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Summary: No matter where you go, there you are
Review: Rebecca Davitch woke up in her life at 53 and wondered who she was. Why had her life turned out as it had? She had not planned to live her life the way she was living it. Did she really belong somewhere else in another life in another family.This is a classic tale of a mid-life crisis. It is told very well and with real insight. Rebecca had not planned her life but she chose it. She chose it with countless decisions, each of which is masked in happenstance. Rebecca searches through her past to see why she had not chosen to say with her first love Will. She discovers to her surprise that she left Will and the life he offered by choice and not by accident. Will offered her a life full of constraint surrounded by petty fears. She unwittingly but purposefully chose another life that was open to novelty and chance. Rebecca in the end sees that she is in reality in control of her life and has chosen to live it by creating a wild divergent family. She has chosen chance over safety and certainty. In her midlife crisis she attempted to find herself only to discover that she never had been lost. Ths is an excellent study in character by a writer who has mastered the art of characterization.
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Summary: A Simple Read that holds Meaning
Review: The story is quite comical and the comedy holds the book together. This is about a woman who is somewhere in her fifties and has basically woke up. Most of her life she has been living but not really consciously. She seems to kind of lost her way somewhere along her path. This story illustrates how easy this can happen, even if our lives have been great, something nags at us to keep searching and learning more about ourselves. The ending is really great because it kinda leaves things open. Were not to sure where Rebecca, the main character is going to go or stay. She has this really big family who definately have their hangups but are illustrated with such humor. I really liked the imagery of there personalities. The story does not really get alot of action or plot going, it is easy but the tale holds an emotional chord that resonates within all of us. Lisa Nary
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Summary: Back When There Were Good Books...
Review: This is the first novel I've read by Ms. Tyler and perhaps if I'd had more experience with her work, I'd have known to steer clear of this one. Or perhaps I just would have been surprised that this one didn't quite match up to the others. In any event, I found Back When We Were Grownups to be a complete and utter snooze - full of half-hearted sentiment that never went anywhere. I appreciated Tyler's deft handling of awkwardness - I liked that Rebecca was pudgy, not a perfect mother, and struggling day by day. What I didn't like was Tyler's introduction of so many characters and then an almost immediate disregard. Maybe she's making a point - that some situations remain unresolved. I certainly didn't expect all loose ends to be tied up, but why even introduce complications if you're just going to let them fade away? This book simply seemed like a serial recording of about 200 different experiences with no point or passion. Not my idea of a worthy read.
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Summary: This was a best seller?
Review: I am stunned that this was a best seller. Perhaps the author's name sold the book? I have not read any other novels by her, but I don't think I would be in a rush to after reading this novel. I felt as though I was waiting around for something big to happen, when in fact I reached the end of the book and realized there was nothing! First off, what is with all the weird names? (Min Foo, for example, nicknamed due to her "slant, oriental" eyes! Cripes!) And then the main character, Rebecca is on the edge of something decent and exciting, but never really makes it. Instead we are dragged through her wishy-washy life and inability to capture her audience. There are good points here, though. SOme characters are quite likeable, like Poppy and Peter. Their personality and characteristics are life like and touching. I wouldn't say stay away, but don't go running to buy this one.
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Summary: What I read in the Swiss summer rain
Review: I sometimes wish that Anne Tyler's novels were sold with a box of tissue to make light of the fact that I'm never dry-eyed when I read one. What is it that is so touching? The writing seems effortless: simply composed, characterized by short easy sentences - no "big" words - and manageable paragraphs. Yet this simplicity belies a deeply beating and even complicated heart. Rebecca Holmes Davitch in BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS is on the surface one of the most clear-cut people imaginable and certainly all the members of her large inherited family see her just like this. Beneath the fixed party-giving smile (one of the great ironies of this story is that this nearly bitter and self-effacing person is a professional party-giver) and the convincing jollity is a woman troubled by emptiness and grief. Tyler works the trick like a charm: surrounding Rebecca, and serving to remind both her and the reader, is life on life's terms, big and small, predictable and unexpected, battering and comforting. She tells a simple story: Rebecca Davitch, the widowed mother and appointed matriarch of a large extended family, has three grown-up stepdaughters and one grown-up daughter. Almost every adult in this novel is divorced, widowed or in a marriage qualified by compromise and diversity: one daughter is a serial divorcee currently married to a guy who "hailed from someplace Arab," and another is contentedly married to an acknowledged gay man. Rebecca is at crossroads and questions her life's path. Under the stress of this confusion and close to depression, she looks up her jilted fiance and discovers how she and her values have grown and changed, a discovery that is replete with pain and joy, told by Tyler through the disarming detail of her daily life and interactions. Frankly, I was moved to tears through the whole story from the moment Rebecca exclaims to herself "oh, didn't a river rest your eyes!" to her final conclusion that "she really had been having a wonderful time." This is a near perfect story about celebrating people whom one would have never chosen to accompany during this mortal coil, but whose qualities gleam like jewels if considered in the right light. The most extraordinary character, amidst a cast of detailed and extraordinary characters, is Rebecca's soon-to-be-100-year-old uncle-in-law Poppy whose flagging memories and self-centered cheerfulness both grate on and lull Rebecca's nerves. Tyler uses details of American life to best advantage and the novel is full of references to such wonders as "P B and J" (peanut-butter and jelly), waffles soaked with syrup, Froot Loop Bark candy, and a house called the Open Arms.
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Summary: Grief, Joy, and their Effects On a Life
Review: Rebecca Davitch has been in mourning for twenty-six years, though she realizes it not. Her dawning realization that her life, though painful at times, is yet often joyful and very worth keeping intact, forms the core of "Back When We Were Grownups". It's sad, ironically humurous, beautifully written, and full of those eccentricities and old-fashioned moments that Tyler-fans love. (Those people who have suffered life-altering losses will especially appreciate this book,)
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Summary: A wonderful story about Midlife Navigation
Review: Rebecca and her family are extremely endearing, I feel I am part of her large family. All of Anne Tylers' books make me feel I am part of her characters, this one is no different. In this story, Rebecca is simply going through midlife crisis - nothing more nothing less, Anne Tyler is expressing this navigation period through Rebecca and her family, juggling children, grandchildren, and work. It's a story of reflection, we also saw this reflection in her novel "Breathing Lessons" my favorite Anne Tyler novel. I very much appreciate this fine novel and highly recommend it.
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Summary: What stupid names!
Review: Yes, I agree with the other person who commented on the stupid names, like NoNo and Jeep! I have to say I re-read the first few pages 3 times,and just found it irritating, and couldn't get into it. I even told my friends that it looks like Anne Tyler has finally reached her limit and is "dry." I felt that she could no longer write about new characters, and so she was relying on wierd names instead of her tradtional wierd characters. I thought maybe her editor gave her a deadline, and she was forced to write a book. --- So, now I read the other person's review and I see that she "stuck it out" and was well rewarded for her efforts. So, maybe I'll try it again --- But I hope she or her editor read these reviews and that she NEVER gives her characters such wierd names again, trying to be clever?? because she's losing fans.
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Summary: You are the characters...
Review: The thing I love about Anne Tyler is that she makes you feel like one of the characters, like it is your story playing out. Empathetic, fully engaging, quick-moving with good plot twists. A thoroughly enjoyable read reminiscent of Shade of the Maple by Kirk Martin.
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Summary: Entertaining, thought provoking, unpredictable, delightful
Review: A treasure of words and thoughts. I felt empathy and understanding of all the characters as they are so well developed. There is not a single section of the book that moves slow. The twists and turns are not predictable. It was a quick and enjoyable read, but keeps one thinking well after you are done reading it. The ending? At the book's conclusion, rather than the abrupt end of a book it felt more like I had slipped out of a gathering of interesting friends and acquaintances and quietly closed the door.
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