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77th out of 418 books
—
92 voters
A Slipping-Down Life
by
Anne Tyler
"Without Anne Tyler, American fiction would be an immeasurably bleaker place."
NEWSDAY
Evie Decker is a shy, slightly plump teenager, lonely and silent. But her quiet life is shattered when she hears the voice of Drumstrings Casey on the radio and becomes instantly attracted to him. She manages to meet him, bursting out of her lonely shell--and into the attentive gaze of the...more
NEWSDAY
Evie Decker is a shy, slightly plump teenager, lonely and silent. But her quiet life is shattered when she hears the voice of Drumstrings Casey on the radio and becomes instantly attracted to him. She manages to meet him, bursting out of her lonely shell--and into the attentive gaze of the...more
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
May 4th 2004
by Ballantine Books
(first published 1969)
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"I'll never get anywhere. I ain't but nineteen years old and already leading a slipping down life."
Ok, not to spoiler your reading experience to come but this line was my favorite moment in this book and made me think of my favorite novel about the anticlimactic reality of adulthood, Rabbit, Run.
This little slip of a novel is a real change of pace if you are more accustomed to Tyler's later, more famous efforts chronicling the disaffected lives of the middle-aged. This is Tyler's third book, wri...more
I read this book having failed to complete a viewing of the movie; reading the book has put me more firmly in the "what on earth were they thinking" camp. It is, I think, the worst film adaptation I have ever encountered. It succeeds on no level. I suppose I suggest you watch it, try to guess what the book might have been, and then read the book, simply because the (bad) movie is tremendously strange and then more strange when you realize where it started.
As for the book, it offers a window into...more
As for the book, it offers a window into...more
The book tackles a lot of issues - daily grind of high school, passion for music, crushes, even marriage - but has a strange lack of emotion throughout. The reader is never invited in to Evie Decker's mind, so what she thinks and feels remains unknown. This bothered me for a lot of the book; at the same time, the story itself was pulling me in. Evie has never been interested in anything, she's a good student who floats by without being noticed. After hearing his voice on the radio, she goes to a...more
In this short early novel, Anne Tyler shows the main techniques that characterize her books. A couple of seemingly normal but slightly off characters connect, one does a strange -- but not criminal -- act, and the plot continues from there. The characters come from the unremarkable middle or lower-middle class and live in ordinary circumstances. Subsidiary characters are ordinary as well. But one or more of the central characters has a wish or a need stronger than those of most people and that l...more
This was a fast, entertaining read about an unattractive social misfit's brief, hopeless relationship with an unattractive, self-centered social misfit. The author kept her distance from the heart and soul of the characters, so that they were written without depth in a cartoon character style but were too pitiful to be truly funny and not warm and real enough to be truly tragic, just people you might pass on the street and hardly notice. The book was more character than plot or action-driven and...more
I'm confused as to a) how I'd not heard of this story before and b) how for something published in the '60s, it feels as relevant as it ever might.
It's the story of Evie, a dullish, averagish girl in suburban somewhere-in-America, and the way she suddenly falls for a would-be rock star. One night she causes scandal at the place he gigs by rolling up with his name carved into her forehead.
Before long, she's part of a hopeful publicity machine, and then, when that doesn't work out, she gets even...more
A Slipping Down Life by Anne Taylor is about a heavy girl whose life is lonely and depressing yet she has great courage, which makes her a role model for readers. Evie Decker is the main character and she only has one friend named Violet. Evie and Violet decide to go to a concert that Drumstring Casey is performing in. Evie falls in love with him and his song. After that night everything changes for Evie and Drumstring. They fall in love, start looking for new jobs and then elope. Evie also has...more
While brief, this book is evocative and rich. The story has fantastical moments that seem wholly grounded and real as Tyler introduces the reader to Evie - a lonely 17-year-old - looking for a place to belong in the world. As Evie progresses through the story, her determination becomes more and more evident. This is a novella, I suppose - too long for a short story, too short for a novel. In any case, Tyler is a storytelling genius and has been so from her earliest writing days. This book was or...more
This kept gnawing at me.. I feel like I have experienced this minus the self-mutilation. The movie made the feeling worse.. which meant it was a good adaptation, imo. only thing is she still got the guy.. i didn't, which as time grows on.. is eventually a good thing.
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This is a brief story about a teenager named Evie, who is a plump, un-special girl. After hearing a band on the radio, she decides that she must see this band. It's the first of many of Evie's quietly resolute acts.
The book doesn't dwell on anything much--settings, characterizations, feelings are very concisely laid out. Perhaps due to the pithiness, I get the feeling that I have to catch up mentally to understand why things are happening.
Everything about the people and place that surrounds Ev...more
The book doesn't dwell on anything much--settings, characterizations, feelings are very concisely laid out. Perhaps due to the pithiness, I get the feeling that I have to catch up mentally to understand why things are happening.
Everything about the people and place that surrounds Ev...more
I was glad this was a slimline volume as I did not wholly enjoy it. The story of Evie Decker, a shy plump very passive teenage. Hugely unhappy lonely and invisible it seems to all around her. I found her character a bit depressing and wanted to get inside and shake her up. She shakes herself up after hearing Drumstrings Casey, an aspiring but also passive musician who hopes to make it big but misses the necessary oomph in his character. The story revolves round their off tangent relationship. So...more
This isnt the best Anner Tyler book I've read but it held my interest until I finished the book. Now that I've read it it is a different kind of story. Doesn't really go anywhere hence the name I guess. It's about 2 teenagers in a small N Carolina town. The boy is a wanna be rock star and she is an overweight shy girl consumed by the boy. It's not a happy book nor a happy ending so have another lighter book waiting when you finish. BUT I love Anne Tyler and have read most all of her books but th...more
Evie Decker is your average --at least for the people around her-- shy, introvert and plump teenager living with her considerate father and hours and hours of silence to fill her every day. Then one night she hears a local rock singer on the radio and becomes instantly attracted to his voice. Evie then starts' to search for him and when she does, burst out of her lonely shell for the first time. What's more to catch a singers' attention than to slash her own forehead with his name?
Ms. Tyler’s th...more
Ms. Tyler’s th...more
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What makes Anne Tyler difficult and wonderful is that you cannot put her into a box, label the box, and tie a shiny bow around it. She is not afraid of creating characters who are imperfect, and all her stories (Digging to America being an exception) are more tangential than mainstream. Most authors (and this is not a negative criticism, merely an observation) treat their characters and situations as though there's a camera aimed at them. Tyler shows us what life is like when the camera isn't ro...more
Jun 26, 2010
Burgendya
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
no one. Unless they really want to check it out for themselves.
Recommended to Burgendya by:
Noboday. I saw the movie first and I decided to give it a try.
I can't believe that I thought this novel was going to be interesting. This is the first book of Anne Tyler that I have read. The writing was not bad, but it did not get to me whatsoever. I don't want to be to over critical b/c I have read worst work.
Well here is a brief summary of the story. It is center around a young chunky awkward girl named Evie Decker falls madly inlove with this small town rocker Drumstring Casey from the moment she heard & saw him. Evie literally does anything just...more
Well here is a brief summary of the story. It is center around a young chunky awkward girl named Evie Decker falls madly inlove with this small town rocker Drumstring Casey from the moment she heard & saw him. Evie literally does anything just...more
This was, all in all, a pretty odd book. You can probably tell that from the synopsis, but I truly didn't expect what happened in this book. I was intrigued by the synopsis as I, like all teenage girls, used to have crushes on musicians and fantasise about them falling in love with me. It was an interesting story and there were aspects which appealed to me, but my problem was the characters. I just didn't connect with any of them. Maybe this is an issue with books with less than 150 pages, but I...more
222 pages. Donated 2010 May.
"Without Anne Tyler, American fiction would be an immeasurably bleaker place." NEWSDAY
Evie Decker is a shy, slightly plump teenager, lonely and silent. But her quiet life is shattered when she hears the voice of Drumstrings Casey on the radio and becomes instantly attracted to him. She manages to meet him, bursting out of her lonely shell--and into the attentive gaze of the intangible man who becomes all too real....
From the Paperback edition
"Without Anne Tyler, American fiction would be an immeasurably bleaker place." NEWSDAY
Evie Decker is a shy, slightly plump teenager, lonely and silent. But her quiet life is shattered when she hears the voice of Drumstrings Casey on the radio and becomes instantly attracted to him. She manages to meet him, bursting out of her lonely shell--and into the attentive gaze of the intangible man who becomes all too real....
From the Paperback edition
I have mixed emotions about A Slipping-down Life . It's for sure my least favorite Anne Tyler - but I expect a lot from her and maybe I'm being too judgmental. I thought this was a new book but it was just a really old one I hadn't read and maybe Tyler hadn't honed down her skill yet. The cover states that this book is "Now A Major Motion Picture". If it is a movie, I've never heard of it nor do I think I would be interested in seeing it. The story moved pretty slowly but the ending totally carr...more
Anne Tyler's characters and their lives are always a treat to read about. There is a realness about them that is hard to define. Evie Decker is a rather sad, lonely teenager who becomes bizarrely obsessed by a local young singer. Evie's extreme actions brings her some local notoriety, but also meshes her life with that of the object of her affections. This charming novel is both funny and bittersweet by turns and there is an inevitability in the slightly sad ending.
I always enjoy reading Anne Tyler's novels. This one was good, if unremarkable. It's one of her earlier works (published 1970) and I generally prefer her mid to late stuff. The story of a shy teenage girl who is obsessed with a small-time, local rock singer named Drumstrings Casey. After one of his gigs, she carves 'Casey' into her forehead, attracting the attention of the local press, the classmates that previously ignored her, and finally, Casey himself. The story takes some interesting, unexp...more
I wasn't sure when I picked this book up if it was for youth readers or not. Now that I've read it, I still don't know. The characters are all in high school or just past it, but it has some serious story themes like self cutting. The main theme is disengagement: from the world of adults as well as the characters feeling unconnected from their own lives. It's a gloomy little tale and I can't recommend it.
This is one of Tyler's earlier works, but one of the most recent I read. I could really tell that it was an earlier novel (perhaps her first published?), but I still found it a good read. She has such a wonderful way of creating these quirky characters and quirky situations. That is one of the things I have taken away from her books - putting two strange dynamics together and seeing what happens. The character of Evie is lost and a bit melancholy and ends up with a "rock star." It's a great prem...more
oy! why did i spend my time finishing this book?! i thought it was terrible. i have read reviews calling this story another "stong woman" tale...ha! she was so weak until the end it drove me batty... please don't bother picking this one up!
that being said, Tyler is one of my favorite authors...i don't think the book was poorly written, but the premise of the novel was a nightmare!
that being said, Tyler is one of my favorite authors...i don't think the book was poorly written, but the premise of the novel was a nightmare!
Jan 12, 2009
Sull
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Nobody-terrible story!
Recommended to Sull by:
I think my dear mother again got this for me, thinking AT was "m
I disliked this book a lot, and I remember I deliberately didn't finish it. Weird, scary girl who becomes obsessed with a guy in a band. It reminded me of Joyce Carol Oates' writing. JCO was very big when I was in high school--she wrote very compelling books about lost people--but I hated her books, really hated them. I almost gave up on AT at this point. . . .
Reading and in some cases rereading Anne Tyler's novels since the library usually has them available for Kindle. This one was interesting and strange, about a teenage girl who falls in love with a local rock singer's persona, carves his name on her forehead, and ends up marrying him. The story ends abruptly and unexpectedly, and is unsatisfying.
I got this book because it came free in a copy of Cosmopolitan with a voucher for Ladder of Years.It's a little book - just 166 pages - but it is classic Tyler - strong female characters, light-touch on the narrator - gently unfolding family tale with an uplifting ending.
I find I still have the £5 voucher even although I bought the book.
I find I still have the £5 voucher even although I bought the book.
Anne Tyler's novels are always so good at capturing characters, better than any other author I can think of. You are swept along as the reader, empathizing with people you really feel you understand, that feel absolutely real, even the minor characters or those that do things you'd never dream of doing, like Evie here. Lovely book.
I usually read Anne tyler because she writes books about Baltimore. This book took place in North Carolina, but the places still seemed very familiar. I enjoy how she writes about every day life and the struggles the characters in the novel are facing. It is very easy to relate even though I have never been to that town in NC.
I've read most Of Anne Tyler's books over the years, but somehow this one had slipped through the cracks. It is obvious that this one is early on in her writing career, but it already shows the genius that is Anne Tyler. Not my favorite, but I would read the back of a cereal box if Tyler had written the text! 3.5 stars!
As usual, interesting characters. I could actually identify with the main character when I thought back to my teen years. I love the author's skill in developing characters and breathing life into them. She doesn't keep telling the same story over and over like many authors do. Initially I didn't think this book would interest me but a well told story goes a long way. Also some great lines!
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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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