Rating: 
Summary: No point to the story
Review: I have never read an Anne Tyler book before, so I guess this was not the best one to start with. The story line was so vague. Tyler never really developed any of the characters or the story. After I was finished with the book, I had so many questions that never got answered. The ending was so anticlimatic. It was almost as if, she just got tired of writing it so she just decided to end it all of a sudden. Based on all the reviews, it sounds like Tyler really has written some good books, but I don't think this is one of them.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Anne Tyler
Review: "He believed that all of them, all those young marrieds of the war years, had started out in equal ignorance. He pictured them marching down a city street as people had on the day he enlisted. Then two by two they fell away, having grown wise and seasoned and comfortable in their roles, until only he and Pauline remained, as inexperienced as ever--the last couple left in the amateurs' parade."And Michael Anton was right. For 30 years he and Pauline had quarreled and sparred just as many new couples do, but somehow their wounds didn't heal and their broken bones didn't mend in a way which made them even stronger than before. Pauline and Michael were left battered, torn, and more sensitive to the next ill-chosen word, sideways glance, or forgotten promise. And, generations later, their children and grandchildren were still licking the wounds from their parents' and grandparents' marriage. In "The Amateur Marriage" Anne Tyler captures suburbia polished and raw. Her characters are as real and endearing as ever. Trapped by the weight of their choices, they muddle through life with an awkward grace that leaves us second guessing their every move and smiling in recognition at our and our friends' foibles and fates. Vintage Tyler.
Rating:
Summary: Out of Steam
Review: Anne Tyler is a novelist I have loved and respected, but the present work is simply not worth reading. Is a worn out story by a possibly worn out writer. The characters are uninteresting, the story is the same, the writing is uninspired. I gave it two stars for effort and possibly because of the writer's stature. John Updike had covered this territory brilliantly in the Rabbit series. I simply don't trust reviewers anymore, this is a bad novel and I haven't seen anyone say that except the "peoples" reviewers here on Amazon who I will always read now that I have thrown away good money a couple of times on novels not worth spending time over that conventional reviewers lauded.
Phooey.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful.
Review: Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors, and I think "The Amateur Marriage" ranks with what, in my opinion, are her best work, "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" and "The Accidental Tourist." This latest book lacks some of the comedy of those earlier novels, but it definitely shares their depth and their insight into the complicated lives of "ordinary" people. A very satisfying read.
Rating:
Summary: An Appeal All it's Own
Review: Perhaps not as much of a page turner as "The Da Vinci Code" and not as packed full of odd-ball characters as "Running With Scissors" and "My Fractured Life", "The Amateur Marriage" still manages to find an appeal all its own. There is a meloncolly taste to the words, which perfectly reflects the middleclass setting. The span of time is reminiscent of "Middlesex." Not the fiery race on the edge of "My Fractured Life," "Running With Scissors," or "Vernon God Little," but an engrossing if underplayed book stylistically reminiscent of "The Accidental Tourist."
Rating: 
Summary: No "Anne Tyler magic" this time..
Review: Anne Tyler is my favorite contemporary novelist and I ran out and bought the book as soon as I heard it was out....
I read it, but the wonderfully unusual yet recognisable characters that make her novels where not there to be found....
I was just not spell bound from cover to cover as I usually am.(Morgan's passing is my favorite...)
But I am not giving up,she can do it again...
Rating:
Summary: Half-baked Novel
Review: Ann Tyler's latest novel was a big disappointment and once again it leads me to wonder what the professional critics were thinking when they wrote their rave reviews. The only possible explanation is that the disconnected, superficial, unspoken, unexplained relationships in this sad family were symbolized in the disconnected, superficial and poorly developed characters, composition and story line. It has however continued to hang in the back of my mind, inviting me to make my own sense of the many missed opportunities each person had to look honestly at themselves and each other. I would appreciate some candid comments from the author as to where she was taking this book.
Rating:
Summary: Another disappointed Tyler "fan"
Review: Has Anne Tyler become the "Seinfeld" of the literary world? Like Jerry Seinfeld's description of his popular comedy series, here is a book "about nothing." 50 years in the life of Susie Homemaker?--BOring!!! Everytime I thought an interesting thread was developing...WHAM! It was the end of the chapter, and the next chapter began...in a setting usually 5 or more YEARS later. It's no wonder Lindy got out of there as soon as she was able.
Rating:
Summary: The Amateur Novel
Review: First of all, this book was written on such an elementary level in its prose and format. There was absolutely NO character development. You see no discussion of how Pauline or how Michael and Pauline's marriage impacted their kids lives. Why didn't Karen marry, isn't it ironic or not that Sally (George's wife) is so much like Pauline. What was it exactly that led Lindy to leave? If Michael's second marriage was a dessert and the first one was a missed entree, what was the lesson?
This book was so underdeveloped in every way. The reading level, the characters. I kept hanging on thinking that Anne Tyler would tie it all together in some fabulous way. It was pedestrian at best. If this book was written by a newcomer and a first time novelist, then fine. What a huge waste of my time.
Rating:
Summary: A very painful review for me to write...
Review: about my favorite female contemporary author. I have read all 15 novels Tyler has written prior to "The Amateur Marriage"; I even read the picture book she wrote for children. For the past year or so, I have been checking this site every couple of weeks, waiting and waiting to see if a new Anne Tyler novel is in the works. (Even though there are lots and lots of other authors I love, present and past, to keep me very busy, especially in that I usually read four or five books at the same time. Nonetheless, I still very much look forward to that new Tyler novel.) "Marriage" was reviewed in both the daily edition of "The NY Times" and in the Sunday "NY Times Book Review." It was the cover story of that Sunday book section, and both reviewers were falling over themselves praising this book, especially the Sunday reviewer. As I wrote, I had been eagerly awaiting a new Anne Tyler book for quite a while. After I read those reviews, I was almost having apoplexy until I could get that book into my hands. Well, it was in my hands over the weekend, and it was read. What a HUGE disappointment. It does not feel like an Anne Tyler book -- the writing is pedestrian. It is a WONDERFUL plot with a very important theme -- the pain of a mismatched couple not only for themselves, but also for their children who are subjected to their unfortunate union. But it is just not written well enough to really illuminate this theme. If this is the first Anne Tyler book you've read and you don't think it's anything special, please, know you are right, but don't give up on this author. Please try Tyler's "Saint Maybe," "The Accidental Tourist," "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant," "Ladder of Years," and the Pulitzer prize- winning "Breathing Lessons." In fact, all of Tyler's novels prior to "Marriage" are either excellent, or very, very good (except "The Tin Can Tree", which was pretty boring), but the ones I have listed are the best of the best, IMO. Remember, this review was written by a rabid Anne Tyler fan, and it did, indeed, pain me to write it.
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