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lizziegoldsmith 's review for:
The Accidental Tourist
by Anne Tyler
I’ve enjoyed the other Anne Tyler books I’ve read, but this one just didn’t do much for me.
Mostly, it felt like a worse, dated version of her “Redhead by the Side of the Road” (which I know is unfair, since this one came first), which also featured a main character so focused on structuring everything about his day-to-day routine that he forgets to live.
I sympathized with Macon at first. His despair when he’s all alone in the house, and the coping mechanisms he clings to desperately, made him feel more real and relatable to me than he did at any point after that.
I know the whole point of the book was to show how he basically sleepwalked through life, but because of how little agency he’d shown, and all his half-hearted waffling back and forth, I didn’t really buy the ending. Or him as a character much of the time.
The book seemed to focus almost exclusively on their moments of conflict and disconnect, relegating most of the good times to quick summaries, so I really couldn’t see them working together. Personally, she annoyed me, and I also struggled to see her as someone who could be a real person. And, there were moments when it did seem like the main thing she was looking for in a man was someone to pay the bills.
I also found most of the side characters to be quirky caricatures, couldn’t muster up much interest in Julian and Rose, and by the end the only sympathy I had left was for Sarah. She and Macon seemed locked in their old unhealthy patterns together, but really, just needed someone to make the first move in being vulnerable and suggesting a new way forward. And given Macon’s journey in this book, such as it was, you’d think he could be the one to do it.
Much as I‘ve enjoyed other books in this vein that explore ordinary people in their ordinary lives, this one just fell flat and was … boring.
Mostly, it felt like a worse, dated version of her “Redhead by the Side of the Road” (which I know is unfair, since this one came first), which also featured a main character so focused on structuring everything about his day-to-day routine that he forgets to live.
I sympathized with Macon at first. His despair when he’s all alone in the house, and the coping mechanisms he clings to desperately, made him feel more real and relatable to me than he did at any point after that.
I know the whole point of the book was to show how he basically sleepwalked through life, but because of how little agency he’d shown, and all his half-hearted waffling back and forth, I didn’t really buy the ending. Or him as a character much of the time.
Spoiler
Or maybe I’m just not a fan of the Muriel/Macon relationship.I also found most of the side characters to be quirky caricatures, couldn’t muster up much interest in Julian and Rose, and by the end the only sympathy I had left was for Sarah. She and Macon seemed locked in their old unhealthy patterns together, but really, just needed someone to make the first move in being vulnerable and suggesting a new way forward. And given Macon’s journey in this book, such as it was, you’d think he could be the one to do it.
Much as I‘ve enjoyed other books in this vein that explore ordinary people in their ordinary lives, this one just fell flat and was … boring.