Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne TylerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Honestly, after reading the goshawful "Breathing Lessons" (Pulitzer Prize? Really????), I had sworn off Anne Tyler novels for years. To me, she is very uneven. "The Accidental Tourist", "A Patchwork Planet" and "Saint Maybe" were great, "Celestial Navigation" was good but horribly sad, "Morgan's Passing" and "Searching For Caleb" were okay, "Ladder Of Years" could have been good but the wimpy, irritating ending ruined it, and "Breathing Lessons" and "Back When We Were Grownups" were just awful. That said, I kept hearing that this novel might be her best, so I decided to read it and I have to say, it was every bit as good as "Saint Maybe."
I couldn't give it five stars perhaps for personal reasons having nothing to with the writing. The dysfunctional Tull family was way too weirdly like my own original family and so it was hard for me to read; it was like being suddenly plunged back into my own past and that isn't a place I want to go, ever. So I guess I recommend it for Tyler fans, and I'm glad to have read it, but it did not make me want to read another by her. Ten is plenty.
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Shay--I have to agree about Tyler's books. Her "Accidental Tourist" was wonderful. Many of her other novels I thought wasted my reading time.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got this one under your belt and can move on. I am much too casual a reader any more to want to be hauled over the emotional coals in literature, but I applaud your bravery for doing it, and hope after the negatives subside, it brings some insight and healing.
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