The Accidental Tourist in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Feb 26, 2017 Magpie67 rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: second-chance, dating, magpie-s-2017, death, ia-western-lunch-bookclub, ideas-for-avoca-book-club, travel, relationships, marriage, manners

3.5 stars for Macon, Rose, Charles and Porter.... their meals together and how they dealt with life... most interesting.... Grief was a huge issue and everyone reacts differently, losing a child is never easy and some marriages make it and some don't. I can't say I liked Muriel, she gabbed too much for me and yet I plodded along with the title to see where Macon was going to go. I loved that he changed a little and excepted difference, but I feel the boy was the draw and Macon was good for the b 3.5 stars for Macon, Rose, Charles and Porter.... their meals together and how they dealt with life... most interesting.... Grief was a huge issue and everyone reacts differently, losing a child is never easy and some marriages make it and some don't. I can't say I liked Muriel, she gabbed too much for me and yet I plodded along with the title to see where Macon was going to go. I loved that he changed a little and excepted difference, but I feel the boy was the draw and Macon was good for the boy.

I truly wanted Macon to get back together with Sarah especially after Muriel quit her job. I sort of saw her taking a situation for granted with Macon. I honestly thought this was just a moment in life for Macon to get out of his rut. A stepping stone to change directions within his own character, If not Sarah, then someone that he met while traveling....

Julian his boss was great too and Rose getting married to Julian but coming back to take care of Porter's kids who were staying for a while and then deciding her brothers were complete messes without her. The gist of the family; is the doom their own mother set forth when they were younger... always moving, for some reason they have no depth of traveling around their own town and they get lost all the time. Thank goodness they had grandparent's to ground them, but to an extent they really are only good company with each other. Hard to break into their inner circle.

Another reason this title gets 3.5 stars is the ending... For me it fell flat and sad due to choices he made, I don't know if either one was good for him in the end. I think he needed to start his life forward alone for once, with new purpose to discover himself more...

"One of the qualities that all four Leary children shared was a total inability to find their way around. It was a kind of dyslexia, Macon believed, a geographic dyslexia. None of them ever stepped outside without obsessively noting all available landmarks, clinging to a fixed and desperate mental map of the neighborhood. Back home Macon had kept a stack of index cards giving detailed directions to the houses of his friends, even friends he'd known for decades. And it used to be that whenever Ethan met a new boy, Macon's first anxious question was, 'Where exactly does he live, do you know?' Ethan had had a tendency to form inconvenient alliances. He couldn't just hang out with the boy next door; oh, no, it had to be someone who lived way beyond the Beltway. What did Ethan care? He had no trouble navigating. This was because he'd lived all his life in one house, was Macon's theory; while a person who'd been moved around a great deal never acquired a fixed point of reference but wandered forever in a fog, adrift upon the planet, helpless, praying that just by luck he might stumble across his destinations."

Another funny point after their Mother leaves them to grow up at the grandparents home, is no mention of her at all, not for holidays or any other reason until June's wedding. Macon is completely surprised Alicia is at the wedding... They did not refer to her as mother. Odd, eccentric adults they had become. And then there is the getting lost part of their genes... Why doesn't Macon get lost while working in different cities to update the travel books for businessmen? Christmas was particular sadness, when one cousin, his niece Susan, let Macon know they talk about Ethan all the time and did he think Ethan was mad at them because they were starting to not remember him. It never occur to Macon that others in their family would miss Ethan like him and his wife did.

While reading this book, it would appear that things happened accidently around Macon as he navigates in the world without having a child or a wife. Grief pulled Macon and Sarah apart, grief is a tricky emotion. Macon lost his center of his world.... Ethan and Sarah. Sarah withdrew into herself; cutting off all friendships and Macon dealt with life as if Ethan had only been a dream. Grief can lead one down several paths and not all are healthy. "In movies and such, people who made important changes in their lives accomplished them and were done with it. They walked out and never returned; or they married and lived happily ever after. In real life, things weren't so clean-cut."

Grief is the driving source of this second chance novel of discovery, redemption, and learning to appreciate the love of living. Smell the roses, take in the landscape, seize the day, conquer all fears, be courteous, accept change and how to forgive. ...more

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Jun 02, 2018 Cheryl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzer-prize, tower-2018

I thought this a brilliant book! Anne Tyler uses the metaphor of the Accidental Tourist to describe the lives of the all of the Learys...not wanting to experience life outside of the usual...always being able to return to that comfortable place. Macon is at his best when he moves to the more spontaneous life with Muriel, but returns to his wife. His sister marries, but returns home to take care of her brothers...she wants love, but wants things not to change...she likes the order of the world sh ...more

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Jul 10, 2008 Joanie rated it liked it

I read this in high school because my parents had it hanging around the house. I liked it but it was definitely slow paced, as much of Tyler's work seems to be.

The main character is a travel writer who hates to travel and likes his secure little world. He meets a woman who is a dog trainer who is anything but predictable. He struggles between wanting the familiar and liking the new world he finds with her. I think I'd get more out of it if I were to read it now. ...more

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