From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Tinkers

Paul Harding

Start date: October 15, 2010

Finish date: November 15, 2010

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Ruth

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 428 topics — 16,892 comments total

Reading List

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
By Lynn · 1 post · 41 views

last updated Jun 20, 2025 08:37AM

Circe - discussion with spoilers
By Jane · 17 posts · 23 views

last updated Sep 06, 2025 04:48PM

showing 10 of 15 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Oct 12, 2013 Mary Ellen rated it really liked it

This book took me a long time to read, despite its brevity. I realize that I am very attracted to plot, and the plot, or plots, didn't grab me. I kept putting it aside for other books that moved quicker and were more "fun." Early on, I figured this would be a two-star book, but by the end, I was really attached to George and Howard.

An early image in George's delirium - that the whole house was collapsing in on him - came back to me as I was finishing the book. At the end of his life, we see that ...more

Like · see review

Dec 30, 2022 Jane rated it it was amazing

Not an easy book to read, but completely engrossing. The story shifts from the main character, George's life as a tinker, his father Howard, his wife and children to the world of the clocks he makes and fixes, the his life in a cart carrying goods to the farmers and herders who live near him, and farther away. His life is a hard one, never certain, but he somehow manages to support his family and his great joy is in the countryside and woods through which he travels. These passages describe a tr ...more

Like · see review

Jun 11, 2011 Cheri rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary-fiction

The death of a Connecticut horologist. The life of a Maine "tinker" (peddler) who abandons his son, who grows up to be the horologist. Beautiful language. Just go read. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 08, 2011 Dora rated it really liked it

Shelves: bookgroup, own-need-to-review

Very good book with a really interesting story behind it. (You can read about it here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st... )

I need to read it in less of a rush. The writing is beautiful and the story is interesting, although the story line is a bit too diffuse for my taste.

The description of the father's seizures and the grandfather's dementia are both amazing.

Hard to recommend because it's difficult to read; on the other hand, it's really very short, so it's not hard to hang in there long ...more

Like · see review

Jan 27, 2011 Lauren rated it really liked it

Beautifully written. A series of snapshots of the lives of a son, now dying, and his tinker father from the distant past. In keeping with most lauded contemporary fiction, there is only a wisp of a story here. The power of the book is in its poetic description of isolated moments in time, and in particular the natural settings in which some of them occur. A quiet, truly elegiac book.

Like · see review