I loved this novel about several generations of a family that was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. I recognized the themes that I've seen in other Anne Tyler novels: the longing for closeness, disappointments and grievances, rejections and frustrations.
There were several things I really loved here. One was the legacy of the past represented by the story of how Abby's in-laws met and married, and the seemingly random nature of both this marriage and Abby's own. One was the decades-long conflict between the emotionally withholding, frequently absent and commitment-phobic son and his increasingly perplexed mother, a conflict finally dissolved by grief.
Another thing I loved was Tyler's language, and the way she told the story. While the novel's not short, it seemed to me to be a novel written in a style with great economy and realism.
This novel really spoke to me, although she was revisiting themes she has explored before. The tension between the past and the present, the coexistence of love and exasperation, the constant rub of disappointed idealism and how the passage of time alters our passions and perceptions, feels authentic and familiar.
The other novels I've read by Anne Tyler were her first, If Tomorrow Ever Comes, The Accidental Tourist, and The Breathing Lessons, which featured a parental anxiety like Abby's.
There were several things I really loved here. One was the legacy of the past represented by the story of how Abby's in-laws met and married, and the seemingly random nature of both this marriage and Abby's own. One was the decades-long conflict between the emotionally withholding, frequently absent and commitment-phobic son and his increasingly perplexed mother, a conflict finally dissolved by grief.
Another thing I loved was Tyler's language, and the way she told the story. While the novel's not short, it seemed to me to be a novel written in a style with great economy and realism.
This novel really spoke to me, although she was revisiting themes she has explored before. The tension between the past and the present, the coexistence of love and exasperation, the constant rub of disappointed idealism and how the passage of time alters our passions and perceptions, feels authentic and familiar.
The other novels I've read by Anne Tyler were her first, If Tomorrow Ever Comes, The Accidental Tourist, and The Breathing Lessons, which featured a parental anxiety like Abby's.
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