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Jul 06, 2008

Richard rated it:

. A novel. This book won Pulitzer Prize in 1988. Generally Pulitzer Prize winner’s books highlight some aspect of American Life. This book takes place in one day in Philadelphia area as a husband and wife travel by car to and from funeral of a friend. Various stops along the way and back highlight the dysfunction. The book consists of the conversations and actions of this husband and wife as they drive and the people they mix in with. They have a snotty high school senior daughter, and a More...

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Apr 18, 2011

Helynne rated it:

I enjoyed The Accidental Tourist so much that I was surprised that I found this book by Anne Tyler so much less enjoyable. Breathing Lessons won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1989, which is a amazing honor. To tell you the truth, I can't really see that much merit in this book, although I will admit that Tyler's writing style is skillful. Nevertheless, this novel reminded me a little of Gustave Flaubert's philosophy when he began writing Madame Bovary. He said, "I want to writ More...

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Dec 16, 2009

Tamara rated it:

My favorite theme running through this book was the idea of "human wastefulness." It's not talking about physical wastefulness, but the idea that people waste so much time on things that don't matter. “For the past several months now, Ira had been noticing the human race’s wastefulness. People were squandering their lives, it seemed to him. They were splurging their energies on petty jealousies or vain ambitions or long-standing, bitter grudges. It was a theme that emerged wherever he More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2008

Bev rated it:

I read this one a while back but wanted to make sure I added it to my list to round out the other Tyler books I have read recently. This book is a perfect example of Tyler's gift for characterizing everyday, ordinary people as flawed yet endearing in their quirkiness. Yes, Maggie can be awfully irritating in her botched attempts to fix things in the lives of her loved ones, yet you can't help but love her for her sincerity and goodness of heart. Her relationship with her long-time husband Ira More...

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Aug 20, 2011

Tania rated it:

I am a huge Anne Tyler fan - I want to read her entire collection. Because this novel won a Pulitzer, I was concerned it would not live up to the hype. My concerns were unwarranted. Tyler is a highly skilled writer who is able to take ordinary people and make them both unique and interesting. She has a very important message to give readers about love, marriage, and life. The main characters are at a stage in their lives where they are looking back and trying to figure out how they got to be whe More...

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Jun 14, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

I read this novel for Book Club, and having never read Anne Tyler, was unsure what to expect. A few acquaintances told me they either hated it or disliked it so much that they didn't finish it, so I had a few qualms before starting. I'm glad to say that I actually came away with a positive feeling about it.

I suppose that I felt that a number of the characters (Maggie, Jesse) reminded me of members of my family, so I was able to easily get into the story. Maggie is the central character More...

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May 02, 2011

Harmonybites rated it:

I wasn't very taken with the novel at first. Maggie and her bickering with her husband, Ira, exasperated me--as it did her husband. But his affection for her was evident by the end of the first chapter, and by then I felt a similar emotion for this middle-aged American Emma. Like Austen's Emma, Maggie does real damage with her interference--but does have heart.

The story was studded by flashbacks in the midst of this tale of a day in which Maggie and her husband of 28 years travel to t More...

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Nov 18, 2010

Cindi rated it:

I'm a fan of Anne Tyler. I think she is one of the most interesting character writers out there. Her characters and situations are realistic and true but she has such insight into human nature that she can make anything from adoption (Digging to America) to marriage (The Amateur Marriage) interesting.

I found a copy of Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler at the library book sale last month and I snatched it up. I finally got a chance to read it this week. It is similar to the other books More...

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Jul 08, 2009

Bobby rated it:

I initially read this book when it was first published and so enjoyed it. I related to the way Maggie saw people as a glorified version rather than who they truly were, the way she saw the best in everyone. My daughter just said to me yesterday that I viewed everything from a glorified bubble where I saw only the best in everyone. In some ways that is not a bad place to be, but I could also relate to the vulnerabilities when one lives in such a bubble, the disillusionment and disappointments More...

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Apr 21, 2010

Vivien rated it:

Look, maybe my rating is too harsh. Maybe when I'm 50-something, with kids, and am too well-meaning to face actual facts and listen to what people are actually saying before coming to conclusions and jumping to action, and am too intrusively optimistic to tell things truthfully (choosing instead to dress facts up in order to needle people into doing what I think they need to do), and am too indignant to ever admit liability or fault for anything, I will enjoy this book.

Until then, 1. More...

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Jan 28, 2009

Marie rated it:

Though I laughed aloud frequently, I noted the self-defeating ways people hinder relationships. For example, I was reminded of several people advising me to never allow children to come between the marriage relationship. Maggie seemed to fall for Jesse's sweet talk far too often. Also, in relating to their children, Maggie seemed to see them through rose-colored glasses, whereas Ira seemed to never have anything positive to say about Jesse. Obviously, both of them approached Jesse from oppos More...

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Jan 29, 2011

Veronica rated it:

This made me think irresistibly of Emma. Just like Emma, Maggie cannot resist trying to "improve" other people's lives to fit the image she has of them - which, unfortunately has little relation to reality. I found Emma both aggravating and endearing -- she basically wants her friends to be happy and is just remarkably clumsy about it, but at least she has grown and developed by the end of the book. Maggie is just annoying, and has apparently been annoying all her life, seeming to lear More...

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May 17, 2010

Carrie rated it:

i'm reading all pulitzer women, and so come to Breathing Lessons, which is the pinnacle of the suburban-family-living-life-blindly-unaware-of-their-existential-angst genre. sounds pretty second wave feminism but, luckily, the self-deception and overall escapism is equal opportunity. fun for the whole family. It was good, but not exactly something you can't wait for the next BART ride to pick up again. Less about plot then overall mood and pattern. It did have a really nice description whe More...

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Dec 31, 2010

Carrie rated it:

This book reminds me of the intricacies of marriage and other relationships. Even though the ones we love infuriate or irritate us at times - we still love them - often for the very qualities they have that we lack. Some people might not like this book because it focuses on the minutiae of everyday life - in fact the 327 page story takes place in one 24-hour span of time.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Sep 06, 2011

Donna rated it:

Like this author - likeable characters, the wife just can't seem to stay out of controlling everyone's life and gets into some situations.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 02, 2010

Sarah rated it:

I really did not care for this book and had it not been for book club I may have not finished it and that says alot because I have never NOT finished a book. The only reason I gave it two stars versus one is because I was able to tolerate the ending.

I guess one of the reasons I didn't like this book was because I could not relate at all to the characters. I can relate more to a 13 year old wizard than I could to Maggie Moran (the main character).

Another reason I didn't More...

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Nov 02, 2009

Beth rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Apr 29, 2008

Annie rated it:

I always feel a little sad when I finish a book. i miss the characters. Anne Tyler makes her characters so real and identifiable. There is a saying in the front of the book that says something like, "Life always seems to be changing and yet somethings never change." It is so true. I enjoyed this book.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 22, 2007

Shelley rated it:

I don't always agree with Pulitzer Prize ficton selections, but this one was right on. A couple years old but still holds up, this "day in the life" story of a couple in their late 50's is often hilarious and sad. I was laughing out loud while reading about the funeral (bet you don't say that often!)

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 24, 2011

Susan rated it:

Hmm. You know The Beatles's tune, A Day In the Life...well this novel is a day in the life of Ira and Maggie Moran, an aging couple who will soon find themselves with an empty nest. They bicker continually and become irritated with one another, yet you sense their underlying love.

I read this novel as a part of my personal goal to read all the Pulitzer fiction winners. I would love to read the qualifications of how books are chosen because sometimes I just don't get it. With some winni More...

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Dec 26, 2008

Illyria rated it:

I admit it's the mention of Pulitzer that drew me in first. But then I started reading, and I was hooked, by Maggie at first, and then by the story itself, the way it unfolds in Maggie's vivid storytelling, the sensual details and the deceptively light, easy bantering between the characters. There is something compulsively well-rounded about Anne Tyler's characters, from Maggie herself, to Ira Moran, Serena, Fiona, and Jesse. Even characters with only brief appearances, like Durwood, and Mr O More...

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Apr 10, 2010

Kelly rated it:

I really liked this book which was recommended to me by a patron at the library I work at. It was very humorous, portraying a realistic view of a marriage that has lasted many years.

Maggie and Ira are heading to a friend's funeral but before they leave Maggie hears her ex daughter in law on a radio talk show saying that she's getting re-married, this time for security rather than love. Maggie reads into what she's saying and assumes that her ex daughter in law still loves h More...

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Jul 09, 2010

Kari rated it:

Yesterday I would have only given this book 2 stars but after going to book club and discussing it and reading the interview with the author in the back of the book I decided I liked it more than I thought. I found the characters hard to relate to and one-dimensional. I didn't really get the point of the story but after reading the interview with the author I saw her intention with the characters and why she chose to write it set in a one day time frame and knowing this seemed to give the book More...

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Mar 01, 2009

Cindy rated it:

I read this book because I needed to read a Pulitzer prize winning book. In the book a husband and wife spend a day traveling to go to a funeral of the husband of Maggie's long time friend. They have a few adventures along the way. The part with the old man in the car just made me laugh. I have to say though that Maggie mostly drove me crazy. I just wanted her to be quiet and not so bossy. I felt like this couple, even though, they had been married a long time, were rather dysfunctional. I'm More...

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Nov 28, 2009

Tom rated it:

Maggie and Ira Moran have been married for twenty-eight years–and it shows: in their quarrels, in their routines, in their ability to tolerate with affection each other’s eccentricities. Maggie, a kooky, lovable meddler and an irrepressible optimist, wants nothing more than to fix her son’s broken marriage. Ira is infuriatingly practical, a man “who should have married Ann Landers.” And what begins as a day trip to a funeral becomes an adventure in the unexpected. As Maggie and Ira navigate the More...

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Jul 28, 2009

Jana rated it:

This was my 3rd try with Anne Tyler, and I again gave up. Yes, I read it this time, but I just wanted to finish it. Everything about Maggie annoyed me. I guess, being 26 now, without children and not being married, maybe I couldn’t understand her because she was too slow, just words and analysis. Plus, first one hundred pages were going on during 6 hours period. I hated her details and I was skipping most of the pages where she was describing something.

I can’t say that this book is More...

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Nov 20, 2011

Hannah rated it:

I picked this up at a bookstore because of the staff recommendation attached to it. The bookseller said this is a book she rereads often. That was intriguing, as was the back cover blurb. It's a single day in the life of a couple that has been married for nearly thirty years. I've been thinking a lot about marriage lately and marveling about how such a thing is possible, how it can endure.

This is a worthwhile read if only for Maggie. She is the best-written female character I've read i More...

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Apr 11, 2011

Rachel rated it:

This book made me laugh! Maggie's character is kind of a middle-aged American Emma Woodhouse - meddling, faulty, with some very dislikeable qualities that come out very endearing on paper. Her husband, Ira, is maybe like Mr. Knightly too, after twenty years of marriage to Emma - he loves her patiently and with a sense of humor, but he still calls her out when she gets too embroiled in trying to solve other people's problems. This book was endearing and insightful, and the characters are all b More...

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May 15, 2009

Mike rated it:

The only thing that kept this book from a five-star rating (for me) was that some of the characters just seemed ... off. Fictional people have nothing on real life characters when it comes to flaws and bad choices, but it seemed like once or twice the situation came about that didn't really need to be exploited by a foolish phrase or lack of common sense. The book would've been just as strong without 'em. (And yes, it's bad that I can't think of any examples right now.)

Mostly, I keep More...

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Nov 10, 2010

Marilyn added it

Breathing Lessons is overall a well-written novel. Many middle aged couples can probably relate to the main characters, Maggie and Ira. Throughout the novel, Maggie and Ira's marraige is potrayed through many flashbacks of their young-adult lives. Anne Tyler describes the characters' personalities and inner conflicts in such great detail to make the reader feel connected to them. I thought that the wife, Maggie, was extremely annoying but that's just my opinion. This novel doesn't have many exci More...

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