French Braid by Anne Tyler

French Braid by Anne Tyler

256 pages

Published March 2022 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley 

Publisher's Summary: 

The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever leave home, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family's orbit, for reasons none of them understand. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts' influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation. 

Full of heartbreak and hilarity, French Braid is classic Anne Tyler: a stirring, uncannily insightful novel of tremendous warmth and humor that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives, the impossibility of breaking free from those who love us, and how close—yet how unknowable—every family is to itself.

My Thoughts:

I've been a fan of Tyler's since I picked up The Accidental Tourist, some time back in the 1980's. She writes terrifically believable quirky characters and always explores relationships in ways no one else does. She is particularly good at exploring family dynamics and is the queen of casual asides and writing that sounds exactly the way people actually speak. French Braid has all of that and yet, I'm sorry to say, this one just didn't work for me. 

Perhaps because right off the bat I became exasperated with Mercy who might rightly be considered a terrible mother. She seems not in the least concerned that her 15-year-old daughter spends their entire vacation with a 21-year-old man nor with what her 7-year-old son is doing, trusting that others will watch over him. She relies on her other daughter to actually get the family fed, to put meals on the table. Still, she seemed very hurt when David went off to college and never really kept in touch much after that. 

She is a prime example of "some people shouldn't be mothers." No sooner have the children flown the coop than she begins the slow process of moving out of the family home. Certainly Mercy would have felt, in the 1950's, that she must wed and have children, even though she was clearly a woman who never should have done either. Today she might have still felt that pressure but it would be so much more acceptable for her to live her life the way she wanted. 

The relationships between the children worked the best for me. Even though I am blessed to have three children who get along incredibly well, despite their differences, I know that is rare. The two sisters are so different, and were treated so differently growing up; it's understandable that they would bicker and have to tread carefully around each other. But also believable that when something happens in the family, they reach out to each other. A baby brother, who one sister has largely ignored and the other felt the weight of raising, continues to be an enigma to the family with whom he's never fit in. 

The publisher's summary says that this book is full of heartbreak and hilarity. The only heartbreak I felt was for Robin, who spent the rest of his life after Mercy left, pretending to his children that she hadn't; he was left in limbo. As to hilarity, I didn't find it here which was a disappointment because I used to make my husband listen to me read him funny bits of Tyler's books. I'm not sure what I wanted from this book; I just know that I didn't get it. 

Now, as always, this is just my opinion. And it seems that others enjoyed this much more. Check out Ron Charles', of the Washington Post, review. Or Jennifer Haigh's review in the New York Times. They both seem to have found the Anne Tyler that I always loved in this book. I wish I had. 

Life: It Goes On - June 26

Happy Sunday! How's everyone doing? It's a beautiful day here, sunny and surprisingly cool out. I've got a lot I need to get done inside today but I definitely need to get outside to play in the dirt and get some Vitamin D. We'll absolutely be grilling for dinner and eating on the patio and I may even put out all of the cushions even if it's just the two of us, just so I can enjoy how pretty the patio is when everything is out. 

Last Week I: 

 Listened To: Still listening to The Descendents by Kaui Hart Hemmings. I don't have another audiobook that will be available for a couple of weeks to I think I'll be listening to podcasts when I'm done with my book. Right now I'm loving Glennon Doyle's We Can Do Hard Things.

Watched: Friday night we went to see the new Baz Luhrmann movie, Elvis. Long but so good. Tom Hanks is his usual amazing and Austin Butler is incredible as Elvis. When Elvis was in his final years, I was just a teenager and thought of him as something of a joke. I can't say that I've ever entirely let that image leave me, even though I enjoy his music now. But this movie made me think again about Elvis as an artist and to understand how he became a bloated drug addict who died much too young. 

Read: I'm still reading Tracy Flick Can't Win. I'm enjoying it but I think my brain is ready to be holding a physical book. I think when I finish it, I'll grab something off my shelf. I'm thinking it's time to dip into a classic. 

Made: Well this is just getting boring because it's mostly been salads and quick easy things. I am going to grill a pork tenderloin today (and maybe some peaches) and make some mashed potatoes.

Enjoyed: A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a cup rack that my mother had given my brother and his wife many years ago. They never felt like it fit the look they wanted so it has been in storage for all these years. You know how much I love having those old piece but this one was made even more special when I realized that the little drawer in it wasn't empty. Inside was a collection of souvenirs from my parents travels, a single antique furniture wheel, some antique children's china, and  very small spoon that's etched "IRAN" on the back. I love the stories that all of these things tell.

This Week I’m:  

Planning: On switching out my spring decor to something more summery and, with the 4th of July coming up, all of the red, white, and blue stuff. Which, honestly, are the colors you'll find all over my house anyway. 

Thinking About: I have an MRI scheduled for this week and I'm trying, but not succeeding very well, not to think about what the results of that might mean going forward. 

Feeling: Like we have taken one step further into The Handmaid's Tale this week.

Looking forward to: Miss H is supposed to come up this weekend and you know how much I love her visits. 

Question of the week: 

Friday Favorites - Little Women

Now here's something I haven't done in...years, actually. But when you haven't had the time to write even one review all week, you've got to pull out some old stuff! And I remember loving doing these; although, looking back, my "reviews" of these favorites were so short! But I'm kind of impressed with the range for books I featured - children's books, classics, memoir, literary. The idea at the time was to write about books that I'd read before I started blogging; and, while I didn't read as much before blogging as I do now (pesky things like school and kids, over the years, got in the way), I still read more than most people do. 

So, I'd like to bring this feature back. Maybe not every Friday (oh, who are we kidding? We all know I'm not going to get one of these written every Friday!), but at least once a month. And I'd like to make this a little interactive - I'd love for you to comment or email me about a book that was one of your favorites from years ago. 

This week, I'm going to do things a bit differently than I have in the past. This week I'd like to tell you about how a book I read when I was eight has influenced my reading for the last *cough* fifty plus *cough, cough** years. That book was Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. 

Now, I know that Alcott was said not to have much liked Little Women but I can never help thinking that she had written plenty of other stories that she had to have disliked more (seriously, she wrote some pretty awful stuff, by today's standards, early on). Plus, it launched her on a whole series of books that helped her support herself and her family for the rest of her life so it can't be all bad, right? 

It would be perfectly easy for me to run upstairs and snap a picture of the edition of Little Women I got when I was eight-years-old. I know exactly where it's at on my bookshelves (which is more than I can say for most books I own!). But it's late and I can't really run these days, so I was pretty excited to find a pic of the same edition I have. Although mine is in much better condition, a sign of how much I loved the book and how much I valued books, even as a little girl. 

Little Women made me want to be a writer, a teller of tales. I so wanted to be Jo (didn't we all?). But even as a young girl, I knew I was Beth - the shy girl who loved the piano (I just hoped, then, that I wasn't going to end up dying young as well!). Still, over the years, I've kept notebooks and notebooks of character sketches, story ideas, interesting names I'd like to include in a someday book, short stories, and even pieces of some novels. So maybe there's hope after all. I mean, Grandma Moses didn't start painting until she was decades older than I am now. 

The other thing that Little Women did was send me down the road of read more to Alcott's works, books about Alcott and books based on her characters. It started when I was nine and received the third book in the family series, Little Men. Years later I read Jo's Boys and How They Turned Out, Eight Cousins, and A Merry Christmas. Spinoffs included Meg and Jo and March; books that got at the truth of the family included The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott and Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. 

And now I want to pick up something more by or about Alcott. I know I have a copy of The Quiet Little Woman and The Glory Cloak upstairs...somewhere. 

 

Throwback Thursday: Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
Published September 2021 by Holt, Henry and Company, Inc.
480 pages
Source: check out from my local library

Publisher's Summary: The Delaney family love one another dearly—it’s just that sometimes they want to murder each other . . .

If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father?

This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.

The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after fifty years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable?

The four Delaney children—Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke—were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But that’s okay, now that they’re all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon.
One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted. 

Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure—but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light. 

My Thoughts: 

Because my book club just read this book, I thought I pull this review back out and remind myself what I thought of it. I can definitely tell you that it made for a great discussion!

Publisher's Weekly calls this book a psychological thriller and I suppose it is that. Which actually comes as something of a surprise to me, even though Moriarty keeps readers in suspense as to what happened to Joy Delaney. Even though she gradually reveals truths about the Delaneys and their home that begin to point to nefarious activity and an obvious suspect. 

 
Having read Moriarty before, though, I just knew that the obvious suspect wasn't the suspect, even as an arrest was about to be made. Because, having read Moriarty before, I've come to see a pattern in her books and (I suppose this is true of any even remotely decent thriller) the obvious suspect won't be guilty; but the guilty party will definitely be someone who's been around all along. Moriarty will skewer suburban life. Check. She'll load her book with gossip as a means of delivering the truth. Check. She'll give us perfectly ordinary families who aren't so perfect after all. Check. All of those elements are in this book. 

 
This book as an extra element - that stranger who shows up on the Delaneys' doorstep and, in so doing, begins to unravel the truths about the Delaneys and their relationships. 

 
Those truths? Those I really enjoyed, the way small cracks began to appear in the facade of a happy family. The way parental expectations can both shape and undo a child. The way those same expectations can undo a marriage. I enjoyed seeing these sibling struggle with how to or whether to support a father who they believe has, maybe, killed their mother. 

 
But that stranger? I have very mixed feelings about that stranger and how she came to ensconce herself in Stan's and Joy's home and their lives. Moriarty's written nine books now and been successful enough that I can't help but wonder if she's not allowed more leniency with the final product than a newer writer might be given. Would an editor have advised a less successful writer to cut back on the stranger's story? It's just a little...too much. At least it was for me.

 
Still, I raced through this book once I got into it. There were plenty of surprises. I liked the way Moriarty used neighbors and friends and the people who provide services for the Delaneys to drop snippets of gossip; but are those snippets the truth or merely a sliver of the full picture? And as much as I thought there was too much of that stranger, I did like that she was multi-dimensional. Oh yeah, the tennis; I liked the tennis. Even though I'm not a tennis player or a particular fan of the sport I liked the way Moriarty used it to develop her characters and her story. 

 
Fan of Moriarty's won't be disappointed. I wasn't. I just think it could have been just that tiny bit better.

Life: It Goes On - June 20

Happy Monday! I'd ask you if it's as hot where you are as it is here but I'm pretty sure it's hot every where right now. We talked to Mini-me on Friday and he reported temps in the low 80's in Alaska which is hot for them. And still I'd rather it be hot than winter. 

We made a whirlwind trip to my brother's this weekend to pick up my dad and bring him home. Arrived late Friday, left before noon Sunday. Still, we managed to get to spend some time with everyone in his family, hit up our favorite pizza place, enjoy cocktails at a place we've enjoyed before, and gotten in a lot of talking. It was a good, all too brief, weekend. 

Last Week I: 

 Listened To: I'm about half way done with The Descendents by Kaui Hart Hemmings. You might be familiar with the book through the movie adaptation starring George Clooney. I'm enjoying it but can't help but wish Clooney were the reader. 

Watched: Lots and lots of College World Series games. 

Read: I finished Jennifer McMahon's latest, The Children On The Hill and started Tom Perrotta's latest, Tracy Flick Can't Win, the sequel to Election, which was adapted into a movie starring Matthew Broderick and Reece Witherspoon which was filmed in Omaha. 

Made: Salads, salads, and more salads. Tonight we threw together chicken nugget salads. I'm pretty excited to see that we have green tomatoes on the vine - it's almost caprese season!

The little princes. Big brother
actually brought his own money 
for the games and rides.

Enjoyed: So much time with our great-nieces and great-nephews. They are such funny little people and I so appreciate that their parents made time for us to get to see them. 

This Week I’m:  

Planning: Nothing much, other than watering my plants ever night. See below as to why.

Thinking About: Another trip south, sooner rather than later. Our friends move on Wednesday and I'm going to be wanting a D fix before too many weeks pass. We discovered this weekend that their new house is less than half a mile from my niece's house - how handy that will be! 

Feeling: So frustrated. My back/leg, which felt terrific two weeks ago when we were in Dallas, is so much worse now. My doctor hasn't followed up to schedule any other diagnostic tool after the MRI was denied, nor has he checked to see if the meds he prescribed three weeks ago are working. They were. And now they aren't. My call to their office will not be friendly. 

Looking forward to: Book club tomorrow night. Also, a new(ish) refrigerator will arrive for our garage tomorrow night. 

Question of the week: I've been reading a lot of books I'm enjoying this year but have read very few that really wow'd me. What have you read lately that you would highly recommend?