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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was better toward the end than the beginning. Macon wasn’t all that lovable to begin with but grew on me as I read on.
This book nearly killed me, with its slow pace in the beginning, but I stuck with it and I liked it. Why would I say it nearly killed me? Am I prone to hyperbole and of the drama royalty crowd? Not really. But, in our very recent drive from Minnesota to Florida in a 25 hour period, in the middle of the night, I had one of these audiobook discs in the car while I was driving (everyone else in the car was asleep, as it was 4 in the morning), and it was slow and plodding enough that it was making me drowsy. Granted, I'd been awake over 24 hours by that point, so it wasn't all the book's fault, but I had to turn it off and find an 80s music station to wake back up enough to safely drive.
I didn't dare risk listening to the audiobook again while driving, but I did resume after we were safely home. And I also had the paperbook edition, so I did some jumping back and forth. The audiobook version was decently done, but the narrator had a frustratingly slow pace and mellow tone that did not really ramp up the excitement factor, so I actually read the last third in the paperback itself just to pick up the pace. Not bad narration, but noticeably slow, at least to me, as I like to cruise through books.
This is my third Anne Tyler book, as I've heard much about her and wanted actually to read this book since I saw the movie based on it nearly 30 years ago (it came out in 1988 - wow). The other two are much more recent (and therefore products of an older author), A Spool of Blue Thread and Vinegar Girl. What do these have in common?
1. Quirky characters
2. Love of Baltimore
3. Dogs, and their importance to their human companions
4. An in-depth look at relationships and what makes them tick.
What they don't have is big action and lots of plot twists and turns. I liked this book immensely more than Blue Thread because I liked the characters better. I can totally picture the entire Leary family, and that name is perfect, as they are all quite leery of the outside world and anything remotely different. They provide a wonderful comic relief for the more heavy topics in this book.
Like a surprising number of books I've read in the past year, this is a book about grief. It doesn't surpass Did You Ever Have a Family, but it is pretty darn good in that aspect. The beginning with Macon and Sarah was simply heartbreaking. It was truly awful, living with Macon through his disintegrating marriage and finding out the source of it was the loss of their only child a year earlier. This was very well done, and even though I found Macon a little frustrating at times, I was cheering for him to buck up and start to move on. It was a gradual process, and it took a little time to get Macon on board, much like training Edward the unruly dog.
So, I've talked enough about the plot. The atmosphere is great. You can see the sad house where Macon's family used to live, and the repressed house where the Leary siblings reside, and Muriel's entire chaotic neighborhood. Anyway, I want to watch the movie again, as I've totally forgotten what all of those sets looked like and now I have a very vivid mental image.
This is my favorite Anne Tyler yet, and I will definitely seek out more.
I didn't dare risk listening to the audiobook again while driving, but I did resume after we were safely home. And I also had the paperbook edition, so I did some jumping back and forth. The audiobook version was decently done, but the narrator had a frustratingly slow pace and mellow tone that did not really ramp up the excitement factor, so I actually read the last third in the paperback itself just to pick up the pace. Not bad narration, but noticeably slow, at least to me, as I like to cruise through books.
This is my third Anne Tyler book, as I've heard much about her and wanted actually to read this book since I saw the movie based on it nearly 30 years ago (it came out in 1988 - wow). The other two are much more recent (and therefore products of an older author), A Spool of Blue Thread and Vinegar Girl. What do these have in common?
1. Quirky characters
2. Love of Baltimore
3. Dogs, and their importance to their human companions
4. An in-depth look at relationships and what makes them tick.
What they don't have is big action and lots of plot twists and turns. I liked this book immensely more than Blue Thread because I liked the characters better. I can totally picture the entire Leary family, and that name is perfect, as they are all quite leery of the outside world and anything remotely different. They provide a wonderful comic relief for the more heavy topics in this book.
Like a surprising number of books I've read in the past year, this is a book about grief. It doesn't surpass Did You Ever Have a Family, but it is pretty darn good in that aspect. The beginning with Macon and Sarah was simply heartbreaking. It was truly awful, living with Macon through his disintegrating marriage and finding out the source of it was the loss of their only child a year earlier. This was very well done, and even though I found Macon a little frustrating at times, I was cheering for him to buck up and start to move on. It was a gradual process, and it took a little time to get Macon on board, much like training Edward the unruly dog.
So, I've talked enough about the plot. The atmosphere is great. You can see the sad house where Macon's family used to live, and the repressed house where the Leary siblings reside, and Muriel's entire chaotic neighborhood. Anyway, I want to watch the movie again, as I've totally forgotten what all of those sets looked like and now I have a very vivid mental image.
This is my favorite Anne Tyler yet, and I will definitely seek out more.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
sad
medium-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
Literary fiction in disguise! Aha! How silly. This book was 20% plot and 80% literary fiction. Can't take credit for this observation, but the book starts to make more sense if you view the Leary family and their values and "oddities" as representative of traditional, often patriarchal, American, nuclear-family values and ideals. Which leaves Muriel, and Macon's lifestyle away from his immediate family, leaning more towards post-modern values and its criticisms of the past. I really struggled to put my finger on the function or intention of Tyler's mentions of death in this work. I say mentions because death and loss didn't feel like something she flushed out fully, but maybe that was just the nature of Macon as a narrator/protagonist. Shoutout to Edward, for rat dog representation. This read was more interesting to me than it was entertaining.
Loveable characters:
No
Eh. It started ok and went downhill. By the end I rather disliked the characters.
It probably didn't help that I read more than half of this book when I had the flu and a high temperature so it probably all felt more surreal than it actually is! I love Anne Tyler's writing , her characterisation is second to none & once again I was drawn into knowing & loving a complete family. The main character in this however is so frustrating it spoiled the book's enjoyment for me. The ending was frustrating too. Nothing like as good as 'A Spool of Blue Thread' in my opinion but any Anne Tyler is a good read.
I couldn't quite love the characters, so I just never connected with the story.
The Accidental Reading, the Pleasantly Surprising Enjoyment
I don't know what tangent or whim led me to adding this book to my hold list at the library, and I cannot count how many times I delayed my loan. Having lost all context of my initial interest in this story, I figured to give it a try with no preconceived notions (and a vague sense knowing the movie adaptation was a Kind of a Big Deal).
It was pleasantly surprising and easy of a read (actually, listen) this book was, with a cast of characters who primarily are eccentric in one way or another as our protagonist deals with everything changing around him, as the cast of grief lingers.
It should be noted that this story definitely is of its time, and it certainly harkens back to older ways of thinking.
I don't know what tangent or whim led me to adding this book to my hold list at the library, and I cannot count how many times I delayed my loan. Having lost all context of my initial interest in this story, I figured to give it a try with no preconceived notions (and a vague sense knowing the movie adaptation was a Kind of a Big Deal).
It was pleasantly surprising and easy of a read (actually, listen) this book was, with a cast of characters who primarily are eccentric in one way or another as our protagonist deals with everything changing around him, as the cast of grief lingers.
It should be noted that this story definitely is of its time, and it certainly harkens back to older ways of thinking.