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dhumon's review
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
samstillreading's review against another edition
4.0
Anne Tyler writes some of the best fiction around on family relationships. She also has an enormous backlist that I want to slowly make my way through. I was a little surprised to see that Earthly Possessions opens with a bank robbery but soon treads familiar territory about family and dysfunctional relationships. It’s also a good (accidental) insight into American life in the 1970s before everything was complicated with the internet, mobile phones and computers.
Charlotte is planning to leave her husband (not for the first time) and is waiting at the local small town bank for some money. She is unwittingly caught up in a bank robbery and taken hostage by the offender who is planning to drive to Florida to meet a friend and spring his pregnant girlfriend from a home for unmarried mothers. As she and Jake drive, Charlotte reflects on her life and what brought her to this moment. From the guilt she experienced as a young child, to picking up the slack for an extended household, she’s been going with the line of least resistance. It soon turns into that kind of relationship for her and Jake –rubbish collecting in the car as she talks him through his life choices and the unexpected changes in plan. Charlotte gets stronger as they enter Florida making her own choice to end this odd situation – but what will she choose for herself?
Anne Tyler excels at the quirky features of individuals and families. Charlotte’s storytelling explores marriages that were never quite honest with each other and things said in childhood that were taken to heart and held fast in adulthood. Charlotte’s family home is also a silent character – big with endless rooms for strays and mountains of furniture, right in the commercial part of town that’s gloomy yet a drawcard for the photography studio attached. The house contains Charlotte’s history and seemingly future too, try as she might to change things. The story of Charlotte’s parents and husband’s family as just as dysfunctional – the mother than ran off with the father in law, the sons who didn’t know what to do with themselves and the parish members that attach themselves to her husband for years on end. It’s a mystery to Charlotte as she navigates what might have been against what things are. Her story is just as fascinating as Jake’s, as she comes to the realisation that it doesn’t have to be the same life she returns to.
I did like the unintended view into small town America in the 1970s and earlier, where a security camera in the bank was big news. Soda fountains, a radio repair shop and cars with keys in the ignition – it’s a different world. (Although I’ve never heard of a late night bank that’s open). It’s surprisingly charming, yet the issues still feel modern in the twenty-first century as people reflect on their lives and choices. It’s a great story of family and relationships bound up in an unintentional road trip novel.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
Charlotte is planning to leave her husband (not for the first time) and is waiting at the local small town bank for some money. She is unwittingly caught up in a bank robbery and taken hostage by the offender who is planning to drive to Florida to meet a friend and spring his pregnant girlfriend from a home for unmarried mothers. As she and Jake drive, Charlotte reflects on her life and what brought her to this moment. From the guilt she experienced as a young child, to picking up the slack for an extended household, she’s been going with the line of least resistance. It soon turns into that kind of relationship for her and Jake –rubbish collecting in the car as she talks him through his life choices and the unexpected changes in plan. Charlotte gets stronger as they enter Florida making her own choice to end this odd situation – but what will she choose for herself?
Anne Tyler excels at the quirky features of individuals and families. Charlotte’s storytelling explores marriages that were never quite honest with each other and things said in childhood that were taken to heart and held fast in adulthood. Charlotte’s family home is also a silent character – big with endless rooms for strays and mountains of furniture, right in the commercial part of town that’s gloomy yet a drawcard for the photography studio attached. The house contains Charlotte’s history and seemingly future too, try as she might to change things. The story of Charlotte’s parents and husband’s family as just as dysfunctional – the mother than ran off with the father in law, the sons who didn’t know what to do with themselves and the parish members that attach themselves to her husband for years on end. It’s a mystery to Charlotte as she navigates what might have been against what things are. Her story is just as fascinating as Jake’s, as she comes to the realisation that it doesn’t have to be the same life she returns to.
I did like the unintended view into small town America in the 1970s and earlier, where a security camera in the bank was big news. Soda fountains, a radio repair shop and cars with keys in the ignition – it’s a different world. (Although I’ve never heard of a late night bank that’s open). It’s surprisingly charming, yet the issues still feel modern in the twenty-first century as people reflect on their lives and choices. It’s a great story of family and relationships bound up in an unintentional road trip novel.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
jacki_f's review against another edition
4.0
This is one of Anne Tyler's early books, written in 1977. It has one of the best opening lines I've read in a long time: "The marriage wasn't going well and I decided to leave my husband". Just like that, bam, we're right in the thick of it.
Charlotte Emory is 35 and dissatisfied with pretty much every aspect of her life. Second line: "I went to the bank to get cash for the trip". She gets caught up in a spontaneous robbery and is taken hostage by a young man who is completely out of his depth. From here the book unfolds in dual timelines. We follow Charlotte and Jake on the run but through every second chapter we learn her life story up to that point.
Charlotte's voice is so real and so direct that this reminded me of Elizabeth Strout's Lucy Barton novels, albeit with (hooray!) more of a plot. She is someone who drifted through life, unwittingly becoming trapped in a life that she couldn't see a way out of. Gradually she will realise that perhaps the life that she was so desperate to escape wasn't so bad after all. "I've never had the knack of knowing I was happy while the happiness was going on" she acknowledges.
Not my favourite Tyler but one that I enjoyed nonetheless.
Charlotte Emory is 35 and dissatisfied with pretty much every aspect of her life. Second line: "I went to the bank to get cash for the trip". She gets caught up in a spontaneous robbery and is taken hostage by a young man who is completely out of his depth. From here the book unfolds in dual timelines. We follow Charlotte and Jake on the run but through every second chapter we learn her life story up to that point.
Charlotte's voice is so real and so direct that this reminded me of Elizabeth Strout's Lucy Barton novels, albeit with (hooray!) more of a plot. She is someone who drifted through life, unwittingly becoming trapped in a life that she couldn't see a way out of. Gradually she will realise that perhaps the life that she was so desperate to escape wasn't so bad after all. "I've never had the knack of knowing I was happy while the happiness was going on" she acknowledges.
Not my favourite Tyler but one that I enjoyed nonetheless.
sandin954's review
3.0
A pretty good book published back in 1977 before the author's more famous and award winning novels. I enjoyed the quirky characters and the family's unusual circumstances.
jessorella's review against another edition
3.0
This is the first Anne Tyler book I've read in years, having read several as a teenager in high school. EARTHLY POSSESSIONS is a quick read, a short and snappy book that tells the story of a woman who has spent her whole life planning to leave home. She finally manages it when, completely out of the blue, she is taken somewhat gently as a hostage in a small-town bank robbery and is brought along on the getaway.
EARTHLY POSSESSIONS doesn't have too much of a plot, per se. The story seems to be more of an exploration of the circumstances in which the lead character is forced to reflect on her life, her family and her decisions until she ends up coming full circle. I can't say I loved it, though it was interesting and - as always with Anne Tyler - very well written.
EARTHLY POSSESSIONS doesn't have too much of a plot, per se. The story seems to be more of an exploration of the circumstances in which the lead character is forced to reflect on her life, her family and her decisions until she ends up coming full circle. I can't say I loved it, though it was interesting and - as always with Anne Tyler - very well written.
beemini's review
3.0
3.5. You’d think a novel centered around a highly passive protagonist would be boring, but if anyone can make that character interesting, it’s Anne Tyler. This is one of her books that glides along and convinces you that fictional people are real. I wish I could give it another star but...I guess I’m just too passive.
novelesque_life's review against another edition
4.0
4 STARS
"Charlotte Emory has always lived a quiet, conventional life in Clarion, Maryland. She lives as simply as possible, and one day decides to simplify everything and leave her husband. Her last trip to the bank throws Charlotte's life into an entirely different direction when a restless young man in a nylon jacket takes her hostage during the robbery--and soon the two are heading south into an unknown future, and a most unexpected fate...." (From Amazon)
I loved this TV movie and have seen it a couple of times now. The novel was just as great but is different.
"Charlotte Emory has always lived a quiet, conventional life in Clarion, Maryland. She lives as simply as possible, and one day decides to simplify everything and leave her husband. Her last trip to the bank throws Charlotte's life into an entirely different direction when a restless young man in a nylon jacket takes her hostage during the robbery--and soon the two are heading south into an unknown future, and a most unexpected fate...." (From Amazon)
I loved this TV movie and have seen it a couple of times now. The novel was just as great but is different.
nreyno's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Cancer, Body shaming, Death of parent, and Pregnancy