We’re on to the second book for March in my Anne Tyler 2021 project and yet another one I didn’t remember. I have a different copy to the one in my picture here, as that one was a) falling apart and b) a gift from someone no longer in my life, who noted it was quite hard to find – Vintage reissued it in 2016 and I picked up a copy to replace my old one. My original copy was bought for me and read in December 1998.
If you’re reading along with the project or just this one or whatever, please do share your thoughts in the comments at the bottom or add a link to your review on your blog or Goodreads, etc.. I’m adding links to these reviews plus all the reviews I am alerted to to the project page, so do pop there to see what other people have thought, too.
Anne Tyler – “Searching for Caleb”
(03 March 2021)
“Our family is very close knit, a fine family, we have always stuck together, but I don’t know, periodically some … explorer sets out on his own.” (p. 15)
I’m really starting to see variations on a theme here: primarily the big family with its own special “ways” and suppression of any kind of discord, disagreement or shock. Here we have the Pecks, four generations of them, looking at their ageing and the ageing of the top figure on the family tree. Different from usual is that they all seem to live in houses on one plot of land. It’s the usual stuff: things happen and no one talks about them (this gives one of the major plot points, too) and anyone who leaves the family is never mentioned again. In this one, we are accompanying the people who have escaped the family – Duncan, his wife, and her grandfather, also the paterfamilias. And we also have Caleb who, in a book set in the 1970s, left the family in 1912.
Daniel’s hobby is searching for Caleb, following up leads and going to visit people with the only person who seems to understand, Justine. She’s a fortune-teller (though the back of the book says she can’t remember the past and I don’t see where that comes in in the book!) and has adapted to tagging along with Duncan as he grows bored of his job and goes on to the next one and the next, “using up” his relatives and their social capital as he goes. Justine and Duncan’s daughter, Meg, has reverted back to Peck type and only longs to be settled – however, in an interesting twist, we witness just what she ends up settling for.
This is a complex book in terms of structure, starting off as a family saga then darting around quite a lot, especially when we find out what happened to Caleb. There’s an incidental character who drops in now and then and might be pivotal or might not. And will the Peck way of doing things finally claim Justine and Duncan when they run out of options? I did guess what solution might work for them, but it was satisfying to see it happen.
I loved the subtle ageing and shifts of the family, the bachelor brothers’ sudden shift to a joke present after years of dullness and Justine’s own sudden breakout from her patterns. Characters turn out to be central who were pushed off to the side and there’s a commentary from the Black servant (there are two instances of difficult language around race but in the thought processes of characters from long ago when the terms would have been used; the Black characters are fully formed and respected as usual).
There’s a sadness about the buttoned-up conformity of the family members which suggests the other theme I am finding in Tyler: it’s best to be your own self and not try to change to match others. This is expressed poignantly by Daniel near the end of the book:
“In my childhood I was trained to hold things in, you see. But I thought I was holding them until a certain time. I assumed that someday, somewhere, I would again be given the opportunity to spend all that saved-up feeling. When will that be?”
Nobody answered. (p. 346)
An uneven, interesting structure, a mystery that’s solved satisfactorily and independent characters who refuse to conform made this a more upbeat read than the previous one. Oh, and the cat’s OK.
Do let me know if you’ve read along, joined me for this one or any others at any time, or come to this later and have thoughts on it. All comments welcome at whatever time, no pressure! Do visit the project page to see how it’s all going!
Mar 20, 2021 @ 16:35:26
Interesting, but as I’ve probably said, not unsurprising you don’t remember this – I don’t remember a LOT of the books I read pre-blog. And intriguing you’re spotting themes – this is one of the things which can be interesting when reading all of an author’s work chronologically, and I’ve found it can be good or bad depending on which author it is! Glad it was more of an upbeat read, though!
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Mar 22, 2021 @ 08:53:44
It was pre-blog but when I was doing my reading journal – and I remember the books I read around it, so it remains a mystery!
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Mar 21, 2021 @ 19:05:40
I don’t remember this one either! Either I read it and forgot it or missed it. She has way more books than I realized!
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Mar 22, 2021 @ 08:54:09
Yup – nearly enough for two a month for a year!
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Mar 21, 2021 @ 23:38:47
This is one I haven’t read, nor have a copy of. I probably won’t get round to reading it for your project, but I must say it does sound good. Tyler is so good at complex families and I want to find out about Caleb now. I shall be reviewing The Clock Winder soon I promise.
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Mar 22, 2021 @ 08:53:08
It is a good and interesting one with that little bit of a mystery. And I’ll look forward to your thoughts on The Clock Winder in due course!
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Mar 22, 2021 @ 17:37:49
Once again I don’t remember this one at all, although I know I read it. Is my memory really that bad??? Quick question- what is you very favorite Anne Tyler book? Do you have a favorite? I might pick just one to re-read.
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Mar 22, 2021 @ 18:11:14
Well I dread to say, given I have no memory of most of them myself!! I do remember enjoying Saint Maybe and there are Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and The Accidental Tourist which are the ones that most people go to. So maybe one of those three?
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Mar 23, 2021 @ 05:16:30
Is this the one in which all the members of the family write thank you notes on the way home from any event? I read it in the late 70’s or early 80’s and liked it.
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Mar 23, 2021 @ 10:29:52
it is indeed that one – they have them pre-addressed and write them on their journey home. Well done for remembering that detail!
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Apr 01, 2021 @ 21:44:52
I really enjoyed this book. Very entertaining with likeable characters. It’s always easier when you like the people in the book! Much more upbeat and positive. I wonder if she realised the previous novel was quite downbeat and wanted a change?. Thanks for your review, they are always insightful and interesting to read.
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Apr 05, 2021 @ 11:12:55
Thank you for your comments – this was quite a fun one, wasn’t it? I liked all the eccentricities of the characters. Earthly Possessions is a bit of a page-turner, too!
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Apr 09, 2021 @ 13:27:25
A bit late with finishing this book. It ventured into April. I did like it though. Here is my review: https://thecontentreader.blogspot.com/2021/04/searching-for-caleb-by-anne-tyler.html
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Apr 09, 2021 @ 17:34:21
That’s absolutely fine, I’ll add it to the links tomorrow.
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Apr 23, 2022 @ 14:34:31
You’ve nailed the essence of this one, and your quotes are particularly well chosen, in my opinion. Caleb’s disappearance – the central motif of the book – seems to represent a crisis point in Tyler’s exploration of the American family. How do the Pecks/any family deal with someone who just wants out? As you say, most of them pretend he never existed. I think Tyler herself is unsure what to do with Caleb after the kidnapping and, though Justine and Duncan fittingly admit defeat and move back to Baltimore, his fate is a loose end in the story. The novel is interesting but I prefer “Celestial Navigation”.
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Apr 24, 2022 @ 08:05:01
It is an interesting one, isn’t it? I liked Celestial Navigation, too. I enjoyed the setting up of homes and the theme of escape in this one but yes, the ends are left untied and loose which feels a bit odd, as she usually ties things up more than that. I’m glad you found my quotes well-chosen; I try to encapsulate the books I read in the quotes I share but of course not everything will chime with my readers.
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