It’s been too long since I’ve read an Anne Tyler book. As usual it’s set primarily in Baltimore and involves a low key dysfunctional family. Totally rIt’s been too long since I’ve read an Anne Tyler book. As usual it’s set primarily in Baltimore and involves a low key dysfunctional family. Totally recognizable. Relatable because doesn’t everyone feel third place among three kids, mom’s embarrassment, dad’s kid that isn’t a banker or property developer, or the person with an early failed marriage who can’t pick out a proper birthday present for a little girl. Maybe just sometimes or at least one of the above. Poor Barnaby, the 30 year old narrator here, hits on all points.
It all hinges on an adolescent period when he broke into respectable neighbor houses. His friends looked for the valuable, Barnaby opened letters, looked in photo albums and snooped in diaries. Could the guy have been looking into how “normal” families worked? He can’t let go of his failures and has a job that is a point of contention with the family. He has mixed feelings. It usually suits him to work for Rent-a-Back, a small business that goes to the homes of the house bound or elderly to do the things they no longer feel up to doing.
This Anne Tyler is full of gentle humor and not-so-gentle humor. His clients, his girlfriend and even his annoying family are showcases for Tyler’s wit. The Thanksgiving family affair tops all. A turkeyless crescendo of terms for Barnaby begin to fly, along with breaking glass and hurled trays in the kitchen. “Ne’er-do-well”, “ruffian”, “knave”, “wastrel”, “scoundrel “, “layabout”, “rapscalion”, “scofflaw “, “scum-of-the-earth”, —your typical pointed family chat. If you’ve never tried Anne Tyler before, you need to understand how hilarious this all is. I loved it. Terrific dialog and more laughter than usual in this one....more
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings prose is gorgeous when talking of North Central Florida’s scrub, hammock and piney woods. You do need people to make a novel Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings prose is gorgeous when talking of North Central Florida’s scrub, hammock and piney woods. You do need people to make a novel though. This story has three generations of a family and their neighbors. The author calls them crackers not meaning to insult. They are poor but almost entirely self-sufficient especially at the beginning of the story, the late 19th century. MKR doesn’t give lots of information about time or even specific places. Her story feels timeless. Things inevitably do change. It becomes more difficult to scratch a living from depleted farm plots, animals get over hunted and ecologically worse, large turpentine and cattle companies interfere with the environment. People begin to turn more to dependence on making salable moonshine and “revenooers,” never popular, begin to enforce the laws during prohibition. The locals have been accustomed to operating on their own beliefs and arrest would be disastrous. Deer, which fed man year round, are now hunted with strict laws. The locals resent what they think are outsider’s laws.
At one time there were no real roads, no cars (you read of some at the end of the book), no trains and only rivers for distance travel. MKR was not a native of this area, was college educated, but was watchful and sympathetic. It was difficult for me to enjoy her interest in local dialect, but very interesting to read about folklore, moonshining, and traditions that have no doubt been swept away by modern life and development. There are times I felt that it was a little too “educational.” It is definitely worth reading....more
Alice Tatnall Ziplinsky is a “renowned pariah” hiding in plain sight. She is quite honest about what people say about her but is not up front about anAlice Tatnall Ziplinsky is a “renowned pariah” hiding in plain sight. She is quite honest about what people say about her but is not up front about any guilt. She is truly addicted to counseling though, 4 times a week or more if you count her several counselors. A true unreliable narrator. Unlike a lot of unreliable characters in contemporary novels, she is fun, and though topics discussed here such as love, family and business are completely serious her character cracked me up. You couldn’t say that about characters in books such as Gone Girl, The Girl on a Train or The Woman in the Window. Those women were scary off-normal.
Alice goes from being “arson girl” in everyone’s minds, to marrying into a family candy business. From youth to middle age, this woman has caught the candy bug, as least as far as the business goes. She insinuates (she would never use that term) herself into the marketing, product development, charitable work and finances of her new found Jewish family. It can be a sweet (never cloying), sticky mess. This is all difficult to describe and I can’t explain why I find it so hilarious. There sometimes is a touch of Woody Allen. Do I need to mention that the patriarch of the business developed and named the candies in his company in 1920s Connecticut after Little Black Sambo? That has turned out to be very problematic in our times.
I love the very reliable discussion of business practices, conventions and candy cookery in the novel. I couldn’t catch the author up in a fabrication, not even once. I kept googling and no matter how preposterous a claim, they were always true, for instance the Mill Farm gummi lighthouse disaster. As Alice says, “good tempering (in the chocolate biz) is essential for durability.” That goes for family and book writing as well....more
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