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Summary: Great People, Great Insights
Review: I have recently become a huge Anne Tyler fan, and this is one of my favorites of hers so far. Anne Tyler writes about the things that should be written about - real people going through real dilemmas and gaining insight from them.Here, her subject is Rebecca Davitch - a 53-year-old widow with a large, eccentric family. Recently, Rebecca has been going through a little crisis. She is unhappy with her place in the world, and she wonders if she became the wrong person. This thought sparks her search for her true self. She goes back to her roots; she begins dating her high school sweetheart and begins studying her old interests. But her search is also forced to include her family from whom she reaps great insight into how she should really lead her life. Back When We Were Grownups is an all around wonderful novel. The characterizations are complete. You love the people and hope for them. They make you laugh and they make you think. The book is always entertaining and the final message is both family affirming and life affirming. This is a truly charming and worthwhile story, very worthy of a read by anyone.
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Summary: Can't stop now!!
Review: This was my first Anne Tyler book - now I'm hooked. I think everyone can relate to this character in one way or another. This book really looked at the split in the road of life and I loved the way her character stayed independent in the end. I've now passed this book to two other readers and everyone loves it. We are now on our fourth book in our "Anne Tyler Book Club". If you liked this one you will love another one of her books - Accidental Tourist. You just can't put it down!
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Summary: I really enjoyed it.
Review: At first, I was afraid there were too many characters and that I would not be able to remember who was who. But instead, I became to know each member of Rebecca's family, and extended family, and enjoyed each and every one. I was truly sorry when I had finished the book because I feel like I came to know Rebecca, and her family, and will miss them.
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Summary: An Awful Lot of Promotion
Review: Anne Tyler had quite a bit of promotion for this book. Considering the hype and readers group info I expected a gem. Not really what happened!! Rebecca [main character] lost her husband and proceeded to second guess every major decision she had made in the past. I expected dramatic changes, breathtaking life changing moves, and incidents of monumental emotional distress. What really happened was a book with a somewhat shallow plot and partially developed characters. The idea was great. When I read the reviews I was sure that Anne Tyler would take her main character and have her experience events that we as common readers would say, "Wow, if only I had thought of that" but what she did was had her very plain Rebecca make minor adjustments creating very little change. Disappointing but entertaining.
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Summary: Good, but confusing
Review: I liked this book a lot. I liked how Rebecca came to a realization in her life that maybe she wasn't who she thought she was. Maybe her entire reality at this point in her life was based on a fiction? This book explores both her reality and her fiction. In this book, the author allows all the questions people have about their existence come to the front to be dealt with--maybe not answered, but at least dealt with. Major drawbacks in the book for me were the people's names. They were just a little too much. About the only people I could keep track of were the kids. I thought about keeping them straight on paper, but the book is too short for that. This is a good book, and I look forward to reading more books by Ms. Tyler.
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Summary: Back When We Were GrownUps
Review: Fantastic, well-written page turner that I'd highly recommend. If I had a criticism, it's that the main love story in this book remains unresolved -- and the writing is weak around that one area. Yet it's a terrific story that stays with you long after you've finished the book. Buy it!
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Summary: Turned Me into a Tyler Fan
Review: Reading this book kicked off a two-week reading binge of every Anne Tyler book I could find in the local library. I'd tried to read The Accidental Tourist when I was in my twenties, and dismissed it as dry. Back When We Were Grownups, however, bursts with the juice of messy real-life characters in messy real-life situations. The lure of the road not taken pales beside Rebecca's noisy crowded life, and the humor and perspective she brings to her observations more than compensate for the longing she feels for her younger (true?) self. I was so absorbed in the story I didn't have time to evaluate the questions Tyler raises of how identity is formed and what the meaning of one's life is when one is peering through the eyes of a stranger. In retrospect, however, these questions, how they are raised and how they are answered, linger in my mind in a satisfying echo to what was the most satisfying read I've had in a long time.
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Summary: Well written and boring
Review: Rebecca, 53, looks back at her life and wonders over the course it has taken. She has 4 wonderful daughters, 7 grandchildren, a mother, an aunt, and an elderly person she lives with and takes care of. Her life has not always been easy, her loving husband died after 6 years of marriage, her daughters don't always listen to her. But she manages, runs her own business and tries to keep the family together. ladidadidadidadida... But I am not yet old! I am 32. I don't want to look back. I want to look forward. I don't want to think 'well, life has its ups and downs and you just have to enjoy those little rays of sun'. I want to live life to the max, have big expectations and huge dissapointments. Maybe I have to try this book again in twenty years.
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Summary: Not one of Anne's best
Review: I have read and own every one of Anne Tyler's books and usually I love them. I didn't hate this book, but it certainly was not one of her best. I read several of the other reviews on it and I have to echo the complaint of the ridiculous choice of names for the characters. The characters were never quite fully developed, yet it still was an enjoyable read. But for a real treat try Anne's "Dinner At The Homesick Resturant" or some of her other books. She really is a wonderful writer with keen insight on human nature and makes us all laugh at ourselves and not take our selves so seriously.
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Summary: Questioning life
Review: "Back When We Were Grownups" by Anne Tyler mirrors that questioning of life that many of us experience as we meander into middle age. Cutsie names that are a turnoff at the beginning become a blessing in the midst of a block full of characters. Different than her normal tale, this story still conveys the author's talent with action and drama.
Beverly J Scott author of Righteous Revenge
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