Rating: 
Summary: Anne Tyler can do better
Review: Slow moving.......I would not reccommend it to a friend.
Rating: 
Summary: Relax..... You're on Anne Tyler time
Review: Sit back and enjoy fellow readers because the master of family fun is back with a new novel for us to sit with for hours on end. Ms. Tylers excellent new novel allows us to relax and watch a family strangely like our own.Since her marriage to Joe Davitch, Rebecca has always felt out of place with her life. Until one day, at her thrid stepdaughters engagement party, she realizes she has turned into the wrong person. The discovery of this realizes that she has done nothing with her life since a party at colllege when a charming young man came up to her and said "I can see your'e having a wonderful time" (she wasn't) She later married that man, and now, many years later, nothing has happened since. Not that she isn't happy with her stepdaughters Patch, No-No, and Biddy. And her own family Min Foo. But when Rebecca decides to change her life and the way people look at her, she finds out what she never knew was really there all along. This is the second novel I have read by Anne Tyler, the other being A Patchwork Planet. Tyler created very real characters, and we can be sure we know or have met them before. The wacky trials and tribulations of the Davitch Clan will have readers touched and smiling, thinking, "I know that family. It's mine."
Rating: 
Summary: Real life.
Review: Rebbecca is not your typical heroine. She is not young, she is not pretty (rather, she is a little overweight), she is an unoticed person, someone who is always taken for granted since she is "always around". Rebecca is someone you can count on to smooth things over, and to dump the kids on when you are busy. Mostly, Rebecca - compared to many other heroines we know so well - does not feel like she has her whole life in front of her. On the other hand, she looks back at what her life turned to be and asks herself what happened along the way, and were did the real Rebbecca disappear. This has not turned out as she planned.... When I say that Rebecca is always "there" I mean the "Open Arms", her house, where she works and lives. This house seems to have a personality of its own and a mood that fits the way Rebecca feels. The way the house is presneted is changed according to what Rebecca feels or thinks at different times - from a place she can no longer bear (the endless repairmen, the endless effort to keep it holding together), a crowded place with no privacy (people always coming in and out) to something very warm and welcoming, very homey and inviting to family members. Rebecca is full of regets and seems to feel that life has not treated her fairly. Throughout the story Rebecca undergoes a personal quest - to find the "road not taken" by her in her youth and to confront with her choices. I like the fact that the book is about a regular woman with a regular problem - therefore relevant to so many people in so many ways. I like the fact that the book does not try to repeat the slogan of "I don't regret a thing" but does deal with regrets of all kinds and what you choose to do with them. Rebecca's character is also lovable for being such an accepting person, a person that makes life easier for others, and after criticizing herself for this "flaw in character" (why don't I ever say what I think) learns to accept herself the way she accepts others. She is the perfect mother without being a real mother to three of her four daughters. You, as the reader are part of the inner process Rebecca is undergoing and you are not spoon fed her conclusions but grow together with her. I gave this book a 4 stars as the book is not "thrilling" or "perfect". It is a realistic story, very touching and very human and is very sure to emphesize the fact that life too is not perfect....
Rating:
Summary: Can be appreciated by all age groups!
Review: I'm not at all like Rebecca, the protagonist of this book: I am not 53, I am not widowed, I don't have a brood of family members to look after. But this woman's story really resonated with me. Who hasn't wondered--at ages 20, 30, 40, or 50--how our lives might life had been different? Anne Tyler is so skilled at making a particular character's concerns universal. (And, I should add, this is the first of the author's books that I have read). How many of us make deliberate choices, and how many of us are propelled by inertia? This issue was subtly but brilliantly captured by Peter, the nerdy step-grandson and his musings about physics and his inventions. I found many layers in this book that I will consider for some days to come, I'm sure. Some characters were fuller than others, but I don't think this distracts from the story, which is really about Rebecca.
Rating:
Summary: For 50+ year-old persons
Review: This is a book for 50+ year-old persons. It tells a story how a woman, Rebecca, find herself and accept her life. The depiction neat, all the characters vivid. A good read indeed, but not for the young ones. Recommend to those who hate their present lives and families.
Rating: 
Summary: Flat Characters and Poor Conflict Resolution
Review: I'm a Tyler fan who was truly disappointed with this book. It was one of those "Please, just let me get through it" reads. The supporting/secondary characters -- the main character's family -- weren't fleshed out. Tyler sets up different life situations for the four daughters -- but they all read like the same person. The heroine never truly goes through any kind of change as a character -- which made me wonder: "What, exactly was the point?" A slow read, weak characters and a thin plot.
Rating:
Summary: The Kind of Book Your Mom Would Like...
Review: I have not read other works of Tyler's but I can say on the whole, I enjoyed 'Back When We Were Grownups.' With my busy schedule, if I can finish a book at all, it's got to be good. What keeps you reading this novel is the desire to find out what Rebecca Davitch is going to do... Rebecca looks back at her life and questions the choices she made. She wonders if her implusive marriage to a man with three young daughters was the right thing to do. His early death left her to fend for herself with four daughters (they had one together). When life gives her a second chance at an old love, she is able to make some important realizations about herself that help her move forward. 'Back When We Were Grownups' makes you wonder about your life and if you are making the best choices. Ultimately, the novel's message is a positive, powerful one (that I will not reveal). After I read it I gave it to my mother. My mother is basically the same age as Rebecca and while I read it I saw many similarities between them. I know she enjoyed the novel as well. The reason this novel is getting only four out of five stars is that, just like the other reviewers, I felt that the supporting characters are weak and confusing. I think the readers could have done without that added complexity. There were a couple times where I didn't know who was who and I had to reread those parts. There were also some slow parts involving the other characters. All in all, the novel is worth reading because of Rebecca Davitch herself, her final choices, and important life realizations at the end of the novel...
Rating: 
Summary: Lost Identity
Review: Imagine yourself at a college graduation ceremony. Your friends embrace you with warm hugs and sorrowful words. You ask yourself, "What kind of person am I? What do I want in life?" By the time you had reached your forties or fifties, you probably had established your individuality and accomplished your goals. Anne Tyler, author of "Back When We Were Grownups," narrated how her fictional character struggled through life with the loss of her own identity.
Rebecca Davitch, the main character described above, stubbornly refused to become a fifty-three year old woman because she had not yet experience life in her early twenties. Unfortunately, Rebecca left her college sweetheart for an older divorced man. From the moment she married him, she dedicated her entire life to become a hard working mother, stepmother, and grandmother. At the same time, she hosted parties at a business called Open Arms owned by her family. Whenever parties were being held, people noticed her sociable personality. Like a young adult, she desperately wanted companionship. The transition from youth to aged never stopped her to discover her actual self and true happiness.
I strongly would not recommend this book because the book reflects upon normal lives of ordinary people which eventually lose the reader's interest. The absence of an exciting, dramatic, or unusual event in this story displays no climax. All the family members of Rebecca except her mother, her step children, and Poppy, played a minor role. They appeared to be unnecessary because the whole focus remained upon Rebecca and a few other characters. Personally, I dislike Rebecca because of her foolish mistakes. Once she surpasses most of her life time, it seems to be difficult to undergo the crucial development of becoming a woman at the age of fifty-three. Tyler's work meticulously disappointed me.
Rating:
Summary: Did nothing for me
Review: A good book to me is one that I finish and continually think about the characters the next few days. This book didn't have the first character that I cared about. The main character was annoying. I don't understand why she dumped the new boyfriend (her ex-boyfriend) so callously. The stepkids were spoiled rotten. Even her daughter made so many mistakes in life with 3 husbands of various races, that you wondered what kind of mother was Rebecca? Obviously, not a very good one. She reminded me of a Stepford Wife - always giving the appearance that she was happy and life was grand, when her life was anything but.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing for an Anne Tyler
Review: I've come to expect greatness from Anne Tyler; unfortunately Back When We Were Grownups was only good. It is a story that anyone can relate to- after all, the heroine Rebecca certainly isn't the only one of us who has ever wondered what her life would be like if she had made different choices. However, although Rebecca's identity crisis was compelling, the cast of characters was weak, and at times it was even confusing to figure out who was who. I did, however, like the ending, which did not wrap things up nice and tidy, but instead left you speculating about Rebecca's future. A decent read, but most of Tyler's books are much better.
| 
