false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg 40020 21 Barnaby Gaitlin is one of Anne Tyler's most promising unpromising characters. At 30, he has yet to graduate from college, is already divorced, and is used to defeat. His mother thrives on reminding him of his adolescent delinquency and debt to his family, and even his daughter is fed up with his fecklessness. Still, attuned as he is to "the normal quota for misfortune," Barney is one of the star employees of Baltimore's Rent-a-Back, Inc., which pays him an hourly wage to help old people (and one young agoraphobe) run errands and sort out their basements and attics. Anne Tyler makes you admire most of these mothball eccentrics (though they're far from idealized) and hope that they can stave off nursing homes and death. There is, for example, "the unstoppable little black grandma whose children phoned us on an emergency basis whenever she threatened to overdo." And then there's Barnaby's new girlfriend's aunt, who will eventually accuse him of theft--"Over her forearm she carried a Yorkshire terrier, neatly folded like a waiter's napkin. 'This is my doorbell,' she said, thrusting him toward me. 'I'd never have known you were out here if not for Tatters.'" These people are wonderful creations, but their lives are more brittle than cuddly, Barnaby knows better than to think of them as friends, because they'll only die on him. Yet his job offers at least glimpses of roots and affection. Helping an old lady set up her Christmas tree (on New Year's Eve!) gives him the chance to hang a singular ornament--a snowflake "pancake-sized, slightly crumpled, snipped from gift wrap so old that the Santas were smoking cigarettes." And Barnaby himself is sharp and impatient at painful--and painfully funny--family dinners, apparently unable to keep his finger off the auto-self-destruct button every time his life improves. As much as his superb creator, he is a poet of disappointment, resignation, and minute transformation. <i>--Kerry Fried</i> 238908 1998 A Patchwork Planet total:1654|5:236|4:646|3:633|2:120|1:19| 1654 5922 2018 116 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 4 1 false Sat Jun 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 15 01:21:47 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 15 01:21:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 3 0 true Sat Aug 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 22 11:00:44 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 22 22:33:35 -0700 2009 more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 5 0 false Wed Jul 15 06:45:51 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 06:57:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 4 0 false Wed Jan 14 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 15:07:48 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 12:34:25 -0800 2009
A former teenage delinquent and the black sheep of a wealthy (and socially ambitious) family, he has just turned thirty, with an ex-wife from an ill starred early marriage and a nine year old daughter who he sees once a month. He never completed col...more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 3 1 false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Wed Jan 16 21:24:26 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 16 21:30:04 -0800 2008 more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 4 0 false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Nov 03 08:20:07 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 08:42:44 -0800 2009
...more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 5 0 false Sun May 24 16:46:01 -0700 2009 Sun May 31 16:23:06 -0700 2009
There are passages that are so honest and rea...more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 2 0 true Thu Dec 25 15:24:34 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 25 15:49:33 -0800 2008 more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 5 0 false Tue Jun 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 16:20:54 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 16:28:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 3 0 false Thu May 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 20:34:22 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 15:53:09 -0700 2009 1 If you read this book, you'll find yourself spending time at places like the Philly Train Station, and at the homes of elderly people (I love that Barnaby works for "Rent-A-Back," doing odd jobs for the elderly at all hours. Anne Tyler's characters are of the colorful and interesting...more...]]> 1336855 0099288036 9780099288039 13 4 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182840007m/1336855.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1336855.A_Patchwork_Planet 4 0 false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Nov 08 06:48:33 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 22 09:07:30 -0800 2009
"The novel is narrated with 29-year-old Barnaby, whose life has gone off the rails since he was caught robbing neighborhood homes as an adolescent. To the despair of his distant father, his social-climbing mother, his chilly ex-wife and his prematurely patriarch...more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 3 0 false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Wed Nov 21 07:08:32 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 21 07:09:21 -0800 2007 more...]]> 246579 0099272687 9780099272687 6 3 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173111227m/246579.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/246579.Patchwork_Planet_Uk_Edition 4 0 false Sun Jun 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 11:21:20 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 11:22:55 -0700 2009 1
Barnaby has grown out of his wild teenage years, helped by the trust of his grandfather, and now works for a company that does odd jobs for the elderly. His wife has left him, and he finds his family...more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 3 0 false Sat Jan 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Dec 28 11:16:11 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 03 17:47:50 -0800 2009 more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 5 0 false Tue Dec 16 12:05:26 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 12:07:50 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1468464 037540256X 9780375402562 31 5 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183914316m/1468464.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1468464.A_Patchwork_Planet 4 0 false Sun Jun 28 15:37:40 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 28 15:40:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 2 0 false Tue May 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 17:06:41 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 17:29:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 0 0 false Sat Oct 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 07:29:17 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 07:32:33 -0700 2009 40020 080411918X 9780804119184 1569 100 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169385720m/40020.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40020.A_Patchwork_Planet 5 0 false Mon Mar 16 06:28:21 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 16 06:29:41 -0700 2009 1468464 037540256X 9780375402562 31 5 3.58 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183914316m/1468464.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1468464.A_Patchwork_Planet 3 0 false Mon Mar 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Feb 23 08:29:04 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 09 16:58:12 -0700 2009
I talk a little more about this boo...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=40020