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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
I just really didn't like the main character, so I was always frustrated with her actions and just didn't care much what happened to her. I thought the premise was intriguing: woman decided to just up and leave her family one day while on their beach vacation and assumes a new life. It just fell flat for me, and I've tried a few Tyler books since The Accidental Tourist and none of them live up to that one.
This is Anne Tyler from beginning to end. It’s a bit slow but I’m a relaxing way. The story feels thin but then the intricacies begin to show up. I couldn’t decide who I cared about and in the end, it was a side character that I truly felt for. The central ones seemed to know how to take care of themselves. All Anne Tyler, like I said.
I think this would have to be my favorite Tyler. I loved the idea of this woman just running away from it all.
Amazingly this was my first ever Anne Tyler. I was intrigued by the premise and was interested to see how this novel would develop. But actually, I don't think it did! Many of the characters were fairly insipid people and I was disappointed to find that it ended up back where it started!
I stopped reading Anne Tyler some years ago. I recently picked up this novel and thought I'd give her another try. "Ladder of Years" made me remember why I stopped reading Tyler. Her women characters are singularly unlikeable. This novel features a protagonist who walks out on her family, starts a new life elsewhere, and seemed not to learn a thing in the process. It also features her sisters: one is butchily unattractive and new agey, while the other cares only about her own needs and anything having to do with France. Featured as well are a flinty mother in law who is practical and thrifty to the point of being a figure of fun; a middle aged landlady desperate to land a man; an unhinged ex-wife who, like the protagonist, also dumped her family; that woman's sisters, who refuse to accept their polio-stricken father's chance for happiness and good times late in his life; and a bride who runs hot and cold over something fairly trivial, especially considering that she had a long relationship with her intended groom and surely knew what she was getting into before the day of her wedding. All of these female characters were unlikeable. Reading about them was a singularly unpleasant experience.
Adding to the unpleasantness of the read were the numerous loose ends in this book: an affair that never really goes anywhere and then drops out of the plot completely; the relationship between the protagonist and her husband which was as unsatisfying by the end of the novel as it was at the beginning; the protagonist's pattern of dropping in and out of other people's lives, seemingly without a thought of how it might affect them; the author mostly allowing those other characters to not be affected; and a character from one part of the protagonist's life appearing out of the blue in the other part of her life at the end of the novel, for no good reason. The novel read like a rough draft that could have used more development.
Adding to the unpleasantness of the read were the numerous loose ends in this book: an affair that never really goes anywhere and then drops out of the plot completely; the relationship between the protagonist and her husband which was as unsatisfying by the end of the novel as it was at the beginning; the protagonist's pattern of dropping in and out of other people's lives, seemingly without a thought of how it might affect them; the author mostly allowing those other characters to not be affected; and a character from one part of the protagonist's life appearing out of the blue in the other part of her life at the end of the novel, for no good reason. The novel read like a rough draft that could have used more development.
A mid-life crisis domestic drama. A woman disappears during a family vacation. Tyler makes Delia's (the protagonist) background a little extreme. Delia has always lived in the same house. The family house is where her father and then her husband have their medical office. Delia has done the office work for them, raised her kids, did end of life care for her father in that same house. She has not ever lived alone. She has not ever worked for anyone other than her father or husband. She accidentally ends up in a small town that she has never visited and establishes a life for herself. She finds that she can be independent. I am not sure why the author has her end up in a domestic family care-taker position.
Anyway her family reacts in some strange ways. And Delia meets interesting people. And the ending was not surprising to me.
Anyway her family reacts in some strange ways. And Delia meets interesting people. And the ending was not surprising to me.
An interesting and captivating story about a mother making decisions that leads her away from her family and into a new, exciting life...until she comes back for her daughter's wedding and realizes she will stay with her family
This is one of my favorite books of all time. I first read it when I was way too young to understand most of what was going on, but the pull of this idea that you could just walk away from your life and start a new one was instantly alluring. I haven't reread it since late high school or early college (I only recently found a copy at a thrift store) and while this book is obviously much more complicated than I remember, I still find myself clinging to that initial interpretation. It's not exactly wrong, but there is more to it. I think we all like the idea of being able to start over again though, as impossible as that may be in real life.