Ladder of Years

Rating:
Summary: BUT AFTER ALL THAT, she went back!!????
Review: Anne Tyler is one of my new "best authors". I loved her writing style immensely. I cried when the main character cried, etc. but the book left me a little distressed, because she just walked right back in and it seemed as each person treated her exactly the same. I wanted to reach right in and pluck her from that house and put her back in her "new" life. Anne portrayed her as a strong woman and able to take care of herself but then after all that, she went back..... GO FIGURE!!

Rating:
Summary: No mid-life crisis here.
Review: A recent high-school graduate recommended this book to me, saying she enjoyed it, but "someone my age would probably relate to it better." (I'm 27. How middle-aged I've suddenly become.) After reading the first descriptions of Delia's humdrum and unappreciated housewife-ly existence, I certainly hoped that I didn't relate to this book too well. But as Tyler wove Delia's nascent personality into the lives of other characters, the story revealed the chiseled-in flaws that people as human as Delia can never quite sand out. Yep, the ending was unsettling. It leaves plenty of unanswered questions--but since when does life have definite endings? Ladder of Years is a fun-to-read, tough-to-think-about story. That is, at least, in my middle-age opinion.

Rating:
Summary: emotionally unsatisfying and carelessly conceived
Review: Anne Tyler's Ladder of Years is a totally disappointing reading experience. The concept of a unfulfilled wife and mother deserting her grown family has promise- but Tyler's carelessly written novel finally leaves her readers unfulfilled. The book hurtles toward a totally unsatisfactory ending with the heroine Delia Grinstead reassuming her "rightful" position in the midst of her family with seamless integration. There is virtually no discussion of her departure nor any attempt to deal with the issues which caused her to behave so uncoventionally. If the characters in books were to have afterlives, one can imagine that Delia's life would remain unchanged, while the people whom she encountered and befriended during her hiatus would feel used and abandoned. One wonders if Tyler's publishers made her edit out all of the passages that gave the plot lines conclusions and the issues resolution

Rating:
Summary: very good easy read
Review: this is an enjoyable easy read. There are a lot of interesting characters but you don't read it and think "now who is this person", I hate that in books! anne tyler's books are like a good chicken dinner on Sunday, no real surprises but very satisfying

Rating:
Summary: Ladder of Years Lifts Literary Readers to New Heights
Review: As an Anne Tyler fan for years, I was once again pleased with this latest book. Tyler creates characters that are so much like us, yet seem to be from another world. When Delia walks off the beach to start a new life, we can't understand why this happening or why she allows it to continue for so long. I wrote a long paper on the connection of feminism and psychology in this book for a graduate Critical Theory class. There are so many angles in this book that Tyler is able to create such a fine piece of work that you won't be able to determine how it ends until the last sentence is read. Enjoy

Rating:
Summary: I Am Confused
Review: What is Delia going to do about Noah and Joel? The book just ended! What a horrible ending to an otherwise great book. I would have given it a ten, except for the ending? Any insights on what was supposed to happen to all those people Delia was involved with in her new life?

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books ever!
Review: I have to add Ladder of Years to my top ten favorite book list. What a joy this book is. I savored every word. Loved it

Rating:
Summary: For anyone who ever considered "running away" from it all.
Review: This book is for anybody who has ever thought about giving it all up and starting over again. Delia lives a typical housewife's existence for a very long time, probably without ever really thinking about changing it. But one day, in the midst of her family's annual summer vacation, she takes a walk and doesn't come back. This action is so powerful, and done so innocently, that it has to strike a chord in every one of us who has ever questioned the meaning of our existence, or why our lives have turned out the way they have. I finished reading this book almost two years ago, and it is still always on my list of top books to recommend to people who enjoy a good read. I only wish that I hadn't read it yet so that I would still have it to look forward to.

Rating:
Summary: Ladder of Years is an Interior Adventure.
Review: In Ann Tyler's novel, Ladder of Years, her main character, Delia Grinstead, starts working very hard to try and discover herself. Delia's coming to this at the age of forty, a mother of three, well entrenched in her late father's house, and wife to the man who took over her father's medical practice. She feels ignored and not needed by her family, and one day simply takes a walk on the beach and keeps going. In a new town, Delia forms a new identity, her goal intent on making that identity hers. This book can speak to all of those who have ever chosen to take that risk to go inside themselves... really inside themselves. Delia chooses to be alone, chooses tears, desperate to find herself. The wonder of the writing is its warmth, which allows us to sympathize with a woman who has not only just left her respectable (if distant) husband, but her three teenage children as well. "Miss" Grinstead rationalizes a lot, but at least she knows it. I would recommend this book with all of my heart.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling
Review: I read one to two books a year. A book has to grab me in the first five pages to hook me. I started Ladder of Years on the train home from the book store and couldn't put it down until I read it all. Now I want to read ALL of Ms. Tyler's work!