in Delia.
Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors.
Recommended to me as I was reading her latest A Spool of Blue Thread, a line that reappears in Ladder of Years even though it was written many years before.
Delia goes for a walk while on holiday with her family and walks right out of their life. Where she ends up, she begins to create another life, another version of herself, someone she has perhaps long wished to discover, the free woman, whom she never was before.
Along the way people she meets share their thoughts, circumstances, invitations and opinions, and they are often a reflection of Delia's own thoughts or what we perceive she may think about that which she has left. She doesn't have a lot to say about her motives, it is as if she acted without understanding the deep need inside her to move.
Brilliantly constructed and a compelling read, I really enjoyed the book and was intrigued right up until the last page.
My complete review here at Word by Word.
Delia goes for a walk while on holiday with her family and walks right out of their life. Where she ends up, she begins to create another life, another version of herself, someone she has perhaps long wished to discover, the free woman, whom she never was before.
Along the way people she meets share their thoughts, circumstances, invitations and opinions, and they are often a reflection of Delia's own thoughts or what we perceive she may think about that which she has left. She doesn't have a lot to say about her motives, it is as if she acted without understanding the deep need inside her to move.
Brilliantly constructed and a compelling read, I really enjoyed the book and was intrigued right up until the last page.
My complete review here at Word by Word.
Ladder of Years review - no spoilers - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I started out a bit unsure in this novel. I like quiet stories, but was this one too quiet? Without really realizing it I was soon drawn into Delia's life. The bits and pieces gathered along the way filling out a better picture of her family and their decisions and quirks. I will admit I actually teared up because of one line that brought it all together. I won't reveal it because I don't want to give anything away. But it was just so TRUE. All in all a nice, reflective read based around the idea of what would happen if you just simply walked away?
I started out a bit unsure in this novel. I like quiet stories, but was this one too quiet? Without really realizing it I was soon drawn into Delia's life. The bits and pieces gathered along the way filling out a better picture of her family and their decisions and quirks. I will admit I actually teared up because of one line that brought it all together. I won't reveal it because I don't want to give anything away. But it was just so TRUE. All in all a nice, reflective read based around the idea of what would happen if you just simply walked away?
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My memory of Anne Tyler's books was one of sappiness and a little heavy-handed preachiness and I wasn't really looking forward to this but guess what - this book is HYSTERICAL!
I feel kind of bad for thinking so since based on other Tyler books I assume she meant this seriously. The story's setting and the publishing date are contemporaneous so I assume the story was meant to be a very serious look at the life of a 1990s conflicted mother/housewife but NOW - let me tell you - now? It's just laugh out loud funny.
The writing is very basic and the story flows pretty well. Except for the end. The end sucks. I'm not going to spoil it though. So does the love affair that isn't a love affair - times two. Oh, and the fact that the dialogue is so old-fashioned and stilted you keep thinking it must be 1950 instead of 1990. But besides that, yeah, it flows pretty well.
It's difficult to identify with the main character. There's a level of naivete that is rather ludicrous, really. Her anxiety never really stems from where it should and her inability to control her situations merely supports the idea that she's "playing" at being an "independent woman."
The most wonderful part of the book, honestly, is that it captures that modern-but-pre-device time where cameras, cell phones, and social media weren't instantly tracking you down even if you've just forgotten to tell someone you were going to the store.
I can only recommend this book as satire, despite it's original intentions, but approached with that mindset, I think it's quite enjoyable.
I feel kind of bad for thinking so since based on other Tyler books I assume she meant this seriously. The story's setting and the publishing date are contemporaneous so I assume the story was meant to be a very serious look at the life of a 1990s conflicted mother/housewife but NOW - let me tell you - now? It's just laugh out loud funny.
The writing is very basic and the story flows pretty well. Except for the end. The end sucks. I'm not going to spoil it though. So does the love affair that isn't a love affair - times two. Oh, and the fact that the dialogue is so old-fashioned and stilted you keep thinking it must be 1950 instead of 1990. But besides that, yeah, it flows pretty well.
It's difficult to identify with the main character. There's a level of naivete that is rather ludicrous, really. Her anxiety never really stems from where it should and her inability to control her situations merely supports the idea that she's "playing" at being an "independent woman."
The most wonderful part of the book, honestly, is that it captures that modern-but-pre-device time where cameras, cell phones, and social media weren't instantly tracking you down even if you've just forgotten to tell someone you were going to the store.
I can only recommend this book as satire, despite it's original intentions, but approached with that mindset, I think it's quite enjoyable.
I found this book to be really disappointing. I usually love all of Anne Tyler's books but this was bad. It just finish with the reader still asking why she left? and what was the point?