My second May read for my Anne Tyler 2021 project and we’re back to the standard Vintage editions which now alternate with the big Quality Paperbacks Direct editions I sometimes had of later books. Interestingly, when I was talking with my husband about how I’m having trouble remembering a lot of these novels, and also engaging with a couple of them, he was surprised and said, “Really, when I met you [20 years ago] you were all about Anne Tyler”. And I suppose I did buy most of these copies 20 years ago. Of course I’m continuing with the project and I found a lot to engage with in this one, even with its dark heart of tragedy which creeps out through the pages to affect everyone’s lives.
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 – “The Accidental Tourist”
(12 January 1996)
It occurred to him (not for the first time) that the world was divided sharply down the middle: Some lived careful lives and some lived careless lives, and everything that happened could be explained by the difference between them. But he could not have said, not in a million years, why he was so moved by the sight of Muriel’s thin quilt trailing across the floor where she must have dragged it when she rose in the morning. (p. 254)
Of course we have the famous eccentric, Macon Leary, who hates to travel but writes travel books for a living (for people who hate to travel, and I love it when he meets a couple of his fans during the novel), and his special ways of organising the house which, when his wife ups and leaves, combine to bring about his literal downfall and his moving in with his sister and two brothers, all equally weirdly over-organised (I have never forgotten Rose’s extreme alphabetisation of her kitchen, which always makes me feel better when I’m turning tins the “right way round” in the cupboards).
So we have one of those large eccentric families grown up and without the influence of their parents, although it turns out they do have a mother who is alive and well and odd in her own way (notably, she has rushes of enthusiasm for different hobbies, like lots of the men we’ve met before in Tyler). Like in “Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant” we also have little snatches of side-stories, notably from Macon’s neighbour. We have our grey-eyed, blond-haired serious men/brothers and our woman from a rackety background who is just about getting by. Macon, though, gradually comes to see, through his friendship with the plucky (and pushy: I’d like her to meet Morgan from “Morgan’s Passing!) Muriel, that there might be another, different way to be. Meanwhile, Edward is one of the best-described dogs in literature and Macon’s publisher, Julian, is a wonderful character who we do come to love.
But lying beneath all of this is the death of Macon’s son, Ethan, in a random incident which makes no sense. Edward was his dog, Sarah and Macon have been pulled apart rather than together by the death, and in a very poignant scene, his cousins still miss him and think about him. So Macon is stuck because of his personality but also because of this awful event, and devastatingly we see how someone who appears just eccentric and closed off is just as destroyed by this as someone who might express their emotions more. As Tyler seems to say quite often, being yourself is enough and people need to try to understand other types of people.
There’s an interesting serendipity with the last novel I read (“Mamma”), where Macon finds life isn’t as tidy in life as in a movie when a couple splits up (in “Mamma”, Joanna thinks no one in a novel would act like her), so that’s one for Bookish Beck! For animal lovers, Edward and also Helen the cat do just fine.
So a comic book that’s also moving, a book with a dark heart that shadows it, darker than Tyler will, I think, go for a good while yet. I did enjoy it.
Have you read this one? What did you think?
wadholloway
May 20, 2021 @ 08:39:11
I’ve just been reading Karen’s (Booker Talk) post about why people do/don’t comment. I read all your posts but you read such ‘gentle’ books that I mostly haven’t read, or anyway can’t recall, that it is difficult to say anything other than I enjoy your reviews, which I do.
But I’ll check the library audiobook listings and see if they have a Tyler I can read at the same time as you. (I’m putting myself under pressure here to say something meaningful about Clock Dance when you get to it, but then it has to be better than what I wrote on my own blog).
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Liz Dexter
May 20, 2021 @ 20:03:36
Hm, I get that with most of the novels I read (Open Water being the exception there in the last few months) but I wouldn’t say everything I read is gentle (e.g. Empireland, Trans Britain, Loud Black Girls, etc.). However, we all do it, I don’t have much to say about some of your challenging contemporary Aus Lit and I never know what to say about crime and thrillers as I just don’t know the genres. I will look forward to your thoughts on Clock Dance and it would be lovely to have you along for one of the others if you have time; I imagine all the later ones at least are on audiobook.
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Luci
May 20, 2021 @ 08:44:40
I must have started reading Anne Tyler over 30 years ago – she was one of all too few women writers at the end of a reading list for America in the 1960s and 1970s, though I’m not quite sure whether we talked about the ones by women at all in class, and if we did, it wasn’t the fiction. I remember seeing the film of the Accidental Tourist – must have been in the final year because I can remember walking up to the newish mutliplex from where we lived at the time – but I can’t remember whether I’d read the novel yet, though.
It’s probably time I started rereading from the beginning, though I’ll aim to read Redhead at the Side of the Road first – it took me until this year to get to Clock Dance.
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Liz Dexter
May 20, 2021 @ 20:05:11
I’ll be interested in your thoughts if you do – I’ve found it an interesting process so far! I haven’t read Clock Dance or Redhead yet but thought I’d leave them for myself at the end of the year, that seemed to work for me. I’ve never seen the film of this; I’d be interested to see how they did it, though.
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Brona's Books
May 20, 2021 @ 08:50:34
I thought I had read this book, but then I realised I’ve only ever seen the movie! Tyler’s books may be gentle as Bill says, but these early ones in particular, can be quite savage with their emotional angst and torturous relationships!
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Liz Dexter
May 20, 2021 @ 20:05:55
Well, yes, quite heart-breaking and full of really pretty odd and damaged folk! Plus a kid being killed in a hold-up in this one …
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Jeanne
May 20, 2021 @ 11:53:38
This one is my second favorite of all Tyler’s novels, and I think it’s probably the best written. I love it when Macon and his siblings play “vaccination” and everything about Julian and how Macon slowly learns to open up again, like a reluctant, woody bud in a long, cold spring.
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Liz Dexter
May 20, 2021 @ 20:06:48
I love Julian; I think I like Macon’s unfurling as he maybe got forced into his role by his early relationship with his wife; I also like when her characters can just be their unusual selves!
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hopewellslibraryoflife
May 20, 2021 @ 13:46:00
This is one of my favorite Tyler books. The movie is wonderful too.
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Liz Dexter
May 20, 2021 @ 20:07:37
Why would you say it’s a favourite? I’m not sure yet whether it’s one of mine, still got a lot to revisit … And I’ve never seen the film but am intrigued now!
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hopewellslibraryoflife
May 21, 2021 @ 00:39:01
I loved the sister. I just loved the book as a whole–the feeling. And then Muriel’s son. So much to love. The movie is good–I felt it captured the feeling of the book so well.
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Cathy746books
May 20, 2021 @ 15:41:32
I really must get round to reading this one – maybe later in the year, if it’s OK to go off timetable? I included Saint Maybe in my 20 Books list instead.
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Liz Dexter
May 20, 2021 @ 20:08:41
It’s absolutely fine to go off-timetable; I’m just happy to talk about the books and share people’s reviews and I’ll leave the project page up. I’m looking forward to you reading Saint Maybe – that’s one I remember really enjoying.
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Jane
May 20, 2021 @ 15:47:19
I love it that your husband said you were all about Anne Tyler! The way reading shapes our lives and the way we’re seen is so personal I find that very comforting. At the time I met my husband he would have said I was all about Iris Murdoch and now I haven’t read her for years!
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Liz Dexter
May 20, 2021 @ 20:09:31
The funny thing is, I was more about Larry McMurtry than I have been for a few years (though I think I’ll do him next year) and I have always been all about Iris Murdoch, but that’s what he remembered!
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Tredynas Days
May 20, 2021 @ 16:35:06
I too have seen the film, but haven’t read the novel. Sounds rather different from your account of it, though I don’t remember much about it. I’ve never felt particularly inclined to read AT, don’t know why.
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Liz Dexter
May 20, 2021 @ 20:10:50
Interesting – I wonder if she’s considered a “women’s” writer, although you read pretty widely and I don’t think would be swayed by that (I can’t get my husband to read the Brontes or Austen because of that!). I haven’t seen the film of this so can’t comment but I’m not quite sure how they’d have done it!
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Rebecca Foster
May 20, 2021 @ 18:45:18
This is one of my few favourites by Tyler thus far. The copy I got from my dad has the winged armchair on the cover — armchair travelling has been perfect for this past year or so! I loved the theme of patterns of behaviour, and how meeting unpredictable people can change our lives for the better.
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Liz Dexter
May 20, 2021 @ 20:12:17
Mine has a painting of a “real” room with a winged armchair, quite nice. I didn’t really love that aspect, even though I knew we were supposed to admire it; I’d have preferred if she was changed a bit by him, too … but maybe his real self WAS the freer one all along, as he differentiates himself when he hears his brothers talking, and was forced into that role as a young man. I did enjoy reading it, anyway!
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kaggsysbookishramblings
May 20, 2021 @ 19:31:47
Quality Paperbacks Direct! I remember them! But really, was it so long ago? I guess it was and we’ve probably all moved on as readers (I think I went through a short Anita Shreve phase at the time!)
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Liz Dexter
May 20, 2021 @ 20:13:09
Oh, they did like to publish a Shreve, I remember that! How funny. Yes, I have quite a few too-tall books from them, some with weird-textured covers!
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buriedinprint
May 21, 2021 @ 15:10:02
Yes!!! I belonged to this “club” as well but over here their editions weren’t oddly sized. Oh, maybe they were actually…hmmm…they must have gotten to me young enough to make me believe their sizing was normal. LOL
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Liz Dexter
May 23, 2021 @ 07:27:55
I think their selling point that they were the size of hardbacks, out at the same time as the hardback, but paperback and cheaper (presumably they licensed the print files from the original publishers). All of mine are annoyingly larger than a standard A-format paperback, annoying when you’ve set up your bookshelves for that height, anyway!
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Ruth Hare
May 20, 2021 @ 21:13:54
I loved this book and could not put it down! I particularly liked Muriel, probably because I identified with her desperation which I think fuels her pushiness, and of course she is most of the time! I also liked Macon almost straight away. It was interesting that in the beginning I felt there was a logic to his behaviour to make life easier for himself, but when he was questioned about it by his wife near the end of the book it was obvious that he was struggling to cope and felt perhaps embarrassed by it. I think the tragedy and the comedy were beautifully balanced. Did I mention that I loved it! (Did you know there’s a film?)
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Ruth Hare
May 20, 2021 @ 21:15:45
I just read the previous comments so scrub the bit about the film.
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Liz Dexter
May 21, 2021 @ 09:35:10
Ha, yes, I was aware there was a film even before everyone told me! It’s interesting the different reactions I’m seeing to the characters. I felt threatened by Muriel and her chaotic nature and feel like I would go the way Macon did with systems if I lived alone (which is silly really as I have lived on my own for ages in the past and managed not to go too peculiar!). But a good read, certainly.
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villabijou
May 20, 2021 @ 22:45:33
I remember my colleague thrusting this book into my hands some 30 or more years ago and saying “you must read this, it is the most wonderful book” I read it and also found it wonderful. It was the first Anne Tyler I had read and have read some of her later ones since.I am now reading along with your challenge and so have discovered other treasures that I missed but have to admit that I am a little behind as Morgan’s Passing is my next read.So many thanks for hosting the challenge.
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Liz Dexter
May 21, 2021 @ 09:39:34
Oh, how lovely – I hope you’re enjoying them and do pop a comment on about what you’ve thought of them if you have a moment. And it’s no problem to be a little behind, I just like sharing books with people and chatting about them!
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Davida Chazan
May 21, 2021 @ 05:05:58
This was the first of her books I read and with it, she bought me hook, line, and sinker!
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Liz Dexter
May 21, 2021 @ 09:40:11
I think that’s quite a common experience. What was it that really attracted you to her books and how many of the others have you read?
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Davida Chazan
May 21, 2021 @ 17:09:23
I love how realistic her characters are, and how their lives are quirky and non-stereotypical. I’ve read about six or seven – mostly her newer books, but a few earlier ones as well.
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buriedinprint
May 21, 2021 @ 15:12:27
I remember we’ve chatted previously about how we both adopted the habit of straightening our cupboards according to their household’s rules and I was secretly hoping there would be a trail of other Tyler readers who would read your dedicated post and confess the same. Oh, well. We remain in good company! LOL
It’s a book I’ve read at least twice, once when new and once for a bookclub several years later, but I have seen the film at least a half dozen times. Simply charming. (But, then, I loved all Geena Davis’ roles…she’s perfectly quirky while making quirky normal.)
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Liz Dexter
May 23, 2021 @ 07:29:19
Well, I’m a bit confused, as I turn mine round so the labels face out in a harmonious way, and that’s not what Rose does, she alphabetises. Now I’m thinking it’s someone in Saint Maybe who does that …
I’ve never seen the film though it seems to be a firm favourite around here.
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buriedinprint
May 27, 2021 @ 14:38:24
That could be true. Or maybe it’s some other author/book/character together, which we’ve both read/encountered. Bad enough we’ve adopted this bizarre habit, far worse if we did so inaccurately. LOL
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heavenali
May 21, 2021 @ 17:44:23
I remember this one quite fondly even though I read it ages ago. I also quite enjoyed the film. I was going to read Dinner at the Homesick restaurant this month, but not certain I will get to it now.
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Liz Dexter
May 23, 2021 @ 07:29:58
That’s absolutely fine, of course. Maybe you’ll be able to join me for a later one.
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jenny
May 22, 2021 @ 00:50:04
I think this is one of her best books. This one really stands out to me, although I wonder if it’s partially because it was made into a movie. I’m curious to know if you saw the movie, and what you thought of it. This would be a good one to re-read!
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Liz Dexter
May 23, 2021 @ 07:30:58
It is technically clever with appealing characters indeed, and different characters seem to appeal to different readers, too. I haven’t seen the film, I’m really funny about seeing adaptations of books I love, but I would be curious to know how they did this so might try to dig it out.
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Book review – Anne Tyler – “Breathing Lessons” | Adventures in reading, running and working from home
Jun 10, 2021 @ 09:00:27