Rating: 
Summary: a rather annoying book
Review: I'm not sure where to start in describing how annoying this book was. The plot was tedious. There was no momentum to carry you through the book (I only read the whole thing out of desperation -- hoping the plot had to improve). There were far too many quirky characters in this book, it was if the author was really trying to make the book interesting. It didn't work by a long shot. Plus it was really overkill that all the daughters had off beat nicknames. I found most of the behavior of the characters to be so annoying. I really hated the way Rebecca strung Will along until she could finally make up her mind that she really didn't want/need him. I suppose I didn't care for this book because it isn't my typical genre. But I wanted to try something different and the other reviews made it sound pretty good. So if you normally read this type of book, you may actually like this one. If you, you may find this one hard to bear.
Rating: 
Summary: Vintage Tyler
Review: This is another great book by Anne Tyler. If you have enjoyed any of her other work, you will love this one as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Quirky -- But No "Mrs. Dalloway"
Review: I read a review that compared this work with Virginia Wolf's "Mrs. Dalloway." Both books tell the story of two women in their fifties who are renegotiating their lives. In the end, both women, Clarissa Dalloway and Rebecca Davitch, realize that they are in fact not unhappy. Tyler spins the tale with quirky characters: Min Foo, No No, and Poppy. Her style of narration is awesome, but I'm not sure it is in the same league as Virginia Woolf (who expected more from her readers). This is not my favorite Anne Tyler novel. Her previous works, "Patchwork Planet" and my all time favorite, "The Accidental Tourist" are much more engaging.
Rating:
Summary: Not a very deep book...
Review: While this book is very well written (except for a slight 'name issue' - NoNo, Min Fu, etc.), and is about a conflict we all experience at some point (why and how do we make the decisions that shape our lives?) this book doesn't the 'whole story', and only shows certain, and very few, aspects of it. Rebecca Davitch never asks herself 'why had I made the choices I've made?' but immediatelly persumes they are based on one moment she appeared happy while she wasn't, and now she's trying to straighten our everything - she will return to her old college sweetheart, his daughter should be what she imagined her to be, and she'll return to be the intelectually inclied person she as before marrying the 'wrong' guy. Only by failing all these missions does she realize she's happy with her life. She hardly goes into the 'positive' reasons for making the decisions she's made, and she often sees the bad side in everything - her life is boring and the only people she sees are her quarreling 3 step daughters and daughter, old Poppy and repairmen...
Rating: 
Summary: How life changes who you thought you would be to who you are
Review: I love Anne Tylers writing. I have read everything she has written and have been drawn in to her novels by the quirky characters she brings to the reader and the gentle but truly realistic plots she presents. This may be my favorite yet, maybe because I am there. The right age, the right time and the same question on how I became someone I hadn't planned on becomming. Rebecca Davitch has lived a full life but with many unexpected turns. She realizes the life she lived was not the one she had planned in her youth. The "Tyler like" characters have an appeal in their ignorance to what Rebecca is thinking and trying to learn about herself as they are self absorbed in themselves. Towards the end there are some poingnant thoughts expressed about each of our lives and what truly having lived means. I wouldn't miss this one, a great read!
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: This is one of my favorites in a long line of quietly brilliant novels by this writer, who seems gifted with "second sight."
Rating:
Summary: Uninspired reading.
Review: The book started off well enough. A confused 53 year old questioning her choices in life. I wanted to read on and did. But, the characters were so annoying and their personalities so irritating that I found I couldn't empathize with any of them. Perhaps the most underwhelming was the "Non-character", Will Allenby. Such an unsympathetic "wuss" and hardly a love interest in the making. The whole relationship was left so unresolved and left me wondering why. The book ended abruptly in my eyes and I was left disppointed. It seemed to me that there was no closure to any of the plot lines, with the exception of Poppy making it to his 100th birthday. Overall, a real yawn for me.
Rating:
Summary: What real life is like...
Review: While it's true this is a quickly read book, it contains a multitude of truths written in few words. Reading the other reviews I found myself speculating about the age of the writers. I think it helps to have the aid of years, or the ability to speculate such, to get the most from this novel. How much do those around us affect what we become? Truly, none of us are the people we once were.
I was also touched by how real the family was. These people aren't eccentric - I could identify their personalities in most any family. The older mother/midlife daughter relationship, the maiden aunt with a heart for children, the aged and needy family member, the young adult children at the center of their own universe who bring love one minute and hurt feelings with thoughtless words the next, and the joy of a relationship between an encouraging grandparent and the grandchild with a lack of self assurance. Anne Tyler expresses one of the truths enjoyed from a midlife point of view - we may be older, no longer needed for day-to-day child raising, maybe no longer even needed as a wife, but we are still needed by our families and friends. Not only are our lives over time changed by others, but we in turn change their lives.
Rating:
Summary: Tyler Can Do Better
Review: First of all, this book really deserves only three and a half stars, but since that is not an option, my fondness for Tyler's work in general upped my rating to four stars. I just finished reading "Grownups" ... what can I say, it's a page turner, it's an easy, light read, but it's certainly not one of Tyler's best. I've read every novel Tyler has written (I've even read Tyler's daughter's children's books -- they're great, and I even checked out her husband's novels, but those didn't interest me), my favorites being (more or less in order): "Saint Maybe," "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant," "Ladder of Years," "The Accidental Tourist," and the Pulitzer prize winning "Breathing Lessons." But if you're a step-parent, "Grownups" might resonate with you -- its protagonist could serve as a role model for step-parents everywhere.
Rating:
Summary: Major yawnage.
Review: This is the non-story of Rebecca Davitch, a middle-aged widow who perceives all of a sudden, with wide-eyed astonishment, that she's (gasp) in the wrong life -- and proceeds not to change it. It's a story that begins nowhere and ends nowhere else. Unfortunately it's impossible to care about Rebecca or any (but one) of the other largely uncompelling characters that surround her, among whom are three grown stepdaughters and one grown daughter, and their own families and hangers-on; her mother and aunt; many in-laws; and a college sweetheart who represents What Might Have Been (yawn). The best character is Peter, a young man whose father marries one of Rebecca's silly stepdaughters. He feels apart from the whole clan and would rather just be left alone to read and invent things. I can relate. These people would have sent me packing. Back When We Were Grownups does contain some artfully written passages of very real family dialogue. Beyond that, it's a waste of time. Read something else instead.
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