I've always been delighted that Anne Tyler's novels are always a lot less fluffy than they seem, given the plot synopses on the back of my paperbacks.The truth is, Tyler better captures more than almost any other author the inner lives of regular folks. I was surprised to find myself and constantly eager to find out what would happen to the protagonist, Delia, after she walks out on her family.Delia's motivations are in no way cardboard, as they might be in the hands of a lesser novelist. They are complex and incomprehensible -- or not. Still, we learn why we cannot condemn her choice.The lesser characters' anxieties and motivations are wonderfully captured. Again, people about whose lives you would have no real reason to care become intensely compelling. They include Delia's employer and son, his divorced wife and her father, her own ex-husband, her children, her landlady and fiance, and the small-town restaurant owners. Tyler's ability to capture real-life dialogue is amazing; note the way the teens communicate with adults.These are real people with petty problems just like our own, and the opportunity to see into their inner lives is fascinating. This, to me, is what good fiction is all about.Tyler perfectly catches life's randomness and coincidences. I was struck in this book by this beautiful slice of color, clearly taken from Tyler's experiences: "They braked for a jaywalking collie." There is no real reason to include this observation, but this is is exactly the kind of thing that sticks in our memory of a time and place.This could easily be dismissed as "chick lit" by some, but take a closer look at why it was on so many critics' best-books list the year it was published.
I did not relate well to the main character, a woman who married directly out of high school who lived in the same house her entire life and regretted never having set out on her own at any point in her life. So, I dragged through the plot, which sent the main character to start an anonymous life in a new town and abandoning her children, to find something interesting (because I read Tyler's When We Were Grownups and I remember liking it, so I thought that there must be a pearl in this book, too). The pearl presented itself about 5 pages before the end, in this observation by a sagely grandfather who was the first to sit at a table set for twelve people and was in the throes of looking back at his life with regret: "'There's a picture I'm reminded of that [C. R. Savage:] took toward the end of his life. Shows his dining room table set for Christmas dinner. Savage himself sitting amongst the empty chairs, waiting for his family. Chair after chair after chair, silverware laid just so, even a baby's high chair, all in readiness. And I can't help thinking, when I look at that photo, I bet that's as good as it got, that day. From there on out, it was all downhill, I bet. Actual sons and daughters arrived, and they quarreled over the drumsticks and sniped at their children's table manners and brought up hurtful incidents from fifteen years before; and the baby had this whimper that gave everybody a headache. Only just for that moment . . . just as the shutter was clicking, none of that had happened yet, you see, and the table looked so beautiful, like someone's dream of a table, and old Savage felt so happy and so -- what's the word I want, so . . . anticipatory!'"
What do You think about Ladder Of Years (1997)?
I've had this book for over ten years and just now have gotten around to reading it. It's been a long time since I've read Anne Tyler, and I thoroughly enjoyed Ladder of Years. I couldn't put it down. I hope women today go into marriage with a little more sense and self-assurance than in the day of our protagonist, Delia, but I think there is still a lot we can learn from this story. Delia, without a conscious thought, deconstructs her life and begins it again, trying to rebuild it with a kind of consciousness that she didn't have when her married life first started. She learns a lot on the way. It's not a bad lesson for us all, but I don't think we have to run away from home to do it.
—Sherry
I believe I read this book right before Jesse and I got married. It was a long time ago.I got it as a book club selection and fell in love instantly. There is something romantic about just quietly walking off one day, leaving it all behind to start anew. How would you get along without your comfortable life and surroundings? Could you do it on your own?Would you go back?Wow, I seem to like kidnappings and runaway stories. Hmmm do I have abandonment issues?I read this book at least once a year. It has become a super quick read for me and whenever I find a copy at a used bookstore (my favorite type of bookstore!) I pick up a copy to give to a woman I know and love.
—Aletha
The author has a natural writing style and just pulls you into the story. At the start of this story I totally understood Delia, I couldn't really blame her for leaving.With that being said, by the middle of the book I was screaming in my head, "They are your children, no matter what, they are your children! You have to go back to them. No matter how old they are, they are your children." I could understand why she wasn't responding to her husband, he should have asked her to come home. Honestly, why didn't anyone in her family just ask, that is obviously what she wanted to do deep down.Anyway, the story of Delia who leaves her family while on vacation. Delia finds and makes herself a new life.SPOILER:I had to reread the last pages over and over again to figure out what Delia was going to do: go back to her new life, or come home. The fact that the ending is up in the air and that I didn't like Delia at all by the end of the book is why I gave the book 4 stars. Because it was a really great story and so well written.
—Melissa
