The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Macon is the author of a series of travel guides specifically for business travelers so they can make their limited time in a city as comfortable as possible.  After the senseless murder of his 12 year old son, Ethan, while away at summer camp, Macon finds his marriage and his life falling apart.  When his wife moves out of the house, Macon is left with Ethan's untrained dog, Edward, as his only company and when Edward's usual kennel refuses to board him because of his bad behavior, Macon ends up at the Meow Bow. There he meets Muriel, the quirky dog trainer, who attempts to get him back into reality.

Anne Tyler is the master of character development.  As a writer myself, I've read other novels she's written just to study the characters.  Macon and his siblings eat potatoes at each meal.  All lack a sense of direction and usually become lost while running their regular errands.  And then their mother shows up in her flowing caftan and armful of bangle bracelets.  The family is a study in contrasts.

It's these kinds of things that I love about this book.  The story is funny and often comical which serves to help the characters overcome the tragic loss of Ethan.  But they never really can, the loss is too deep.  Every author finds a way to either tie up the loose ends or leave the ending more open ended much like real life.  I have to say however that I hated the ending.  But in defense of a book that I mostly enjoyed, I have hated the ending of every Anne Tyler book I have read.

Like every book I read, I try to keep an open mind.  Many of my friends loved the ending.  The Accidental Tourist is full of interesting people, places and things.  Find inside these pages a trip that appeals to you and leave the rest to critics like me.  

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler is a brilliant author, she's a Pulitzer Prize winner after all.  Her stories revolve around families of all shapes and sizes, who live in and around Baltimore, Maryland.  She paints vivid pictures of her characters with calming prose.  A Spool of Blue Thread doesn't disappoint in any of those areas.

Abby and Red Whitshank have raised their children in a stately home built by Red's father, Junior.  The house is a central character to the story, the glue, so to speak that keeps them together.  When the children determine that Red and Abby are getting too old to live alone, the secrets the family harbors try to bubble up from their long buried hiding places. 

For me however, I just plain didn't get it.  The opening scene revolves around Denny, Abby and Red's son who has always been a little strange and aloof.  Denny remains distant throughout the story and the reasons why the book opened with him, were never really resolved.  At least in my mind.  I found this book, though beautifully written, long and drawn out, without any resolution.  None of the characters took the time to change or had any cathartic moments that forced them to.  I know that some of you that have read this book might disagree with that statement because things did happen to this family.  But they all seemed to brush off any events that had some depth and move along as if nothing had changed.

It's the struggle that makes a book worth reading.  I was reading pages from anyone's ordinary life without a rip or a tear that need to be sewn back together.  A Spool of Blue Thread never took the time to mend what truly needed mending.

Still Points North by Leigh Newman

Still Points North by Leigh Newman

I've been reading alot of memoirs lately.  I'm studying the genre in hopes of writing my own memoir someday.  A story about a girl growing up in Alaska peaked my interest. 

Leigh Newman is a child growing up in Alaska, fishing for salmon with her father, in their secret spots only accessible in his float plane.  A milestone for a kid in Alaska is catching her first king, a momentous occasion.  But when her parents divorce and she has to spend her time between Anchorage where all is familiar and Baltimore where all is a mystery.  Leigh struggles to fit in. 

I loved the first part of this book told through the eyes of a little girl. Quite abruptly the story moved into adulthood, falling in love, getting married.  Yes, all those things happen in a girl's life.  The telling of the story however, suffered.  To me it was as if a different writer stepped in to finish.  I felt the story lacked direction.  By the end of the book, I was left wondering what was the thread that was supposed to hold it all together.

Many things drew me to this story, Alaska, memoirs, the title.  The author has a strong voice and a very easy writing style.  But at the end I was left wondering what still pointed north.