A new Anne Tyler is always something I look forward to. Such a consistently good author, even into her late seventies and eighties. She writes with clarity, humour and wisdom about early family relationships that form individual experiences. The image of the French braid illustrates how our lives are plaited together with our families. You might think you can leave it all behind you but, even if the braid is released, the ripples and waves are still there. Anne Tyler writes about ordinary Baltimore characters with ordinary lives, but renders them extraordinary and moving. I loved this book.
“When the kids have grown up and Mercy Garrett gradually moves herself out of the family home, everyone is determined not to notice. Over at her studio, she wants space and silence. She won’t allow any family clutter. Not even Desmond, the cat. Yet it is a clutter of untidy moments that forms the Garretts’ family life over the decades, whether that’s a painstaking Easter lunch or giving a child a ride, a fateful train journey or an unexpected homecoming. And it all begins in 1959, with a family holiday to a cabin by a lake. It’s the only one the Garretts will ever take, but its effects will ripple through the generations.” #NetGalley
Ali Thurm 