Rating: 
Summary: Every woman's fantasy
Review: This is the latest of Anne Tyler's wonderful stories. Her characters all seem to have a bit of a "misfit" quality
about them and Delia is no exception. Married right out
of high school to a young doctor who came to work for her
father, the young couple lived and worked in her father's medical practice right in the house she was born in. When her father died, they stayed on and nothing ever changed for
Delia. In fact, even though she married and had children, she
never really grew up and had a life of her own. She begins to
see herself as irrelevant and while on a family vacation to
the seashore, she simply walks away and begins a new life.
During this time, she discovers the real Delia and finds that
she is really an important person after all. I think many woman
fantasize about doing exactly that
Rating:
Summary: Typical style of Tyler, slow, methodical, slice-of-life
Review: Anne tends to take a long time to make any points in her novels
and this is no exception. I did like the ending but thought
that Sam should have been developed more as a character through our eyes instead of Delia's. Some of the characters
seem to be unnecessary (i.e. Vanessa).
Still, I enjoyed reading it. Will, probably , continue reading any new books she comes out with.
Rating: 
Summary: Kind of slow read....
Review: After reading the first page of LADDER OF YEARS, I knew that this would be a hilarious story. By the time I finished the first chapter I was disappointed. This book was not funny. "Breathing Lessons," it's not. Gone are Tyler's quirky characters (the characters in this book were all one dimensional, even Delia's children and husband). I also had a little bit of trouble with the subject matter. I'm sure all mothers (especially of teenagers) fantasize about leaving home but most do not. What do we think about fathers who leave home? They are horrible people. How could a mother leave her children for a year and a half? I realize that Delia was probably going through a mid life crisis and a form of depression but I kept wanting to say, "Call your children and see if they are okay!"
Anne Tyler is still brilliant when writing about the mundane things of every day life.
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: what an adventure
Review: This was my first Anne Tyler book, and I found her characters to be thoroughly real and vivid. I enjoyed Delia's adventure. Nothing much happened, but I was always anticipating and in suspense. I personally have moved to new towns not knowing anyone and it "is what it is" sometimes, nothing spectacular but always fresh and new, and in hindsight, exciting!
I think when Delia left, she thought her family would find her and "take" her home. But they never did. Since they didn't she had to show them she could live without them as well.
She was always willing to come back home "Susie, I would've loved to help you plan your wedding" "Sam, all you had to was ask,".
Like another reviewer said, I felt the story was just a large circle, that ended up in the same place as it began. But it was such an interesting journey.
I thought the ending was totally suspenseful and realistic, and evenly satisfying.
Rating: 
Summary: Ladder leaves the reader wanting more
Review: Having read Ann Tyler's "Ladder of Years" twice within the past year, I can honestly say I am no more appreciative of the book than I was in '02.Most reviews seem to consider the book a tragedy, while others call it inspirational - a few reviewers even commented that THEY would like to pull a "Delia" and escape their present lives. I consider this work a dissapointment. While Tyler's writing is beautiful and she has masterful use of elements such as character, theme and symbol (I enjoyed the cat references) - the plot of the book (or lack thereof) left me frustrated and empty. Tyler sets up several possible areas for Delia to grow - from her brief and PG-rated fling with Adrian to her migration to Bay Borough - and none of them flesh out. Delia leaves her family - Sam, her distant and often unaffectionate husband and her three teenage-angst ridden children - only to fall back into the same behaviors again. She goes to work for Mr. Pomfret who treats her like Sam but with a paycheck, and then she goes on to Joel and becomes a pseudo-wife to him and mother to Noah. And, much like she did to her real family, Delia runs away from them too when the pressures get to be too great. Delia's act was one of desperation - a cry to break the boring and unappreciated rigors of her daily life. But Delia never makes good on her adventure...she ends up back home again without having accomplished anything. I wish Tyler would have delivered on ONE single, solitary situation that she so graciously tempts the reader with. I felt for Delia, I really did, but my sympathy extends only as far as Delia is willing to go...and that isn't a great distance.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent - A must read
Review: This has to be one of Anne Tyler's greatest works along with The Accidental Tourist. I have lent it out to several of my friends and they enjoyed it as much as I did.
The story will touch the soul of any wife/mother who has devoted her life to raising her children and supporting her husband only to find that she is left feeling unappreciated and unfulfilled.
I couldn't put this story down and was sad when I finished it as I couldn't imagine no longer being a part of the character's experiences. As always Anne Tyler pulls you right into the lives of the characters so you feel you are experiencing the story opposed to just reading the story. Her characters are so real and easy to identify with.
You will laugh, you will cry but most importantly you will not be able to put this book down.
I highly recommend this book to women who have grown or nearly grown children.
Rating:
Summary: Kept me hooked until the last 4 pages...
Review: I won't bother recounting the unfolding of the story, as others have done that for you. I will say that I was absolutely hooked until the last 4 pages. Then it seemed as if Anne Tyler said, "Well, I had better wrap this up", and wrap it up she did...in an rather surprising and unsatisfying way, if you ask me. I felt like I was dropped on my head, suddenly. I didn't get it at all. I thought that I "knew" and understood Delia right until the end. Nonetheless, I found it a highly engaging read, and I give it 5 stars. I find that I'm revisiting the characters and wondering about them, even now.
Rating:
Summary: Delia's Gone
Review: Delia Grimstead met a man at the store. She had a little flirtation. His wife came by her house and accused her of having an affair in front of her family. Not true, of course, but her husband, sisters and children hardly seemed to notice, hardly seemed to care. Then one day, while she and her family are staying at the beach in Maryland, she walks away with nothing but her husbands robe over her bathing suit and the five hundreds dollars of vacation money.
She catches a ride to the nearby town of Bayborough, where she gets a room in a boarding house and a job working as a secretary for an attorney. This is all new to Delia, as she was raised a doctor's daughter who married her father's partner. She had never known another home other than the one she'd grown up in. Now for the first time in her life, she has only herself to rely on. After awhile she begins to make friends and, slowly but surely, she impacts the lives of those she's around. She has become self-reliant, then she takes a job with a divorced man, living in his house, helping to raise his child and it seems that now she's doing just what she'd done when she'd walked away from her old life. In fact those in her new life fear she may walk out of theirs. And after a year away, she learns her daughter is getting married and she has to go back and face those she'd left so abruptly.
This is a story about someone who had to run away to learn to appreciate what she'd left behind and it's peopled with Anne Tyler's usual cast of real life characters, who will stay with you long after you finish the book. In fact, it's been a few weeks and I'm still thinking about them. It's just amazing how Ms. Tyler makes you a part of her character's lives, how she get you to thinking about them at the oddest times.
Rating:
Summary: Lacking in bedside manner?
Review: I heard the audiocassette. I'm not into romances, so I was pleasantly surprised here: it's not what I would think of as romantic, but it was interesting.
What I found most interesting was how easy Delia found it to leave her family. There seemed to be a significant age gap, maybe fifteen years, between her and her doctor husband, so although it was never made explicit by the author, I think she was just tired of this "old man." She did mention his looking and acting more aged. And he himself says he never had the "bedside manner" his father-in-law had.
Oh, that's another thing: Delia's father was a doctor, too. Are doctors known for being good lovers? Or being paternalistic? I think she feels Dr. Grinstead, her husband, is patronizing her. This is never resolved by the end of the story: she feels sorry for him, and a kind of sentimental or nostalgic remembrance of how he once was, but I don't think she loves him passionately or (can we say it?) sexually.
And I don't know if she'll ever find what she wants. She treats all her men, and her "boys" about the same. She presents as a kind and nurturing, but "dingy" woman, just following her nose, always trying to be helpful but never really knowing what she wants or doesn't want.
So, the story is interesting, and thankfully not romantic. It gives you a lot to think about in your own life, since everybody should be able to relate in one way or another to the characters: the jilted older husband, the jilted younger husband, the jilted teenage groom, the jilting teenage bride, the older couple, Nat and Binkey, with a young baby, the vengeful and resentful ex-wife (the former Mrs. Joel, who resents her father, Nat, starting all over again "at his age"), her needy and unmothered son, the innocent bystanders, the go-betweens, the walk-ons like Courtenay's caller, and, last but not least, the protagonist herself. Diximus.
|
