Rating: 
Summary: This is the first Anne Tyler book I've read and it made me
Review: want to read more of her work. I'm at an age where I could relate to Beck and her wonderings about the road she chose in life. She had a chance most of us don't have to get a glimpse of what it might have been like if she had chosen a different fork in the road. 'Back When We Were Grownups' does an excellent job of pointing out that we are generally living life the way we are supposed to, and we chose this road for a reason. I'm looking forward to reading more of Anne Tyler's books. I'll be adding her to my list of enjoyable authors.
Rating: 
Summary: Anne Tyler Does it Again
Review: Anne Tyler has the ability to create such wonderful and in depth characters. She has done it again in her latest book. As with any excellent writing you don't read about her characters you envision them.Thank you Anne! I hope you are already working on a new one.
Rating:
Summary: Life-Affirming
Review: With her gentle humor and detailed observations, Anne Tyler can paint a family portrait like no other author. The Davitch's -- quarrelsome, moody, and sometimes downright dislikable -- are another of her quirky creations. Rebecca marries into this difficult family when she falls in love with Joe Davitch. She is just twenty and he is in his thirties. When he dies, she is left to care for four children, including three difficult step-daughters. We meet Rebecca in the midst of a full-blown midlife crisis. She wonders how she became this jolly, sociable woman, so adept at handling and helping people. Once she was a quiet, studious girl who cared about history, philosophy, great books. Which person is the real Rebecca? What life is her real life? The feeling of being a stranger in one's own life, of being adrift and off-course in the middle of life, is captured beautifully here. Rebecca is not the most fascinating or brilliant of Anne Tyler's characters, but she is somehow universal. The book moves with her journey to find her real self and live her real life. It is a book that acknowledges darkness, death, loss and grief, and still affirms the wonder of everyday life.
Rating: 
Summary: Possibly Author's Response to _Ladder of Years_
Review: This is the second novel in the past seven years whose central character is a middle-aged woman who experiences a midlife crisis and attempts to create a parallel life (in this case, reuniting with the nerdy college sweetheart she leaves at the library for a life with her perpetually party-giving future husband). The other book was _Ladder of Years_ (1995), a story in which a lot of my friends and I felt Tyler sold her character out in the last, markedly unsatisfying chapter. The plot lines are similar here, but Tyler's ending (not to give anything away...I hate that) seems to be more of a realistic compromise this time around. In any case, the plot line in this novel is vaguely similar to _Ladder_ but an improvement on that flawed novel. I give the book three stars because there are several riffs in the book that are maybe too reminiscient of other, much better Tyler works. A passage about telephones may remind readers of the Leary's sudden decision to stop answering the telephone in _Accidental Tourist_, for example. And like most of her books, the dilapidated house is a quiet supporting "character" which anchors the whole pseudo-family (the family tree, if plotted out, would make Faulkner smirk to say the least) together. Of the family itself, Poppy is the most effectively fleshed out. The rest seem like a gaggle of ingrates--I just wanted to slap the stepdaughters after a while! That said, I did find myself rooting for dowdy Rebecca towards the end; proof that Tyler's penchant for representing the lower-middle class everywoman can supersede the spinning wheels of plot devices/structures lifted from other Tyler works. Not her best work--I suggest checking out _Searching for Caleb_, _Saint Maybe_ or _Dinner at Homesick Restaurant_ first. Still, an above-average Tyler novel is usually better than most "great" novels by her contemporaries. Readers new to her style will likely enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty disappointing
Review: While it was a quick read, I found that my mind was being merely occupied instead of stunned or challenged. The mopey main "Beck" makes only one stab at reclaiming her life - a half-hearted "I never asked anyone to call me Beck!" that is quickly overlooked by all around. Her children are all annoying and out there, and loose ends merely fly in the wind at the conclusion. Was there a climax in this novel because I missed it. More concretely - was there a point? What did Tyler SAY about life, humanity, love?? What greater comment did this novel make? Whatever she said, it could have been condensed to a chapter and then moved on to a story that went somewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Did Anne Tyler Grow Up?
Review: I have anxiously awaited a new Anne Tyler novel, but I find this one disappointing. Perhaps the characters are not "tyler-esque." There are so many characters called by their nicknames that it is hard to keep them straight. And the ending is more conventional than one has come to expect from Anne Tyler.
Rating:
Summary: Ho Hum.
Review: The book was okay. It was one of those that just goes along and then is over. It did remind me of a time when I use to look back and think, what if I had married the guy I dated in high school. Sometimes we remember things better than they actually were. Apparently it happens to a lot of us, just like it did to the main character in this book. Back When We Were Grown Ups wasn't overly exciting, sometimes it was actually tiring. I was a bit disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: If this were a new release movie,I'd say wait for the video!
Review: I'm torn... Loved it and was a little wearied by the main character "Beck". It's a story of a gal (early 50's) going through her "mid-life" crisis... I could relate to it somewhat.... however, I was under the impression only men go through that,(heh heh) so found the concept interesting and realized I'd gone through my own mid-life "growing up" period... What started out to be a crisis, ended up enriching my life.
Rating:
Summary: Quirky characters inhabit a Baltimore row house.
Review: "Back When We Were Grownups," Anne Tyler's latest novel, is about the Davitch family, an incongruous mixture of personalities with strange names (such as Ming Foo and NoNo) who often quarrel although, underneath, they truly care for one another. The central character is Rebecca, a fifty-three year-old widow who is feeling like "an impostor in her own life". Rebecca dropped out of college to marry Joe Davitch, a man much older than she, and she became stepmother to his three daughters. She and Joe later have a daughter of their own. With Joe gone, Rebecca is saddled with responsibilities. Among them is the planning and running of parties for profit in their house, "The Open Arms". By default, she is also the chief caregiver for Poppy, her late husband's uncle, who is almost one hundred years old and more than a little cranky and forgetful. Rebecca is a member of the "sandwich generation". Without a husband to help her, she needs to be all things to all people--entrepreneur, mother, grandmother and daughter. But what about Rebecca's needs? Who caters to her? Where is she supposed to get warmth and nurturing? In an effort to recapture the girl of her youth, Rebecca tries to reconnect with her old boyfriend, to see if she made a terrible mistake when she jilted him so many years ago. Anne Tyler's novel shows that life in a large family can be difficult--both confusing and exhausting. A person like Rebecca Davitch, who is used to giving to others, may lose her own identity. On the other hand, a large and close-knit family like the Davitches is a source of life and hope for the future. In "Back When We Were Grownups," Tyler explores the messiness and chaos of life in a large family, with all of its angst as well as all of its wonderful rewards. Tyler's wry humor, her unusual characters and her psychological insight make this an entertaining novel.
Rating:
Summary: Don't overlook this quiet book; an enjoyable read
Review: This was my first Anne Tyler book. The first sentence intrigued me, so I bought the book. I first read the readers' reviews of the book and, of course, didn't see a consensus of opinions. I really didn't care 'cause I knew I was going to read it anyway. If you're used to reading action, fast-paced, suspenseful books, then this can be a bit of a turn. Ms. Tyler can write about the ordinary with flare. I would say she's the Jerry Seinfeld of writing. The premise, to those who don't know, is whether Rebecca, the main character, has actually chosen the life that she was meant to live. If we are in our 40's or above, many times we look back on our lives and can see where the path we were taking suddenly changed. It usually occurs in our 20's, but whose to say it can't happen in our 30's, 40's, or whenever. We can be constantly striving to better our lives and, in so doing, our paths can change again. At a family picnic where her incredibly wacky family are doing their usual wacky stuff, Rebecca muses on that subject. She decides to go home to see her mother (I sure wouldn't want to go home too often if she were MY mother) as well as an old boyfriend. As we get to meet this old boyfriend, I thought, "Oh my God, no. This guy is so bleak, and so lifeless, while Rebecca is too alive to be with him." Thank God she comes to her senses. The cutest character is Poppy, the elderly (nearing 100) uncle of her late husband. At his hilarious 100th birthday party (which he's frequently reminding Rebecca of throughout the book), when he's asked to give a speech, Poppy starts droning on, with great detail, on the events of the day.... what he had for breakfast, etc. Ms. Tyler moves us away from Poppy to a frustrated Rebecca who waits interminably until Poppy delivers the detailed account of his momentous day. "Where is he now?" she asks her brother-in-law. "He's eating lunch," he replies. Rebecca and the reader know we have a while to go. Don't we all have relatives like that??!! In the end, Rebecca realizes that she, indeed, is living the life she was meant to live. But Ms. Tyler doesn't really state that in so many words. The reader just knows that. At least, I knew it. Back When We Were Grownups is a quiet book, a book about everyday happenings and how the mundane can have a huge impact on us. Don't look for any stupendous finish, or escalating drama, or some unsolved mystery to occur. It's not in this book. It made me think about my own life and the exact time when the path I was moving toward changed. I know, without a doubt, that if I had followed that original path, I would have become a different person. And, incidentally, a person I would not have liked. 30 years later, I can see that. So, for me, I am definitely leading the life I was supposed to. I hope to always keep changing for the better. So to those who are hesitating to read this book, give it a try, keep an open mind and I think you'll really enjoy it. I did.
| 
