Rating: 
Summary: Impostor complex
Review: Anne Tyler writes that years of dealing with teenagers had turned Delia Grinstead into a pacifist. She has an adventure at the grocery store impersonating the girlfriend of a jilted husband, but no one in her family of two college students, high school age son, Carroll, and doctor husband, Sam, is in a frame of mind to hear about it. Her father, also a doctor, had lived with them, (they, in fact, lived in his house), but was now deceased. Delia's sister Linda had been married to a French literature professor. The family is to go on their annual trip to the Delaware shore. Delia's sister Eliza is unmarried. Delia has started to visit Adrian, the man she met in the supermarket. He is a producer of a newsletter. Tyler describes Delia's mother-in-law as a guest who feels it her duty to point out the damning flaws in the household. Her presence makes Delia feel inadequate. Before going to the shore they always have Sam's mother over for dinner to make up for not taking her with them. Since the death of Delia's father Sam has been redoing the house and yard. An old lady arrives at dinnertime to tell Delia to leave Adrian alone. The garbled statements of the woman save Delia. She decides that Adrian is shallow, anyway. They have to take the cat to the beach with them because workmen are sanding the floors at their house in Baltimore. Delia considers to herself that Sam gets her all riled up, (they had exchanged words, questions about Adrian and the old woman's message), and then, in lofty fashion, removes himself. After that sort of quarrel with Sam, Delia walks down the beach by herself, and returning to the cottage she persuades a repairman to give her a ride in the RV he has borrowed from his brother. He lets her out at an inland town per her request. She has only Sam's beach robe, her bathing suit and beach shoes on. She goes to a dime store and purchases underwear and to a dress shop where she buys a dress. She sees a place advertising rooms for rent and stops there and arranges for weekly accomodations. She finds a job working for the local lawyer. Three or so days later she reads in the newspaper that she has disappeared. No one seems to know the color of her hair or her eyes when her family evidently makes a report to the police. At the end of the week her sister Eliza shows up in the park where she is eating her lunch. The repairman had contacted the family following the story in the newspaper. Eliza says that Sam is roaming the house like a zombie. Delia's children do not know what to think. Delia expects Sam to show up in Bay Borough, but he writes a letter saying he will not invade her privacy. She has always felt redundant, that her sisters or her husband can handle any of her tasks, that she, Delia, is merely playing house. A private detective brings Delia a stray cat. Her landlady tells her to keep the cat. After becoming annoyed with her lawyer-employer, as in the case of her husband the charge is bossiness, Delia goes to an interview for a job as a live-in sitter and companion. She spends Christmas on her own while the boy goes to see his mother and her employer visits friends. She thinks of her family in Baltimore eating goose. They visit the boy Noah's grandfather at a place called Senior City. The grandfather, Nat, explains that the people there are organized in a vertical pattern with the most disabled on the top floor. Delia starts to bring the kinds of pickly foods to Nat that her father liked. In Bay Borough Delia runs into her son Carroll who claims that Eliza is making a play for Sam. Nat is to be evicted because his new wife is expecting a baby. The next summer Delia goes to Ocean City for a week's vacation. Delia returns to Baltimore for her daughter's wedding. The daughter gets the jitters and doesn't get married, at least initially. Delia decides the past year and a half has been a time trip. The book is wonderfully sensitive and wonderfully funny.
Rating:
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!
Rating: 
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.
Rating:
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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