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

May 05, 2011 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it really liked it

Shelves: humor-and-comedy, novels, fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, romance, popular-fiction, ultimate-reading-list

This novel is part of a Tyler omnibus gifted me by a friend. I liked Breathing Lessons, and didn't care for Searching for Caleb. Leaving The Accidental Tourist for last, I find the third time's the charm. All three books are well-written--Tyler is obviously a gifted, and consistently good writer. All three have similar themes--particularly the tension between staying stuck and chaotic change. You can see this with the Leary family. Their life with their mother was chaotic and as a result the fou This novel is part of a Tyler omnibus gifted me by a friend. I liked Breathing Lessons, and didn't care for Searching for Caleb. Leaving The Accidental Tourist for last, I find the third time's the charm. All three books are well-written--Tyler is obviously a gifted, and consistently good writer. All three have similar themes--particularly the tension between staying stuck and chaotic change. You can see this with the Leary family. Their life with their mother was chaotic and as a result the four children in the family dug in--creating their own rituals and sticking close together and resisting change.

This has become particularly toxic in Macon Leary, who has been driven to near immobility after his young son is murdered and his wife leaves him. Emblematic of his rut is his line of work--he writes and continually updates a line of books called the "Accidental Tourist" whose covers sport an armchair with wings. The idea is to tell Americans where they can find that McDonald's in London or Burger King in Paris, the most Americanized of hotels, so a business traveler can surround himself in a little bubble of home where nothing foreign can reach him. Even at home Macon invents systems to use up the least energy, to keep everything at equilibrium.

Then after his wife leaves him he meets Jill of All Trades Muriel--and she blows up his tidy little life. Where Macon has one line of work Muriel seemingly has dozens--running errands, care-taking, and above all, training dogs--which is how she gets to know Macon, and his corgi, Edward, is one of the most memorable characters in the book. I like that she's not romanticized or glamorized. Muriel is very real and very flawed: flaky, temperamental, impulsive, superstitious, no intellectual, a bit trashy, and around twenty years younger.

Of the three novels I've read by Tyler this is definitely the most romantic, and the one that's the most hopeful that people can change--and that change can be good. It's funny and warm and unforgettable. ...more

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