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Summary: Delia's Midlife Crisis
Review: Delia feels profoundly the diametrically opposed emotions many of us have as we reach the midpoint of our lives. Middle age is a time of retrospection-we wonder if the choices we made were good ones. We question our choice of spouse, our choice of career, our future without children in the house, our achievements (or lack thereof), even our very purpose in life. Delia acts on her doubts-pushed along by a grossly inattentive husband and acrimonious children. Without her unpleasant home life, Delia might have stayed forever, never knowing the answers to her questions. Tyler provides all of us going through the pangs of middle age an alter ego through whom we experience what we might never actually do ourselves. She demonstrates her great talent by creating a sympathetic character in Delia. We feel for Delia, even though, in leaving her family, she commits an act generally condemned by society. As other readers have expressed, at one time or another everyone with a spouse and children has felt like walking away. However, Delia doesn't "abandon" her family, she is emotionally shoved out the door.
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Summary: A story about real life
Review: Ann Tyler Ladder of Years was an interesting novel to read. It was my first time reading some of her work and I was intrigued with her process of pulling the reader in. Many readers view Ladder of Years as a fairy tale, but I somewhat disagree. Delia represent many women who have devoted a majority of their lives to their families. Delia woke up one day and realized her family didn't need her anymore. she was forty years old without any self identity. She started wondering who she was and what to do with the rest of her life. In order to gather her thoughts and emotions, she left her family. While she was away from her family, she ran into many experiences that reflected who she was as an individual. She returned to her family a changed woman able to deal with life, relationships, and emtional ties to family members.
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Summary: Understanding life¿s nuances can require a journey
Review: Anne Tyler loves to take typical social situations, in particular marriage, and peel back the superficial layers and observe her characters as they face the imperfections and unsettling aspects of their lives. "Ladder of Years" is no exception. Delia Grinstead had never left home, marrying a doctor who her father had brought into a home-based practice at age seventeen. Now at age forty her life suffered from terminal blandness. Her teen-aged children ignored her, even treating her with disdain, and her husband, an unaffectionate sort, took her for granted. A chance encounter with a younger man in a supermarket sparked a self-assessment that led to Delia simply walking away from her family on an annual outing to the beach with nothing more than a bathing suit, a robe, and a few hundred dollars. Hitching a ride to a remote town in her home state, Delia begins to slowly eke out a new existence. The quiet resolve and good nature of Delia is a constant. Her whereabouts are discovered soon after her disappearance, which forces her to reflect on her former existence as she is contacted in one manner or another by several of her family members. Interestingly, Delia becomes more than a little attached to a new family as a housekeeper/nanny to an educator and his twelve-year-old son. A return home for her daughter's wedding unexpectedly presents Delia with decisions concerning her new and previous lives. Readers looking for a dramatic transformation in either Delia or her social situation could be disappointed. However, it is evident that Delia has learned from her journey and decides to move on accordingly.
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Summary: Worth your time
Review: I enjoyed reading "Ladder of Years". I especially enjoyed reading the book because I could relate to the main character Delia. Although at times I felt the book dragged on, but at the same time the novel still kept my intrest. I kept reading so I can see what was going to follow. This book is about Delia Grinstead's journey. Delia is a forty-year-old mother of three, and wife of a doctor, who disapears on a family beach vacation. Delia felt she was invisible to her family and that her family no longer appreciated her. I admired Delia's determination and her ability to start a new life alone. Another reason I enjoyed this book is because I likded how Anne Tyler wrote with such detail and she wrote in ways that captured how the human mind thinks. I was hopping for a different outcome and more of a closure. For instance, I wanted to know more about Joel and Noah, two people who seemed to grow to love Delia and depend on her in her new life. Overall,I enjoyed reading "Ladder of Years" and do recommend this book to other readers.
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Summary: Not One of Tyler's Best
Review: I first read "Ladder of Years" when it was originally published seven years ago and did not care for it at all. I was and am used to Tyler writing about quirky characters in improbable situations but I thought that this was a bit too much. Re-reading the book just a few weeks ago, I have to say that my opinion has not changed much and I see that many reviewers here agree with me. I could understand Delia's desire to get away from the family that took advantage of her, but her method/implementation was just too off-the-wall for me, even for a Tyler character. I just cannot imagine a mother deserting her children like Delia did. Husband - yes, kids - no. I could not help comparing her to Nan in "Pull of the Moon" by Elizabeth Berg. Nan also left home with no warning, but her actions certainly were more judicious, reasonable, and understandable. I also found the "affair" with the young man whom Delia met in the grocery store to be really out of place. It seemed as though it was pasted on after the book was written. I did feel sympathy for Delia at the beginning. She went from being a daughter to being a wife at age 17 and never left her father's home--her husband just moved in. It seemed as though everyone walked all over her and she had no idea of how to stop this trend, so her solution was to just quit. She was defeated and had no idea of how to change her life. The ending was disappointing. I had hoped for some kind of epiphany or revelation....maybe even some passion. But the story just sort of dribbled off into the distance with no discernably definitive resolution. It really pains me to give only 3 stars to an Anne Tyler book because I think all her others have been 5 stars for me. She is one of my favorite authors.
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Summary: can't stop thinking about it.......
Review: There was something about this book that draws you in. It is difficult to think of a woman walking out on her family, but I just loved Delia. You want to think she is crazy, hurtful, or mean for walking out, but you simply cannot because she is so innocent and good hearted. This is a great read, and the last couple sentences are ones to savor. Great Book!
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Summary: Be careful where your walk takes you
Review: This book had a great plot idea. The mother is overwhelmed by it all. She just leaves while the rest of the family is on vacation....starts to walk and never looks back. There are some great characters in the book. The main character, Delia, is hollow feeling to me though. I feel for her and there are times when I really relate, and other times where I could almost put the book down--but am too curious about the ending to do that. A very interesting read, but I felt let down by the ending. If you enjoy Anne Tyler though and her odd characters as I do, then it's worth the read though.
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Summary: Too Real to Be True
Review: Delia defies all that her family thinks they understand about her. Her husband and kids are at an age where they take her for granted. Her sisters seem to regard her entire life as the "baby" of the family to have been picture perfect. They almost regard her as part of the scenery, but not a real woman. One can only take this sort of treatment for so long without doing something drastic. And she does. She walks away from all of them and surprises herself by creating a new life. She tries to live simply, not just because of small salary, but out of a desire to keep her new life uncomplicated. She finds, however, that even a simple life has it's requirements and compromises. In the beginning, she tries to keep her belongings down to one small box, but has to make a daily shopping trip to find things she needs. She tries to be professional or remote in her relationships only to be drawn in to friendships and an extended family of sorts anyway. Some of the reviews here seem to find the the ending disappointing. I thought it was unexpected, but only if you're used to needless melodrama. No superhero blasting the scenery to bits and scooping the heroine off for another adventure will be found here. Only love and the people and motives that shape our emotions and actions is revealed. I found this book and Delia to be sincerly human.
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Summary: daydreaming reader
Review: Anne Tyler's book Ladder of Years kept me interested till the last page. Her character Delia is one that most readers could sympathize with, she is a normal person with everyday problems. Delia however, takes a very unordinary path to resolving them. While I couldn't relate to Delia's exact postion in life I could relate to the need to start over. I have often been tempted to start from scratch and reinvent myself in a new city. Tyler's book allowed me to experience this with Delia from the comfort of my own home.
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Summary: Good from beginning to end
Review: Anne Tyler writes a very compelling story about a women (Delia Grinstead)who one day up and leaves her husband and three children. She feels she needs to find her own destiny and see if she is able to make her own choices and own decisions in life. She also wants to see if her family that never seemed to care will really care if shes gone. A part of me felt for Delia, because her family treated her like crap and she needed to just get away (it took guts), but at the same time a part of me was saying how could you leave your children like that. I loved this story from beginning to end and I couldn't put it down myself. However, I need an ending and this just leaves you hanging...okay whats going to happen next? We don't know and I need to find out, I wanted to throw the book across the room when it left me there with nothing.
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