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154th out of 556 books
—
489 voters
Searching for Caleb
by
Anne Tyler
"Magic and true, dazzling and wise...It has an astounding confidence, depth and range...A wonderful, wonderful novel."
THE BOSTON GLOBE
Duncan Peck has a fascination for randomness and is always taking his family on the move. His wife, Justine, is a fortune teller who can't remember the past. Her grandfather, Daniel, longs to find the brother who walked out of his life in 19...more
THE BOSTON GLOBE
Duncan Peck has a fascination for randomness and is always taking his family on the move. His wife, Justine, is a fortune teller who can't remember the past. Her grandfather, Daniel, longs to find the brother who walked out of his life in 19...more
Paperback, 328 pages
Published
August 27th 1996
by Ballantine Books
(first published 1975)
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May 08, 2011
Lisa (Harmonybites)
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Tyler Fans
Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by:
Liz's Gift
A friend gave me a Anne Tyler omnibus that included Accidental Tourist, Breathing Lessons and Searching for Caleb. Searching for Caleb, the last novel in the book, was my least favorite of the three. Tyler is a gifted writer with a clean style, writing with humor and insight, and features characters that are rounded, real and very strikingly individual, from minor secondary characters to the major ones, like Daniel, and his grandchildren, cousins married to each other, Duncan and Justine Peck.
D...more
D...more
I always enjoy Anne Tyler's writing. This is one of her earlier books (1976) and you can tell. Her characters are more stereotypical and the plot less complex and more predictable than her later books.
However, i did enjoy her portrayal of the repressed Brahmin WASP Baltimore family who allowed no one out of the family and rarely allowed anyone in -- an occasional similar wife might be an exception.
Her story focuses on the 3 rebels who do manage to leave the family because they cannot live with...more
However, i did enjoy her portrayal of the repressed Brahmin WASP Baltimore family who allowed no one out of the family and rarely allowed anyone in -- an occasional similar wife might be an exception.
Her story focuses on the 3 rebels who do manage to leave the family because they cannot live with...more
Searching for Caleb is a story about a family. The Peck family. The Pecks are a closed set, satisfied with their own company. For whatever reason, the Pecks rarely associate with others and when they do, it is in a most peculiar fashion. The few outliers, the escapees - Justine, Duncan, Caleb - have gone out into the world, but cannot deny the pull of the family unit.
The story focuses on Justine and Duncan and how they hold orbit around the rest of the family, simultaneously running from and to...more
The story focuses on Justine and Duncan and how they hold orbit around the rest of the family, simultaneously running from and to...more
The story of Justine, a young woman who finds her escape from a xenophobic family by marrying her rebellious first cousin, establishing herself as a fortune teller, and being the traveling companion to her grandfather in search of his brother Caleb, the rebel of that generation who disappeared in 1912. I never felt like I completely understood any of the characters, but grew to appreciate their individual quirks. I learned of this novel through a birthday tribute to Tyler on Garrison Keillor's W...more
This plods along a little bit in the mid-section and isn't really much more than an average Anne Tyler novel, unfortunately. The story of a family too stuck in their own habits, and the high cost paid by anyone who breaks its norms, is very believable and is sketched by the author with her usual great skill. When the search for long-lost brother Caleb finally bears fruit the story takes a sad - but not unexpected turn. I enjoyed this but was glad it wasn't much longer, and can't see myself readi...more
This is the first Anne Tyler book I've read, though she has been recommended to me more than once. I didn't really connect with this book, and am still contemplating what the deeper meaning behind the story could be...
On the surface, the story of a wacky, and in my mind, pitiful woman from a large, closed Baltimore family who marries her cousin and then spends her life being dragged (and dragging her poor grandfather) from one ramshackle, cheap rental to another is not at all relatable and entir...more
On the surface, the story of a wacky, and in my mind, pitiful woman from a large, closed Baltimore family who marries her cousin and then spends her life being dragged (and dragging her poor grandfather) from one ramshackle, cheap rental to another is not at all relatable and entir...more
This was not stellar Tyler. It is rare that I don’t like the main character. In this story, I thought Justine was weak. She should have left Duncan, her husband and her first cousin, years ago. He is a total loser and can’t stay with a job. When he does find something he is interested in, it is only a matter of time before he gets bored. The drinking and solitare starts up until he finds something to settle the restlessness. The whole family, including the aunts, the uncles and the cousins are d...more
How often do you finish a book smiling with a warm feeling? Have you ever heard of a "bread and butter note"? A close-knit family with its own set of black sheep and eccentrics growing up in Baltimore in the early and mid 1950's. Although my rating says "amazing" that is a bit extreme but it deserves better than the next rating of "I really liked it". I loved the book. The people were real and fun with their own share of misery who managed to always overcome. My second Anne Tyler book but not my...more
I remember really liking this book, the first by Anne Tyler that I ever read. She catches you by surprise: you're reading along, following where the story leads, and then suddenly you're laughing out loud on the crowded subway during rush hour at the twist of humor in the simple telling of the tale; and then a few minutes later, starting to tear up. I've read a few of her others, but I have especially warm memories of this one. Read it mid- to late-70s, not sure exactly when.
Apr 01, 2012
Susan
added it
Duncan Peck has a fascination for randomness and is always taking his family on the move. His wife, Justine, is a fortune teller who can't remember the past. Her grandfather, Daniel, longs to find the brother who walked out of his life in 1912, with nothing more than a fiddle in his hand. All three are taking journeys that lead back to the family's deepest roots...to a place where rebellion and acceptance have the haunting power to merge into one....
Mar 03, 2013
Ayelet Waldman
added it
I read this as I finished the final rewrites for my book that is now called Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. Anne Tyler is a perfect role model for me as a writer. High aspirations are good for a person. I liked this book very much, despite the fact that the main character is a fortune-teller. I usually hate free spirits, and I was afraid she'd be one. But she was significantly less of a twit than I had feared.
Vintage Anne Tyler. Her ability to imagine people and even a large extended family is uncanny. People and their places pop out at you as if they were real--eccentric, odd, unexpected, but still real
This story is about a smug, entitled, close, but basically good family and the ones who got away? But did they? Is a life spent rebelling against a family's conformity, a fulfilling one? Ask Justine. Ask Caleb.
This story is about a smug, entitled, close, but basically good family and the ones who got away? But did they? Is a life spent rebelling against a family's conformity, a fulfilling one? Ask Justine. Ask Caleb.
Not my favourite of Anne Tyler's: didn't warm to the characters quite as easily as usual. I had high hopes for the wayward Duncan, but in the end, he didn't amount to much and Justine was pretty weak. I got drawn in more by the Meg in-laws: a really funny scene when the two families finally got together. But in the end, I felt it dribbled to a fairly unsatisfactory conclusion.
I am almost out-of-breath from reading this book. The characters are so busy... Always moving about, chattering on and yet never really going anywhere or doing anything. The ties of their extended family - their bland, predictable, mousy family - are so strong that even in trying to escape they are forever tied. Only in embracing the constant change are they able to move on in their ever-polite, breathless fashion. There's a lot to this book. The English major in me would like to spend more time...more
Was it "magic and true, dazzling and wise"? Maybe not. But this story's family captured my attention. They are almost a cult, with a tendency to brain-wash each other without noticing. The family members who break free are even more interesting.
I would rate Searching for Caleb PG-13, mostly due to one scene.
I would rate Searching for Caleb PG-13, mostly due to one scene.
Good characters, unique challenges & story - somewhat slow.
Annotated words: "a spill of multicolored kerchief", "antimacassar", "snarl of wiry bushes", "nostalgic for times before she was born", "silvered with sweat"
Annotated words: "a spill of multicolored kerchief", "antimacassar", "snarl of wiry bushes", "nostalgic for times before she was born", "silvered with sweat"
Aug 05, 2011
Carrie
added it
Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors. She always has a way of writing in such detail that you really know the endearing characters. This was an interesting story about CRAZY CHARACTERS! What fun!
Anne Tyler is a favorite of mine and this is one of her more obsure books that is a favorite of mine. If you love interesting, complex characters pick up an Anne Tyler book. You won't regret it:)
Jan 13, 2009
Sull
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone!
Recommended to Sull by:
Nobody, but I luckily stumbled on it while living overseas.
Loved this book! Loved Justine the fortune-teller and her grandfather Daniel, and loved their search for long-lost brother Caleb. A perfect book, IMO, of characters lost and found. . . .
A book about how, no matter how we may try to remove ourselves, family will always be part of us. Anne Tyler's characters, while certainly eccentric, are also quit believable. I enjoyed this book.
Aug 01, 2011
Kristine Morris
added it
I love Anne Tyler and her quirky characters and crazy families. I had a hard time imagining belonging to this family, but there are undoubtedly families like this one out there!
Anne Tyler is my favorite way to escape for a couple of days. Her descriptions are just genius. Unlike her other books, this one had more of a plot resolution at the end.
One of my favorites by Tyler. I really connected with Duncan and Justine and their campy way of life. I love Duncan's list of favorite words...here are a few of my own: dishabille, salient, accouterments.
My favorite Anne Tyler. Each of her books has something which makes it memorable.
There's a lot that's special in this one, but I especially love the thank you notes.
There's a lot that's special in this one, but I especially love the thank you notes.
This book has defined the person that I think of as the typical Baltimorean more than any other image that I have run into from Orioles, Colts and Ravens fans.
This is the first Anne Tyler book I read, and I loved it. I read most of her others after this. Her gift for showing the extraordinary in the ordinary is illuminating.
I tried this one, having found 'A Patchwork Planet' quite enjoyable. Didn't like this one at all, unfortunately. The plot was vague and the characters not as engaging. By the end I didn't really care whether they found Caleb or not.
Anne Tyler never disappoints! This is one of her earlier books, but one I hadn't come across before. Her characters are quirky and complex, which is something I love about all her books. This is a story of three generations of a very large, insular family. It took me a couple of chapters to really get into it, which makes it different than her later writings. I am very glad I didn't put it aside. It got more and more compelling as I read.
I think this is the most beautifully written book I have ever read. I can open to any page and get drawn in. Bittersweet and inspiring.
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Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated at nineteen from Duke University and went on to do graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University.
The Beginner's Goodbye
is Anne Tyler's nineteenth novel; her eleventh,
Breathing Lessons
, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and...more
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Jul 27, 2010 04:48pm