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Summary: One of the best books ever!
Review: Anne Tyler's SAINT MAYBE, in my opinion, is her masterpiece. Tyler is a fabulous author, and with this novel she outdoes herself once again. The tragic consequence of Ian Bedloe's heated remarks to his drunk driver does not sound like a pleasant read, but Tyler manages to incorporate some very bright, and funny moments in the characters' lives even when everything seems to be crumbling down. SAINT MAYBE is so wonderful that I couldn't put it down.
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Summary: Even better than "The Accidental Tourist"!
Review: I had been extremely impressed with "The Accidental Tourist" when I first came upon this book. I had thought that no other book written by Anne Tyler could surpass it, but "Saint Maybe" left me with no doubt that I had been mistaken. When I started to read the book, I had no idea that Ian was the hero of the book. But in the time following Danny's death I came to a shocking realisation of the true nature of Ian's part in the book. The heavy waves of shock and guilt of Danny's death had literally transformed Ian, causing him to mature into a self-sacrificing, kind man, whose painful guilt had aged him. Ian's young age was no testimony to the true age of his wisdom and personality, both of which increased a great deal during his attempt to face the consequences of his "sins". Ian is no deserving hero in the strictest sense of the word; he does not make any vital, brave descisions, nor does he come to a final and morally admirable conclusion concerning his life. "Coping" with the results of his unwitting and selfish younger self is more of a summary to Ian's life. Although this description may seem to lessen the book's value and quality, the simplicity of the events are precisely the reason why I found the book to be of such high quality. The author finds it preferable to achieve the modest goals and standards she has set for herself, and then surprises the reader by surpassing them. "Saint Maybe" is a sad, endearing and wonderful book with surprising wisdom and intensity. Ian's pure and simple humanity is sure to impress and call out to any reader. This book is obviously the best character exploration that Anne Tyler has ever written! Well done!
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Summary: I loved how Anne Tyler wrote this book over years.
Review: I am a person who likes books over a long period of time, ot see how the person/family grows together. This book was really good and worth it's entirtey. Since it takes place where I live, I like it even more.
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Summary: Oh, Anne...
Review: Anne Tyler is one of my all time favorite authors. And Saint Maybe is my favorite of all her works that I've read thus far. I have to tell you, Saint Maybe is a book you'll never forget. And it is a book you count down the pages with dread to the end. But, it does end, and it leaves you with that bitter-sweet taste in your mouth you neither welcome nor despise. I loved this book so much, and I loved her hero. He's a hero you might pass on the street without realizing it. He's a man you might smile at in the supermarket. Anne Tyler creates characters in book after book, that, zany though some of them may be ... goshdarnit, you just wish they could invite you in for a cup of coffee!
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Summary: Crime, punishment, and redemption
Review: I've read this book years ago, and its ending made more of a lasting impression on me than any other of Tyler's work. I didn't find Ian "ineffectual," but only "seemingly" ineffectual. In fact, I found him rather enterprising in a quiet, dogged manner. (I think in the story he worked with another carpenter who is extremely handy yet has a speech problem?) Ian showed purpose and determination by choosing not to go to college, then to find out what he must do to redeem himself, and do it. Raising 3 children is a feat in itself (even for normal parents), not to mention without the benefit of maturity and a supportive partner. Apparently, he made out alright, since all three grew up to be functional, productive adults with normal annoying habits.The resolution, unfolding in an understated way, was in keeping with the rest of the story. With the birth of his own son, Ian finally found the expiation he has been working toward for over 20 years. Written with the best Tyler verve, this book is a treasure!
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Summary: This is why we read books...
Review: I read this novel in 1993 when it first came out in paperback. It is one of those rare gems that fill your heart with poetry and your senses with finely written prose. As nostalgic as all other novels by Ann Tyler, it is also optimistic as none of the others. A treasure.
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Summary: A feel good book
Review: There books with exceptional visions and ideas and there are books that you remember by the feeling that they give you. Although the setting is a bit out of the normal; man raises three children of his dead brother and is a member of a strange church, it is believable and recognisable in its description of relationships between people. I read the book a few years ago, but the memory still lingers like a bright sunny day when you are at peace with the world.
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Summary: A Saint for the nineties
Review: When a novel begins by describing a perfectly normal, happy family, you know something terrible is about to happen. In the case of the Bedlows of Baltimore, 1965, it's the invasion of Lucy. When their oldest son Danny introduces her as "the woman who changed my life," the life that is about to be altered most profoundly is not Danny's, but his 17-year-old brother Ian's. A misguided remark, spoken in anger, propells Danny off the deep end with tragic results and leaves Ian with a burden of responsibility that defines him for the next 25 years. He's the perfect hero for a novel of the nineties--"a medium kind of guy, all in all," attractive, laid back and fundamentally nice. Also fundamentally ineffectual. His guilt drives him off the track of modest middle-class success and into a quasi-Christian cult, where destiny is clearly drawn for him: the opportunity to earn salvation by caring for the children of his dead brother.
Anne Tyler sets modest goals, and surpasses them. Her characters are sympathetic and winsome enough to draw a reader into their lives, though unlikely to linger in memory far beyond the final page. The story unfolds in episodic flashes, skipping up to ten years in the turn of a chapter yet meandering in detail, with the endearing clutter of everyday life. It's a perfectly valid way to tell a story, though less than satisfying to those of us who crave a strong resolution. Saint Maybe, like Ms. Tyler's other novels, doesn't conclude so much as muddle to a stop, with the characters smiling ruefully. Along the way, the vississitudes of his life have shaped Ian into the sweet, bemused beatification of the title. Very early in the book, he wonders "if there was any event, any at all, so tragic it could jolt him out of the odious habit of observing his own reaction to it." The answer is No; his self-absorption does not lessen, it only changes form. At the end, he still hasn't figured out much of anything, but the family is all together and Life Goes On.
Toward what? The reader may think about it briefly, in a nineties kind of way, close the book and go forth clueless.
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Summary: A Realistic Fairy Tale
Review: This may not be Anne Tyler's best book but it still portrays life as it really is. It is not your typical American novel that the characters always end up living happily ever after. Of course, Ian Bedloe, the main charcter of the novel had a happy ending, but he has gone through many hard times that we are all in some ways familiar with. The novel doesn't only talk about the pains and hardships that the Bedloe had battled with but how they were bounded by their extraordianary love for each other. Saint Maybe is a pleasure to read. I only finished it in one sitting without experincing a single dull moment while devouring it
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Summary: A novel about being human
Review: This novel touched a chord that no other has for some time; yet it expresses something that is so familiar to each of us: namely, that there are events that find their way into each of our lives that have an irrevocable impact on the way we live -- or even are ABLE to live.
Saint Maybe is filled with emotion and meaning from the first to the last page, and it isn't a chore to find what Tyler is driving at: separate from any mitigating factors such as race, class, or gender, there is a deep complexity to being human that we all share, and that through a variety of twists and turns in our lives we all suffer some damage as a result of events and how they are dealt with. Anne Tyler calls attention to (for lack of a better term) the "human condition" in a way that I found to be both lyrical and meaningful.
This is a great novel!
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