Book Review: Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

Vinegar Girl

Author: Anne Tyler

Publisher: Crown/Archetype

Date of Publication: June 21, 2016

Pages: 240

     Any new work by Anne Tyler is a cause for celebration.  The appearance of Vinegar Girl is especially sweet since her last novel, A Spool of Blue Thread  was supposed to be her last.  This effort is a part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series which features Shakespeare's works reinterpreted by today's best-selling and acclaimed novelists.  Vinegar Girl is this author's reworking of the classic comedy The Taming of the Shrew.

     The main character is Kate Battista, a millenial who is a square peg constantly finding herself tryng to fit into a round hole.  She lives at home with her widowed father who is a medical research scientist at Johns Hopkins Medical School.  She works as a teaching assistant in a pre-kindergarten class even though she has little patience for children.  Kate's younger sister Bunny is the exact opposite of Kate.  Bunny is a attractive, socially adept and fun-loving and finds herself in chronic conflict with Kate.   Dr. Battista introduces a wild card into this strange milieu.  He brings home his highly regarded graduate assistant who is in America on an expiring visa and suggests that he and Kate marry so that his research can continue.

     Anne Tyler spins this story to a very satisfying and humorous conclusion as only she could.  The characters, like characters in all of her books, seem like old friends or neighbors by the time the story winds up.  This author is also a master at description of settings which adds another dimension to this novel.  Little details set the tone for entire episodes.  The author's familiarity with Baltimore adds to the richness of her descriptions.

     This is a short novel (less than 200 pages) which is the only disappointment here.  I wish it could have gone on for several hundred more!

Book Review: A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

A Spool of Blue Thread

Author: Anne Tyler

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Date of Publication: February 10, 2015

Pages: 368 (NOOK Edition)

    There is a short list of authors whom I feel compelled to read every time they publish a new work.   Anne Tyler is on top of that list.  Her books have entertained and amazed me for many years.  All of her books are exquisitely written and cleverly plotted.  Each contains a cast of recognizable characters drawn from everyday life who are often thrown into some extraordinary circumstance.   This book is no different.  

     A Spool of Blue Thread is the story of the Whitshank family of Baltimore.  Red Whitshank is an old-school general contractor who fusses over details and lives in a rambling old home with a huge front porch which was originally built by his father.  He and his wife Abby raise four children: two daughters, a biological and an adopted son.   The two girls, Amanda and Jeannie take circuitous routes to adulthood, eventually settling into happy marriages.  Stem, the adopted son, is the steady one who eventually takes over Red's construction business.  Denny is the worrisome, prodigal son.  He disappears for long stretches, is easily alienated by his seemingly well-meaning parents and is the main source of conflict between and among family members.

      Even though much of the book focuses on developing the characters of the Whitshank children, this is really Red and Abby's story.  The book even takes a serious detour about three quarters of the way in to refocus on how Red and Abby met in North Carolina, became separated and eventually reunited in Baltimore.  All of the Whitshank back story is really preparing the reader for the main issue: how everyone reacts to Red's physical decline and Abby's dementia.  This is a poignant description of a family in crisis as it deals with the inevitability of aging.  Anne Tyler treats this issue with her usual grace and sensitivity.

     This book is filled with dexterous writing.   One night  Denny arrives home unexpectedly and the family gathers around the next morning to see how he is:

"He was wearing pain-stained khakis and a String Cheese Incident T-shirt, and his hair was very shaggy, fringing the tops of his ears.  (As a rule the men in the family were fanatic about keeping their hair short.)  He seemed healthy, though, and cheerful."

     Anne Tyler is also a master at scene creation, making settings come alive.  Here she describes the Whitshank home:

"Every ground-floor room but the kitchen had double pocket doors, and above each door was a fretwork transom for the air to circulate in the summer.  The windows were fitted so tightly that not even the fiercest winter storm could cause them to rattle.  The second-floor hall had a chamfered railing that pivoted neatly at the stairs before descending to the entrance hall.  All the floors were aged chestnut.  All the hardware was solid brass - doorknobs, cabinet knobs, even the two-pronged hooks meant to anchor the cords of the navy-blue linen window shades that were brought down from the attic every spring.  A ceiling fan with wooden blades hung in each room upstairs and down, and out on the porch there were three.  The fan above the entrance hall had a six-and-a-half-foot wingspan."

     Some reviewers have criticized this book for having "typical" and predictable Anne Tyler characters.  Others have claimed that she has recycled tired themes from her previous books (most particularly from Breathing Lessons and An Amateur Marriage).  While some of this criticism is valid, an Anne Tyler book is still a cut above the competition.  Read this for the quality of the writing and the delightful (if maybe hackneyed) characters.  You will be glad that you did.

Book Review: The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler

The Beginner's Goodbye

Author: Anne Tyler

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

Date of Publication: January 29, 2013

Pages: 210 (Trade Paperback Edition)

     This book has the most remarkable opening line in recent memory: "The strangest thing about my wife's return from the dead was how other people reacted."  So begins one one of the most poignant and moving stories about death, grieving and marriage which I have ever read.

     The story is told in the first person by a young widower named Aaron.  This man, like most Anne Tyler characters (and like most of us), is flawed.  In this case, Aaron has a physical disability from a childhood illness and confidence issues from growing up with a protective, dominating mother and older sister.  This book is character driven, as are all of this author's wonderful works.  This book is full of imperfect, very human characters.  Characters to which the reader can readily identify, recognize and, well, like!  The magic of The Beginner's Goodbye is that the author takes these wonderfully funky characters and weaves a tale of loss and grief which is all at once sad and uplifting.

     Aaron's musings inevitably evolve into an introspective of his marriage's high points and failings.  Regrets are mulled and areas where things could have been handled differently or with more feeling and concern are examined.  At one point Aaron reflects:

     "I used to toy with the notion that when we die we find out what our lives have amounted to, finally.  I'd never imagined that we could find that out when somebody else dies."

This theme has appeared in many of Anne Tyler's stories.  That is, that we are who we are through our relationships with others.  In The Beginner's Goodbye she distills this notion down to how the lives of us married folk in large part are defined by our choice of spouse and the nurturing (or lack of nurturing) of that relationship over time.

    All of us are human and will at some time or another suffer a tremendous loss: a parent, a spouse or a child.  Everyone can relate to Aaron and his struggles.   This story sticks with you and serves as a not-so-gentle reminder that we need to appreciate our loved ones and make the best of every minute of every day.  Things can change in a heartbeat.