The Accidental Tourist

by Anne Tyler

The meeting of Macon Leary, a travel-hater who makes a living writing travel guides called "The Accidental Tourist in...," and frizzy-haired, nonstop talker Muriel sets off an unexpected chain of events

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Novels, Adult Fiction

342 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 12, 1985

About the author

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. She has published 20 novels, her debut novel being If Morning Ever Comes in (1964). Her eleventh novel, Breathing Lessons , was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Reviews

[Julie G · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's an EE Cummings poem that goes like this:

Tumbling-hair
picker of buttercups
violets
dandelions
And the big bullying daisies
through the field wonderful
with eyes a little sorry
Another comes
also picking flowers

The first time I read this novel, about 10 years ago, I didn't think of this poem. As a mother of an adolescent son and a toddler daughter at the time, I could only think of the nightmarish loss that Macon Leary and his wife, Sarah, suffer when a lone gunman kills their 12-year-old son, Ethan, in a restaurant. (Not a spoiler alert).

Ten years later, I am no less concerned about something bad happening to one of my children, but I had a totally different response to this story, and I thought of this poem throughout this read.

This time I saw Macon Leary as one of the quirkiest, most sympathetic characters in all of American literature, and I was fascinated by him.

Macon, the “picker of buttercups,” is abandoned by his wife, Sarah, when the depression of losing her only child sends her packing. Macon and Sarah have been together for twenty years, and they've had their issues, as all couples do, but the pressure cooker of having their only child murdered blasts both of them out of their daily orbit.

From this time on I can never be completely happy.

Next thing Macon knows, he's living alone, and he can't summon the courage to grocery shop one more time, by himself. In a scene that nearly broke me, he calls the store to have the groceries delivered and ends up breaking down and telling a stranger on the phone:

I'm all alone; it's just me; it seems everybody's just. . . fled from me, I don't know, I've lost them, I'm left standing here saying, 'Where'd they go? Where is everybody? Oh, God, what did I do that was so bad?'”

Sob.

He thinks it can't get any worse (never think that), but then he falls in the basement and breaks his leg, which sends him back to his family of origin: a household of two quirky divorced brothers and an “old maid” sister who never married.

The four Leary siblings quickly settle into a comfortable daily pattern and no one discusses Macon's dead son or his wife's recent abandonment anymore.

. . . if people didn't adjust, how could they bear to go on?

Just when the Leary siblings believe that they can hunker down in their home of origin and mentally time travel back to a simpler time, Macon's dog Edward decides to bite someone.

When a dog trainer arrives, with “eyes a little sorry” mild-mannered Macon finds himself in the unlikeliest dilemma. . .

This novel is, for me, an unapologetic five star read. I loved it the first time around, but, somehow, the story expanded and became even greater.

I can't wait to re-read it again. I wish I wrote it. I want to gather a bouquet of “big bullying daisies” and deliver them to Ms. Tyler's door.

He began to believe that people could, in fact, be used up--could use each other up, could be of no further help to each other and maybe even do harm to each other. He began to think that who you are when you're with somebody may matter more than whether you love [them].

[Ellen · Rating 1 out of 5]

It looks like I'm in the minority here, but I really did not enjoy this book. I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters. I thought Macon was whiny and indecisive. I couldn't be compelled to care about what he wanted, mostly because it was never made clear to me exactly what that was. He just seemed to bump along with whatever happened.

More than anything else, my problem with this book is that nothing happened. I kept thinking that possibly in the next chapter Macon would act in some way to change his own destiny, but nope. Nothing even happened in the end, the book just seemed to stop.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this book! Appreciated it more than Breathing Lessons or Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. It is touching and hilarious and timeless.

Macon lives alone with his misbehaving dog Edward in the wake of the double catastrophe of his son Ethan being murdered while away at summer camp and his wife Brenda walking out on him. He is not in great shape: He felt much worse in the morning. It had been a warm night and he woke up sticky and cross. He couldn't face the thought of popcorn for breakfast. He laundered a load of sheets and then, in the midst of hanging them, found himself standing motionless with his head bowed, both wrists dangling over the clothesline as if he himself had been pinned there. (p. 57) This particular scene reminded me of the one in Don Quixote when he is standing on poor Rocinante's back looking spying through a window at his beloved Dulcinella, but Rocinante sees a piece of grass lying on the ground and wanders over to it leaving Quixote suspended in space, mike Macon. Wonderful image!

He moves in with his equally maladjusted brothers Charles and Porter and his sister Rose to fight the feeling of loneliness, but this still looks to him like a poor solution: Charles and porter on either side of him, Rose perched in the foreground. Was there any real change? He felt a jolt of something very close to panic. Here he still was! The same as ever! What have I gone and done? he wondered, and he swallowed thickly and looked at his own empty hands. (p. 81)

Macon is the author of the popular travel guides The Accidental Tourist which are tourists books for businessmen that travel for work, helped along by his friend and boss Julien. Before leaving on a trip, he is rebuffed by a kennel who will not take Edward for him because he bit someone on a previous stay. This mishap leads us to the other protagonist, the wonderfully ebulent and verbose Muriel who, over at the Meow-Bow animal hospital, takes in Edward and offers to train him:
"I can even teach split personality."
"What's split personality?"
"Where your dog is, like, nice to you but kills all others."
"You know, I think I may be in over my head here," Macon said. (p. 97) This is typical of the quirky and direct talking style of Muriel and a small sample of the rich humor throughout the book or the small observations such as when Edward seems to be learning too quickly in Muriel's presence: the way a toothache will improve the moment you step into a dentist's waiting room. (p. 101) See also the training session on p. 114. So funny!

Macon and his siblings are all in a sort of suspended animation, stuck in their thoughts and in their ways. Muriel represents an escape from this monotony which Macon embraces, rejects and ultimately embraces - this tension and back and forth forming the backbone for this excellent book. His transformation is not without pain and risk, however: He was gone too far to return. He would never, ever get back. He had somehow traveled to a point completely isolated from everyone else in the universe, and nothing was real but his own angular hand clenched around the sherry glass. (p. 180)

This is truly a wonderful novel, full of love and humor and I truly preferred it over the other two Tyler books I have read so far. A fantastic read and it still surprises me that she missed the Pulitzer. One of my next reads is Lonesome Dove which won out over this one...

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love is in the air--or maybe anxiously repressed--in February and my romantic literature jag concludes with The Accidental Tourist, the 1985 novel by Anne Tyler and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction that year. Like all of my reads in the shortest month of the year, this was my introduction to the author and I found much of Tyler's story to be an absolute delight. This is a novel by and for mature adults that finds a wonderful balance between the melancholy of losing a child and long term spouse in the same year and the excitement of meeting someone new, with its awkwardness, miscommunication and urges to flee to the familiar.

The story focuses on Macon Leary, a methodical and steady man of 42 who's introduced driving himself and his mercurial wife Sarah home from a beach vacation that wrapped up early when neither found the heart for it. His wife sports a suntan. Macon does not. His determination to keep driving through a heavy rainstorm despite Sarah's apprehension escalates into her declaration that she can't live with him anymore and wants to move out. Their house in an older part of Baltimore is left to Macon to occupy alone with Edward, a Welsh corgi which belonged to the couple's only child Ethan, murdered at the age of 12 along with the other diners in a fast food restaurant.

Macon is a reluctant travel writer, author of a series of guidebooks called The Accidental Tourist catering to businessmen and others forced into foreign locales when they'd prefer the comforts of home. Twelve years ago, Macon was sort of helping run a bottle-cap factory inherited with his brothers Charles and Porter from their grandfather. Macon's interest in writing and working for a newspaper led to an article in a local weekly on a crafts fair. The article was all about Macon's fussiness at the fair but caught the attention of Julian Edge, publisher of Businessman's Press, who identified a niche and offered Macon a job.

It was one of Macon's bad habits to start itching to go home too early. No matter how short a stay he'd planned, partway through he would decide that he ought to leave, that he'd allowed himself far too much time, that everything truly necessary had already been accomplished--or almost everything, almost accomplished. Then the rest of the visit was spent in phone calls to travel agents and fruitless trips to airline offices and standby waits that came to nothing, so that he was forced to return to the hotel he'd just checked out of. He always promised himself this wouldn't happen again, but somehow it always did. In England, it happened on his fourth afternoon. What more was there to do? he started wondering. Hadn't he got the gist of the place?

Neither Macon or his dog Edward take it well when Sarah moves out and their sorry state contributes to Macon slipping down the basement stairs and breaking his leg. To recuperate, Macon moves back home to be taken care of by his sister Rose, a fixer who also cares for his gifted but socially challenged brothers Charles and Porter, as well as the neighborhood's elderly. Edward terrorizes the household to the point where the siblings read Macon the riot act. For help, he turns to Muriel Pritchett, an animal caretaker he left Edward with at the Meow-Bow Animal Hospital before his trip to England.

Nothing about Muriel--from her frizzy hair to her eclectic fashion sense to her youth--appeals to Macon, who has never dated anyone except his stately wife Sarah and has little interest in starting. He ignores Muriel's overtures to meet for a drink or to let her cook him dinner, despite observing a cockiness that impresses him. Muriel works wonders with Edward, but when Macon learns from a co-worker that she has a seven-year-old son, he attempts to cancel their dinner date, terrified of emotional involvement. Muriel gets Macon to open up about his late son and in comforting him, the relationship blossoms.

Macon begins spending time at Muriel's home in an impoverished section of Baltimore, sleeping over, cleaning up and even writing there. He takes an interest in her frail boy Alexander, whose allergies Macon believes have been exaggerated by the boy's mother. Muriel exposes him to her crazy quilt of relationships. Dominick is a teenager who handles her car repairs in exchange for the keys three nights a week. Her 17 year old sister Claire has ongoing drama with their disapproving mother and sleeps over regularly. Macon struggles to find consistency in Muriel's behavior, while admiring her courage as well.

Had he ever known such a fighter? He went grocery shopping with her unusually late one evening, and just as they were crossing a shadowed area a boy stepped forth from a doorway. "Give over all what you have in your purse," he told Muriel. Macon was caught off guard; the boy was hardly more than a child. He froze, hugging the sack of groceries. But Muriel said, "The hell I will!" and swung her purse around by its strap and clipped the boy in the jaw. He lifted a hand to his face. "You get on home this instant or you'll be sorry you were ever born," Muriel told him. He slunk away, looking back at her with a puzzled expression.

When Macon had caught his breath again, he told Muriel she was a fool. "He might have had a gun, for all you knew," he said. "Anything might have happened! Kids show less mercy than grown-ups; you can see that any day in the papers."

"Well, it turned out fine, didn't it?" Muriel asked. "What are you so mad at?"

He wasn't sure. He supposed he might be mad at himself. He had done nothing to protect her, nothing strong or chivalrous. He hadn't thought as fast as she had or thought at all, in fact. While Muriel ... why, Muriel hadn't even seemed surprised. She might have strolled down that street expecting a neighbor here, a stray dog there, a holdup just beyond--all equally part of life. He felt awed by her, and diminished. Muriel just walked on, humming "Great Speckled Bird" as if nothing particular had happened.

Macon reluctantly invites Muriel to his sister Rose's wedding to his publisher Julian, who believes he's found in the Learys the old-fashioned domestic comfort that he's always craved. Macon will not so much as commit to bringing Muriel to visit Paris with him or give in to her desire for a June wedding. His family continue to her refer to his girlfriend as "that Muriel person." The final push Macon needs to flee a new commitment comes when his wife Sarah concedes she's ready to come home, that at a certain age, people just don't have much of a choice and that it's too late for her to change her life.

For much of The Accidental Tourist, I wanted to shrink Anne Tyler and put her in my pocket. I was struck by how effortlessly she mixed tragedy and comedy into a narrative that I found mirrored certain aspects of my own life so accurately. The horror of losing a child in the violent and senseless manner which Macon and Sarah do is something I hope I never experience but Tyler slips into the story in a way that is both powerful and restrained. I could relate to Macon's social anxiety and that of his family's to dip their toes into the unfamiliar and how a woman who never seems to think further ahead than a minute challenges him to do just that.

Muriel's behavior did overstep boundaries that today would evoke a restraining order, but I was okay with experiencing it in a novel from a far less sensitive time. Tyler's prose is adroit, her dialogue a delight and story absent of caricature, with the stiffness of a WASP male relaxed by the vitality of a woman who's had to fight for everything in her life. The simple joys of the book made for strange bedfellows with a big movie, which was well reviewed and nominated for four Academy Awards in 1988 but barely memorable today. Adapted by Frank Galati and Lawrence Kasdan and directed by Kasdan, it featured William Hurt as Macon, Geena Davis as Muriel, Kathleen Turner as Sarah and Bill Pullman as Julian.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Was there any way he could learn to do things differently?”

This is a novel I have had to think about for a while before I knew what I needed to say about it. I’m not sure I still do, weeks later.

The plot is that Macon Leary (an author of guidebooks) is asked by his wife for a divorce in the text’s opening chapter. The Leary’s have recently suffered the loss of their only child. Macon is very habitual, and even a little odd in his quirks, and he likes his routines. And he meets someone who is totally irresponsible (a woman named Muriel) who pushes her way into his life.

As I was reading THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST, I kept resisting it. Telling myself that it was not speaking to me like most of the Anne Tyler I have read does. Yet, I was enjoying the book, and the experience of it. But there was a key character (Muriel) who I just detested, and there were moments of such inaction (by the character’s choices) that I was frustrated. But was that frustration at the characters and plot devices, or at situations in my life that reflected what I was reading?
Regardless, the last 50 pages had the hook firmly planted in my mouth. They rocked my world. At which point, I realized the hook had been firmly planted much earlier than that.

Anne Tyler is one of the best at writing the complexities of being human in a manner that is unassuming and yet gets right to the truth of the matter. It can be unnerving, and very powerful. Ms. Tyler gets us, and sometimes she gets the things about us that we don’t want to know. Sometimes it stabs like a knife, sometimes it makes us chuckle, but always there is the recognition.
Here are two instances from this text of both.
When I read this bit, I was stopped cold. It hurt.- “…he began to believe that people could, in fact, be used up-could use each other up, could be no further help to each other and maybe even do harm to each other. He began to think that who you are when you’re with somebody may matter more than whether you love her.”
This made me chuckle, one of the best and most truthful depictions of middle age I have read- “He realized how stiffly he walked after he had been sitting in one position too long; how he favored his back, always expecting it to go out on him again; how once was plenty whenever they made love.”

Some quotes. (There were so many moments I really had to pare this list down.)
• “It’s time we started digging out! How long are we going to stay fixed here?”
• “He wondered if he’d ever return to his old, unbroken self.”
• “He kept very erect and dignified but inside, he knew, he was crumbling.”
• “I’m forty-two years old. I don’t have enough time left to waste it holing up in my shell.”
• “You’re not holding steady; you’re ossified.”
• “He felt there was something he needed to do, some kind of connection he wanted to make…”
• “It seemed she used words as a sort of background music.”
• “It was his vast, lonely distance from everyone who mattered.”
• “…marveled at how an empty space could be so full of a person.”
• “There were all those hours still to be survived.”
• “…but he was secretly longing to fall in love…”
• “I really hate a man with an obnoxious dog.”
• “…isn’t it amazing how two separate lives can link up together?”
• “Odd how clear it suddenly became, once a person had died, that the body was the very least of him.”
• “He felt content with everything exactly the way it was. He seemed to be suspended, his life on hold.”
• “I just don’t think that sex is important enough to ruin your life for.”
• “Some lived careful lives and some lived careless lives, and everything that happened could be explained by the difference between them.”
• “Do you mean to tell me you can just use a person up and then move on?”
• “After a certain age, it seems to me you can only chose what to lose.”
• “…Lord, just go back and erase all the untidy, unthinking things he’s been responsible for in his life.”
• “Oh, it was their immunity to time that made the dead so heartbreaking.”
• “The real adventure, he thought, is the flow of time; it’s as much adventure as anyone could wish.”

Of special note, the last two paragraphs of the book are astounding. Just astounding.

I liked THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST more after finishing it and reflecting on it than I did while reading it. It is an Anne Tyler novel I had to surrender to. Which is why it’s so powerful. You wave the white flag, even though you think you don’t want to.

[Glenn Sumi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second-time read, revised rating from 4 stars to 5

This is a second-time read for me. The first time was a couple of decades ago, after I had read Tyler’s Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant – which I also coincidentally reread earlier this year and still consider her masterpiece.

I’ve now read 12 Tyler novels (out of 23), and have a good feel for her range and scope. This book is easily one of her best: top 3 or 4.

You probably know the story, since it was made into an Oscar-winning movie. Macon Leary is a 40-something writer of The Accidental Tourist series of travel guides for business people who don't want to leave the comfort of their home but need to for work. He tells you which Tokyo restaurants offer Sweet ’n’ Low, what hotels feature Beautyrest mattresses and whether Mexico City has a Taco Bell.

Macon is at a crossroads. A year earlier, his 12-year-old son Ethan was senselessly murdered at a fast-food restaurant while he was away at summer camp. And now, Macon’s wife of 20 years, Sarah, has asked for a divorce. When she leaves, Macon’s life gets turned upside down. He constructs elaborate routines for his domestic activities – for instance, while taking his nightly shower, he tramples on the clothes he wore that day to wash them. And then he breaks his leg, which lands him back at his late grandparents’ old home, where his three equally eccentric siblings now live. Oh yeah, and his dog William is acting up, which results in him hiring a dog trainer named Muriel Pritchett, who clearly has her eye on Macon.

The book’s central metaphor of someone who resists change is profound, and Tyler makes the fussy, set-in-his-ways Macon feel real. While there’s lots of comedy in the novel, Tyler touches on some dark themes. When, a third into the book, Macon meets up with Sarah, thinking they might get back together again, Sarah tells him:

Ever since Ethan died I’ve had to admit that people are basically bad. Evil, Macon. So evil they would take a twelve-year-old boy and shoot him through the skull for no reason. I read a paper now and I despair; I’ve given up watching the news on TV. There’s so much wickedness, children setting other children on fire and grown men throwing babies out second-story windows, rape and torture and terrorism, old people beaten and robbed, men in our very own government willing to blow up the world, indifference and greed and instant anger on every street corner.

How relevant does that feel in today’s divided world?

What’s impressive is how much I remembered about the book two decades later, from the complicated card game Macon and his siblings play (no one else – including in-laws – can understand the rules) to the celebratory final word of the novel.

The first 100 pages are as good as any contemporary novel I’ve read: clear, funny, dramatic. Tyler establishes Macon’s world with total confidence and authenticity. The subtle way she introduces Muriel and integrates her into the story is masterful, too, although at times she seems a little too quirky for belief. (Tyler gives us a scene near the end of the book in which Muriel and Macon are held up by a thief, surely an echo of the violent scene we’ve heard about, and it has an implausible comic spin.)

My one quibble with the book is how the story takes a big dip around the 2/3 mark. But having read the novel a second time, I can now appreciate Tyler’s subtle craft. Macon isn’t an impulsive person, and so if he’s going to change, if he’s going to accept and recover from his personal trauma, it will be slowly, gradually.

This time around, I also appreciated the way Tyler deals with class and education. You get to know Muriel, her family and her colourful, down-on-their-luck neighbours well, and there’s no judgement involved, just acceptance. I also paid more attention to the peripheral characters – those who pop up in a scene or two, like Macon’s airplane seat mates or a neighbour who, early on, tells Macon a heartbreaking story of how his marriage endured. These details make the book come to life because in a way they are life.

As my Goodreads friend Julie and I discussed in the comments of her own marvellous review, the book features one of the most vivid dogs in literature. Tyler has a great eye for human behaviour, but she understands the canine world, too. That’s no accident.

[Fabian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accidental tourists are actually pretty annoying! (These are those pesky travelers who refuse to give up all their customs, their comforts; refuse to get lost a little in the foreignness, to LIVE.) And this book isn't. A success then! (considering the subject matter.) Yeah, the protagonist is a huge bore & as he has one of the best jobs of all time is doubly douche-ey, but he has a reason to be maudlin and dissatisfied. Lifetime Movie Network viewers would have a blast... & the novel feels capital D Dated indeed. But Tyler does a great job in making all characters believable and all situations credible... you feel very bad for the guy you basically would hate to have around you. His intellectual edge is minuscule, and you feel bad for all other "dumber" characters too. It's slightly symbolic, but also rather, um, small.

It is wise to note that other books by this particular publishing company such as "The Patron Saint of Liars" by Anne Patchett or "The World According to Garp" by John Irvin also seem to fit within this category of above-average reads-- which you may or may not be inspired to recommend, depending on the mood, the weather or the person.

[Susan's Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Anne Tyler. Tyler's imagination and observational skills are astounding. This novel mirrors life lately for so many of us. The prevailing "wait and see" mentality is a bit unsettling.

But hark! Tempus fugit: tik tok, tik tok...!



Macon tries to rigidly plan and control his life - he and his siblings are stuck in a groove, freezing out harsh reality. Their chaotic first years at the hands of their irresponsible, flighty mother had them all craving the monochrome, staid reality of their grandparents' stagnant but totally predictable lifestyle.



But the Fates or Powers that Be did not allow Macon and his siblings to continue to tread water and "miss a chance at love" - as Macon's sister, Rose, put it. Macon was going to be given the chance of living a richer, more satisfying life.



Like the rest of the world for the past two years during COVID lockdown, everything was on pause for the Learys for way too long! Many of us realize that we can't go back to the way things were before COVID shook our foundations and made us examine what we truly needed and wanted for the remaining years of our lives.



There are so many elements of Macon and Muriel's characters that I saw in myself. Muriel was unapologetically herself, but yet she kept declaring that she looked like the wrath of God (that always cracked me up!) Somehow Muriel found the courage to stay positive despite all of her struggles and financial uncertainty.



Macon saw Sarah, his estranged wife, as something familiar in a now unwelcoming, sometimes violent, landscape. Could they both really return to their old way of life after their year of separation and resume their ageless routines? Sarah professed to have missed their predictable life, but Macon was now faced with a dilemma: return to his static/familiar life or embrace the unknown?



No spoilers here, but I will say that I found the ending of this novel extremely satisfying. It takes courage to face the truth, pack up your old life and forge a new path. Yup, I took lots of notes - I got the message: LIFE and DISRUPTION are going to keep happening to us and eventually FORCE change upon us, no matter how hard we dig in our heels. We can only keep things at bay for so long, so we may as well enjoy the ride while we are being swept away on the current!

[Antoinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book. It was the perfect read for right now. When I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about the people in this book.

Anne Tyler writes people- people you can recognize. They are middle class people who live their lives as best as they can. You can almost sense that she spends her time studying and processing people to get to their inner selves.

The Leary siblings in this book are as straight-laced as they come. Outsiders have trouble relating to them. They are unique and idiosyncratic.
Macon Leary is a man who has gone through the worst devastation and he is tottering on the edge. He is a man who keeps his thoughts and feeling inside, so he is a hard man to read. Others see him as a cold man, but is he?

“It occurred to him (not for the first time) that the world was divided sharply down the middle: Some lived careful lives and some lived careless lives, and everything that happened could be explained by the differences between them.”

There were many laugh out loud moments, especially when Edward, the dog, was involved. There were also many tender moments in this book. This book made me laugh and it made me tear up.

This is the second Anne Tyler book I have read (I’m a late bloomer when it comes to Anne Tyler), and I am so excited to know there are many more for me to savour.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Apologies in advance to my book group. I promise to keep my mouth shut and let someone explain to me why they like this book, because I can't figure it out.

The main character, Macon, is so compulsive and deranged. I read reviews of the book where people thought the descriptions of his daily routines were humorous. I found no humor, only desperation and pathos. His life and psychotic narrative going on in his head was too depressing for words. Reading this book made me anxious to get back to my life that I'm happy with and not try and live with such sad characters.

Muriel was so pushy and desperate. It was not endearing, it was scary. I know there were some parts in there that were supposed to show that Macon was good for Muriel's son Alexander, but Macon and Muriel's relationship was so dysfunctional, I couldn't bear to watch Alexander tormented by their instability. I skipped ahead to try and see where their relationship was going. Muriel let that man in to her son's life knowing that he was still conflicted about his ex-wife?

This book is not a comedy, it's not romantic, it is tragic. And the saddest part is that I imagine that there are so many people who like this story and these characters because they know people who live like this and think these are normal relationships.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Accidental Tourist has lived in my memory as my favorite Anne Tyler novel, so I was thrilled when it was chosen as my IRL Book Club's March read. I gleefully report it's still my favorite!

Tyler portrays her characters with tenderness and humor, their good qualities and their foibles: the Leary siblings, Macon's wife, Muriel and her son, and Julian. She explores how these people affect one another, how they sometimes press upon each other, how they can lift each other up, and how each brings out different qualities in those with whom they interact. These are ordinary people living everyday lives; the story and the characters are both recognizable and extraordinary in their seeming unremarkableness.

Then there's Edward, Macon's dog, who is a fully realized character himself and who worms his way into my heart and steals a few scenes in this tale. [My only niggle with this novel is the scene with the choke collar.]

Macon Leary moves through life following where it leads him, never taking the lead himself. Then abruptly his world changes.

The Leary siblings are a tight knit, seemingly insular group with well worn grooves of behavior. It's hard for "outsiders" to understand and join in. Frequently they give up trying. And yet the Learys need others to provide ballast in their lives.

One of the themes of this novel is human connection with the joys as well as the disturbances it brings to life.

"Those cool little fingers were so distinct, so particular, so full of character Macon tightened his grip and felt a pleasant kind of sorrow sweeping through him. Oh, his life had regained all its old perils. He was forced to worry once again about nuclear war and the future of the planet. . . . From this time on I can never be completely happy. Not that he was before of course."

And how stepping outside of a comfort zone can bring a needed zing into life.

"he loved the surprise of her, and also the surprise of himself when he was with her. In the foreign country that was Singleton Street he was an entirely different person.''

accidental - occurring unexpectedly, unintentionally, or by chance
tourist - one traveling for pleasure

Macon moves from an accidental life to becoming an accidental tourist in his life, can he now become an intentional one?

Publication 1985

[Anne Bogel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been meaning to read Anne Tyler for years, and when podcast guest Rebecca Smith (Jane Austen's 5x great niece) said she thought Tyler should be recommended reading for Jane Austen fans, I finally took the plunge. This was an enjoyable read that wasn't anything like I expected, and was relatable in surprising ways. Now I want to read more Anne Tyler, of course. (The question is: which one?)

[K.D. Absolutely · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Burying one’s child is against the flow of nature,” said the wife of the Speaker of the House (Philippine Congress) in her eulogy for her 16-year old daughter several years ago. Her only daughter got burned when their short-circuited Christmas tree went in flames. The clueless poor daughter was sleeping and got trapped inside her room. No one was with here in the house when that happened.

This is one thought that, whenever it crosses my mind, I always whisk away immediately: the death of my child. Typing it here even feels wrong as I remember reading that mind has that power to attract what you always think of. I just don't know what to do if this happens. I might as well kill myself, I guess. However, this thing happens. It’s one of the sad realities of life. Once we are born, we can die anytime. In fact, I have some friends and acquaintances whose children died ahead of them.

I also read and liked books that have this as its main or underlying theme. Ordinary People (1976) by Judith Guest was my first. The older son (Buck) died while sailing with the younger son (Conrad) and the unspoken guilt of the son and the unexpressed emotion of the parents blaming the younger son who survived was so powerful that when it was made into a movie, it won the Academy Awards for Best Picture. That was in 1980.

Second, was a book that I read a couple of years back and topped my list of my favorites for that year: What I Loved (2003) by Siri Husvedt. The grief is also not as openly expressed as in Ordinary People but the child who died was their only one and there was no one to blame as the death was an accident. Similarly, the devastated couple separated and the father tried to see his dead child from same-age children of his friends or even strangers. In this book, The Accidental Tourist, the father, Macon Leary starts to withdraw to his own world he would imagine that his whole body was enclosed in a cast and people would peep into the hole in his eyes and would asked “Macon, are you there?” However, Tyler's story went further: Macon seems to belief that the soul of his dead son, Ethan remains in his son’s dog, Edward and no matter how strange or brutal the dog behaves, he keeps it and even hires a dog-trainer Muriel to tame the dog.

The Accidental Tourist was the 1985 novel by Anne Tyler (born 1941). A finalist at Pulitzer Prize and won the National Book Critics Award Circle for Fiction. the novel was adapted into a 1988 award-winning film starring William Hurt (as Macon Leary), Kathleen Turner (Sarah, his estranged wife) and Geena Davis (Muriel, the dog trainer). Davis won the Best Actress in a Supporting Role in this film for the succeeding year’s Academy Awards.

This is my first Anne Tyler novel. Her writing is straightforward. No-frills yet incandescently clear. It’s an easy read. You’ll have a feeling that you are watching a movie (although I missed this film but I will not forego a chance of seeing it). Her strength seemingly is her strong way of building her characters. She goes inside their minds and she seems to have the ability to know how the character should behave in the circumstances that they are in. Her women characters are not stereotyped: they can be as brutal as Sandra leaving Macon to his solitude, as funny yet decisive as Muriel who fights for her love and her son Alexander or as eccentric but loyal, vulnerable yet loving as Rose who arranges her groceries in alphabetical order and cries over the fact that her brothers would not want to eat her cooked-overnight-in-low-fire turkey. Then there are the Leary brothers: Macon (the father), Charles and Porter and they all are poor in direction that they always get lost even if they are just going to the corner store. This book is peppered with many memorable characters that I had a feeling that I was standing in front of a buffet table and I am confused which one to put on my plate as my favorite.

I used to ignore the books of Anne Tyler but next time that I see Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant that Tyler said to be her best work or Breathing Lessons that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989, I will surely buy them right there and then. Be it bargain or regular-priced. Anne Tyler can surely give back the value of every penny you have in your pocket.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a warm, wise, funny, heart-breaking and ultimately life-affirming book. In Macon Leary, the man who writes travel books for people who hate to travel, Tyler has created an amazing character. His damaged psyche, his vulnerability, the gradual changes in his character and outlook as he starts to connect with the messiness of living leap off the page. This book makes me laugh out loud one moment and brings tears to my eyes the next. Although Macon is the centre of the novel, the supporting characters are also wonderful creations. There's Muriel - vulnerable and needy, but alive and connected to others. There's Macon's fabulously eccentric siblings, his boss Julian, his wife Sarah and even his dog Edward - each of them real and memorable.

Some fifteen years after last reading what is without doubt my favourite of Anne Tyler's novels, it was a joy to return to it as a buddy read with my friend Jemidar. If anything, I loved the novel even more than I did when I read and loved it all those years ago. I'm quite sure that I'll read it again.

[TracyGH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Macon and his wife have separated. They tragically have lost their son and is often the case with grief, they find they have changed as people. Perhaps what you thought you needed isn’t what you need anymore? Shortly after his separation, Macon, meets Muriel. Muriel is everything Macon doesn’t like, she is messy, loud, scatterbrained and endearing. But do opposites attract or is this also a symptom of his grief process?

Although sad, there are parts of this story there are funny and are very relatable. Anne Tyler has a unique ability to make you care for the characters. This book started off as fine, an ordinary read, but then she spins her magic. You start to become invested in the outcome, and you really feel a deep sense of the characters portrayed. You feel you know them and they could be walking down your very neighborhood. You could meet them for a coffee….and a catch-up.

I loved this book and I do think I need to return to some of her earlier works. Just easy books that have enough substance that you feel your time with the characters was more than worthwhile. And there is a fiesty dog! 🐶

4.25 stars. ⭐️

[Pedro · Rating 5 out of 5]

By now, you’re all probably very tired of listening to me moaning or raving about characterisation and dialogue. But what can I do, if those things are so important to me in terms of storytelling? Nothing, right? We like what we like. And we need what we need.

Obviously, because I know that not all novels need completely fleshed out characters and spot on/true to life dialogue to work, I don’t expect characters to jump out of the pages in novels of ideas or people talking like they’re at the corner shop in fantasy/sci-fi novels.

Now, if I pick up a book which is supposed to be a reflection of real life (my favourite kind!) not only do I expect excellent characterisation and dialogue, I also expect the writer to write like a writer (I don’t give a damn about their gender, skin colour, sexuality or even age) and the narration also needs to be flawless. It doesn’t matter if it’s a first or third person narrator as long as it feels authentic and allows the story to flow without me having to think that there’s a person behind those words, or worse, having to stop after every sentence wondering what the heck they are trying to sell.

Okay, this is becoming a dangerously long review now. Just bare with me another minute, okay?

So this novel by Anne Tyler, and in case you’re wondering, let me tell you, was my second foray into her long backlist that goes back to 1964 (wow!). I first picked Ladder of Years a couple of years ago and then gave up on it after a hundred and fifty pages thinking it wasn’t for me. The thing is, as soon as I put it down, and until the day I picked it back up again a year later, I couldn’t stop thinking about it and realised I needed to find out what was going to happen to that woman who simply turned away from her family to look for a new life.

After that, needless to say I was completely convinced - Anne Tyler does everything I need a writer to do… and more.

Gosh, the woman even managed to bring a dog to life in this one, my friends. A dog!!

And if anyone ever tells you that she writes quirky characters, don’t listen to them - her characters are not quirky; they’re only human.

[Helene Jeppesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another simple, but beautiful story from Anne Tyler about Macon whose son died a couple of years ago, and whose wife suddenly decides to leave him. Macon is a middle-aged man, and he has no idea how to continue living on his own. It's remarkable to see what changes he goes through during the 400 pages of this novel, and it's an inspiration to read about him as well as the people he surrounds himself with.
Throughout most of this book, I was thinking to myself: What exactly is it that makes me like this book so much? It's almost too simple to deserve a 4-star-rating, but after having finished it I believe that it's the underlying messages and themes of life that makes it deserve 4 stars from me. I was comforted when reading this novel because I quickly fell in love with the characters (as well as the less-than-lovely dog Edward). It made me feel good to read about them, and I felt for Macon and all of the changes he went through.
Anne Tyler is a remarkable author because she writes simplistic stories that manages to hit you spot-on. "The Accidental Tourist" is just another cast of characters from her that I know will follow me for many days to come.

[Stephen Gallup · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read and enjoyed most of Anne Tyler’s novels (starting with Searching for Caleb, which author Don Barthelme recommended to me years ago). A character from one of her first books (I think it was If Morning Ever Comes) provided the name I later gave to my daughter. The Accidental Tourist strikes closest to home with its theme of coping with a profound loss and then the ultimate redemption that comes from such an unexpected direction. It was while reading this book in about 1987 that I first felt moved to pick up a pen and begin scratching out my own story.

I should say that the book and the movie are forever intertwined in my mind now: When I think of Macon and Muriel, I see William Hurt and Geena Davis. It’s very rare for the film version of any book to be anywhere near as good as the source, but in this case both are excellent. The cameo appearance of the French boy who looks just like Macon’s lost son takes my breath away every time.

[Sasha]

Julie and Joe talk about Anne Tyler (and Larry McMurtry) as a writer who "accurately communicates my desire to read and write about the two things that mean the most to me in this life: heart and groin." Which, Julie, lol, "groin," that's right there with "moist" on the list of Words That Could Technically Be About Sex But Will Kill The Mood Right Dead.

oh yes baby
is your groin moist right now

what were we talking about? Right, this person whom I've never read but now she's going on the list.

Addendum: Julie & Joe agree that this isn't even the right book, I should start with Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

[Barry Pierce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Macon Leary writes travel companions under the nom de plume The Accidental Tourist. The irony is that while he helps thousands of people keep their lives together as they travel, he cannot help his own life from falling apart before his eyes.

This is my first Anne Tyler, a writer who I've always relegated to someone that my mother might enjoy. To give context, my mother's reading habits consist of whatever was 3 for 2 in Tesco. However, since many people who I respect have given very positive reviews to Tyler in the past I thought I'd give her a go. Sadly, this didn't really do anything for me. I did enjoy the overall plot but the characters, especially Macon, were just such boring people. The type that you'd cross the road for if you saw them walking towards you. I found myself putting this novel down more than I picked it up. Its slice-of-life monotony is usually something that I look for in a novel but The Accidental Tourist just gave me... monotonous monotony. Oh well. I haven't given up all hope though. I'll definitely be visiting Anne Tyler again soon.

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The previous book I read, A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson, has a cover blurb by Anne Tyler: “I've been trying to tell everybody I know about Mary Lawson... [Each of her novels is] just a marvel.” Having just finished The Accidental Tourist, a definite first cousin of Solace, I really understand Tyler’s reaction to Lawson’s work and her blurb.

This is a lovely book, but without the subliminal gravity of Mary Lawson’s work. There’s a lightness to it, even as its end surprised me and put me in a bit of a kerfuffle. It was an ending that shook up things I expected because of my identification with her protagonist, a man who’s set in his ways, whose life is disrupted by a great tragedy, who then chooses to disrupt it even more. I really appreciate it when a story shakes me up this way. So how can I say the book is light? It just is. So it’s both light and potent. I like this a lot and will have to contemplate my own reactions. Thanks, Anne Tyler, you have done your work well.

[Tooter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do love Anne Tyler and this book was, per usual, a great read.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first “classic” Tyler I’ve read, after her three most recent novels, and although I kept being plagued by odd feelings of ‘reverse déjà vu’, I really enjoyed it. This story of staid, reluctant traveler Macon Leary and how his life is turned upside down by a flighty dog trainer is all about the patterns of behavior we get stuck in. Tyler suggests that occasionally journeying into someone else’s unpredictable life might change ours for the good.

[Jemidar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buddy read with Kim.

I first read this back in the late eighties and loved it, and recently decided to do a re-read just to see if I still loved it as much. I've changed and my life circumstances have changed, so I wondered...

And I'm happy to say that not only do I still love it, but I think I love it a lot more than I did the first time around. Call it accumulated life experience if you like, but it had a resonance and a poignancy that touched me at a much deeper level. I laughed, I cried, I cheered Macon on, and hissed when someone threatened to get in the way of his journey out of grief. At times his story was heartbreaking but it was ultimately uplifting, so worth every second I spent in his company. I would love to count Macon Leary amoung my friends.

Anne Tyler is an amazing author. She makes her flawed and quirky characters so vulnerable and human, and writes about them so compassionately that you can't help but like them and empathize with them. I don't know of another author who can reach out from the page and make me feel so deeply or care so much. She is a real talent.

I would highly recommend this book to all :-).

[Kristie Hevener Cross · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book a few days ago and have had to wait a few days to be able to write a review. I still am in awe of how such a slow story without any real standout events could make me miss it while I was at work and hate to turn to page and be one more closer to the end. I didn't particulary care for any of the characters until the end(except for the brash and tacky Muriel whom I loved all along). You will love Macon's transformation and watching him learn to live, not again, but for the first time ever. Its in my soul as all my favorite books are-a treasure I whole-heartedly recommend to anyone who breathes.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Noch einmal habe ich mich todesmutig auf eine der von mir immer verschmähten und gehassten Liebesgeschichten eingelassen und diesmal bin ich - naja wie soll ich sagen - nicht nur gar nicht abgestoßen, sondern auch eigentlich sehr erfreut.

Als aller erstes beweist Anne Tyler, dass man auch als Autorin Beziehungen und das ewige Thema der Liebe fernab von romantisierendem schmalzigen Kitsch durchaus treffend beschreiben kann. Das ist insofern sehr realistisch und trifft den Alltag von uns allen viel punktgenauer, denn Frauen leben und lieben eben einfach in der Wirklichkeit nicht in einem Bianca-Roman. Diese Hefte aus vergangen Zeiten stehen für mich stellvertretend für unrealistische Märchenprinz-Romantik, bei der sich schon seit Urzeiten bei mir sprichwörtlich die feministischen Zehennägel vor Grausen und Empörung aufdrehen.

Aber worum geht es: Die Ehe von Macon Leary ist infolge des Todes des Sohnes, der bei einem Überfall im Feriencamp erschossen wird, in einer veritablen Krise. Beide Ehepartner trauern unterschiedlich, machen sich in ihrem Schmerz gegenseitig Vorwürfe und ziehen sich in sich selbst zurück. Die Beziehung und das Leben der beiden ist in Sprachlosigkeit und Trauer erstarrt, die Ehefrau Sarah zieht die Notbremse und trennt sich. Mr. Leary ist zudem ein bisschen ein monkhafter Zwängler, der aber von der Autorin nicht effektheischend durchgeknallt, sondern eigentlich sehr liebevoll und recht normal beschrieben wird. Fast bricht es einem das Herz, wie sehr der durch die Ehekrise geänderte neue Alltag ihn immer mehr in seine Zwänge hineinschlittern lässt.

Als sich Mr. Leary den Fuß bricht, weil der ungehorsame verhätschelte Hund des toten Sohnes komplett durchdreht, nimmt sein Leben eine neue Wendung. Er lernt Muriel, die sehr chaotische Hundetrainerin kennen und zieht zu seiner Schwester und den Brüdern, die genauso zwänglerisch wie er und ebenso erstarrt in ihren Ritualen sind.

Die Figuren des Romans sind allesamt extrem liebevoll beschrieben, bis auf Sarah, die irgendwie den ganzen Roman über farblos und nichtssagend bleibt, aber das hat auch seine Gründe in ihrem Charakter und in ihrer Funktion als Anker, Gefängnis, Alltagstrott, letzter Ausweg, weil man sich nicht ändern will und Katalysator. Die Alltagszwänge der Familie Leary gipfeln aber nicht in einer auf erzwungener Komik beruhenden Beschreibung von kuriosen total durchgeknallten Achetypen sondern die Familienmitglieder sind relativ banal und recht alltagstauglich skizziert. Beispielsweise ordnet Rose, die Schwester von Macon die Lebensmittel in den Küchenschränken alphabetisch und ist auch sonst ein unglaubliches Organisationstalent, wenngleich sie überhaupt keinen Orientierungssinn hat. Macon hat seine Zwänge vor dem Trauma mit seinem Sohn vor allem beruflich sehr erfolgreich kanalisiert, indem er Reiseführer für Leute schreibt, die weltweit alles genauso wie in Amerika haben wollen. Er rechcherchiert in fact finding missions überall - vor allem in Europa - quasi für Geschäftsreisende, die den american way of life global wie die Stecknadel im Heuhaufen suchen.

"Aber Macon! Er ist Dein Arbeitgeber!"
"Er ist ja nur gekommen, weil er hofft, dass wir uns exzentrisch aufführen", sagte Macon. "Er macht sich einseitige Vorstellungen von uns. Ich flehe bloß zu Gott, dass keiner von uns etwas Unkonventionelles äußert. Hörst Du überhaupt zu?"
"Was sollen wir schon äußern?" fragte Rose. "Wir sind die konventionellsten Menschen, die ich kenne."
Das entsprach zwar durchaus der Wahrheit, paradoxerweise aber wieder auch nicht.

Was im Plot dann anschließend folgt, ist ein grandios amüsantes Paradebeispiel an Hundeerziehung und die Hartnäckigkeit der chaotischen Hundetrainerin Muriel, die sich einbildet, eine Beziehung zu Macon aufbauen zu wollen, es auch letztendlich schafft und das Leben von Mr. Leary total umkrempelt. Beide passen eigentlich charakterlich überhaupt nicht zusammen, tun sich aber gegenseitig so wohl, weil sie sich ausgleichen und das beste im Anderen wecken. Macon bricht dann jedoch wieder aus seinem neuen Leben aus und versucht, in das alte zurückzuschlüpfen. Am Ende gibt es natürlich ein Happy End.

Hier sind wir schon beim einzigen Faktor, der mich dann doch noch etwas gestört hat. Das Ende kommt, wahrscheinlich bewußt von der Autorin so konstruiert, um schmalzige Romantik zu verhindern, viel zu abrupt und ist dann auch für mich wirklich zu knapp und lapidar in zwei bis drei Sätzen abgehandelt.

Fazit: Wenn alle Liebesgeschichten sprachlich, von der Figurenentwicklung und inhaltlich derart unschwülstig unromatisch und lebensrealistisch wie in der Qualität von Anne Tyler geschrieben werden würden, dann würde ich sagen, "Her damit! Ich will mehr."

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the way home from a trip, Sarah tells Macon that she wants a separation. They lost their son a year ago and both have been just going through the motions of life. What follows is a devastating, humorous, uplifting and satisfying series of events and adventures that begin when Macon agrees to have his wayward Corgi Edward trained by Muriel, a strange but enthusiastic employee he meets at the Meow Bow Animal Hospital.

I just fell in love with these characters and their quirks. I loved how the author fit together the most unlikely pairs and showed how they brought out the best in each other. I didn't always agree with the decisions that they made, but nothing felt contrived or forced. The ending was quite a shock and I'm not sure what the future holds for these characters and their choices, but it was a good place for the author to end the book.

Recommended for those that enjoy a character driven book without a focused plot or concrete ending.

[Algernon · Rating 5 out of 5]

“While armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put.”

Here is the book cover explained: Macon Leary is the traveling armchair, a reluctant writer of specific tourist guides for people who are reluctant to leave behind the known comforts of home [such as a Baltimore house in a good neighbourhood] and trade them for the unknown dangers of exotic cuisine, shady hotel rooms, foreign languages and wearisome ‘cultural’ discoveries.

Macon hated travel. He careened through foreign territories on a desperate kind of blitz – squinching his eyes shut and holding his breath and hanging on for dear life, he sometimes imagined – and then settled back home with a sigh of relief to produce his chunky, passport-sized paperbacks.

The man must make rent payments, no matter how much he despises the unknown. Macon Leary has played it safe for most of his life, carefully avoiding risks or emotional muddles. He may share in some secret gene from his father’s family, since both Macon and his three siblings (sister Rose and brothers Charles and Porter) are loners and misfits with weird household manners and curious conversation traits that focus on grammar errors in other’s speech.

“My God! How stodgy you’ve grown!” exclaims their own mother Alicia, a libertine and a careless butterfly who abandoned them early in childhood, dreading the prospect of a lifetime of Leary stodginess.

Macon’s own wife Sarah is leaving him in the opening chapter of the novel, facing her own existential crisis and a marriage on the rocks after the death of their little son in one of those terrible American tragedies: as a bystander in a mass shooting.
Sarah is reproaching Macon for his aloofness, for his insistence that life should go on on the pre-established tracks, for his inability to express his grief.

“You’re so quick to be sensible, Macon, that you’ve given up on just about everything.”

This was a rather downbeat start to the story, compounded by the fact that Macon is a rather unpleasant and uninspiring lead character. Curiously, his very inability to live by himself in an empty house and his insistence on establishing ‘crazy’ rules for sleeping, eating and washing are the items that made me keep reading.

I’m glad I stuck to the story, because usually I steer away from movies and books marketed as tragic-comedies. ‘Pick one!’ is my instinctive reaction, because it’s so difficult to reconcile the two opposite emotions, to hit on the right tone and be consistent and balanced. It takes a really good author to make me reconsider, and my first book from Anne Tyler is a prime example that it can be done. There’s a relevant Alan Moore quote that will serve as an aspirational goal to other writers here:

“My experience of life is that it is not divided up into genres; it’s a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky.”

Macon on his own, even with help from Rose and his brothers when he moves in with them after an absurd accident in his own cellar, is not enough to fill the whole book with interesting developments. After all, his shtick is that he is predictable and adverse to change. He needs a catalyst, a sort of emotional storm to force him to leave his armchair and travel into a different life.

Macon’s salvation comes through his deceased son’s pet dog [and why would someone name his dog Edward, by the way? not even Eddy?] . Edward is a sort of repository of his new master’s restlessness and rage against fate: he barks fiercely at everybody, attacks even family members and refuses to listen to instructions. Macon is hard pressed to find a shelter that would accept Edward when he has to go on one of his research trips.

“Biters, barkers, deaf dogs, timid dogs, dogs that haven’t been treated right, dogs that have learned bad habits, dogs that grew up in pet shops and don’t trust human beings ... I can handle all of those.”

Enters Muriel Pritchett, a sort of freelance dog trainer, that latches onto Macon rather abruptly, like a limpet to a sea-shore boulder. She is everything Macon is not: almost effervescent with energy and gregarious, impervious to subtlety and nuance, a wild dresser, coarse and unpredictable and endearing. The novel definitely takes a turn for the better once Muriel enters the Leary mansion.

“Imagine a flamenco dancer with galloping consumption,” Rose told Charles and Porter. “That’s Edward’s trainer. She talks non-stop. I don’t know when she comes up for air.”

And she talked so much – almost ceaselessly; while Macon was the kind of man to whom silence was better than music. (“Listen! They’re playing my song,” he used to say when Sarah switched the radio off.)

Muriel has a much better success with training Edward to behave than with Macon, but her inexhaustible good cheer finally pays off and she drags him, almost kicking and screaming, to her rundown apartment in a wilder part of Baltimore (Singleton Street).

Macon is definitely tempted, especially as he discovers that Muriel is as vulnerable and insecure as the rest of us, raising a child on her own through odd jobs. But he has his own problems with commitment, with expressing his inner feelings, with striking out into a new life when the possibility of a return to his wife Sarah is still an option. Even his growing attachment for young Alexander, a boy with his own heavy baggage of personal issues, is not enough to sway the reluctant traveler to switch armchairs.

It occurred to him (not for the first time) that the world was divided sharply down the middle: Some lived careful lives and some lived careless lives, and everything that happened could be explained by the difference between them.

Most of the second half of the novel deals with this question of opposite personalities: do they complement each other? or is it better to stick to your own kind and play it safe? Macon’s dilemma is mirrored in part by a love affair between his middle-aged sister Rose and his publisher Julian, another case of different people trying to make a life together and see-sawing between hilarity and pathos.

“You think you can just drift along like this, day by day, no plans,” she said. “Maybe tomorrow you’ll just be here, maybe you won’t.”

Muriel has had her own share of quiters and drifters, so she is willing to give Macon a chance but not to wait for ever and a day for him to commit. The resolution will not be revealed until the last page, another clever trick from this talented writer to keep you reading. Whatever Macon decides, old armchair or life of Singleton Street, we do feel we have learned something from our travels: you have to fight for what you believe in, and it’s worth it despite all the times you fall down on your a$$.

She meant, he supposed, to give him the best of her. And so she had. But the best of her was not that child’s Shirley Temple hairdo. It was her fierceness – her spiky, pugnacious fierceness as she fought her way toward the camera with her chin set awry and her eyes bright slits of determination.

“I’m talking about the, you know, the world we’d be bringing him into. So much evil and danger. I admit it: I’d be frantic any time we let him out on the street.”
[...]
“Oh, well, you’re right,” he said. “Though really it’s kind of ... heartening, isn’t it? How most human beings do try. How they try to be as responsible and kind as they can manage.”

I expect I will be reading more from Anne Tyler in the future.

[Joy D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Protagonist Macon Leary is a travel writer living in Baltimore. He and his wife are experiencing marital troubles after the tragic death of their young son. Macon enjoys his routines and does not like traveling – he does it to make a living. The storyline introduces Macon’s family and an eccentric dog trainer. His dog has behavioral issues that need to be addressed. He develops an attraction to the trainer, who is almost completely opposite in personality.

This is a character driven novel about relationships. We begin to understand Macon and why he is resistant to change. The personalities of the characters are easy to envision. They are quirky, with admirable qualities and faults. It is so realistic in its portrayal of the difficulties in dealing with a senseless tragedy and how it can drive a wedge into relationships.

It is a story about grief, change, and personal growth. It is about people determining how to move forward in their lives. I found it easy to become immersed in it and cared about these people (if you are looking for lots of action, look elsewhere). I was interested to find out what happens to them. It is beautifully written and flows well. There are elements of humor that had me chuckling to myself as well as deeply emotional scenes that brought tears to my eyes. I have read several works by Anne Tyler, and this is my favorite so far. It is a marvelous book.

[Phyl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess this will always be one of my all time favourite books. For me, it worked on all levels, I loved the story, characters and the routine absurdities that form part and parecel of everyday life. There is tragedy, humour and romance. I think this is the best book Anne Tylor has written and I've read all of them. Nowhere else does she captures the nuances of relationships so well. On a personal level, this book will always mean a lot to me, introducing a kind of anal retentive anti hero who yet manages to be both appealing and desirable. We learn that organisation is a fear of chaos and that sometimes the organised amongst us must venture into the chaotic to fully realise our potential. It also taught me that heroism comes in many shapes and forms and that it is not always the handsome and strong who caspture our hearts.