Why I chose to read this book: I was intrigued by Breathing Lessons and thought I might like this too.
How I first learned about this book: Browsing on PaperBackSwap.
Where I got it: PaperBackSwap.
What format I read it in: Audiobook. 8 CDs.
What my husband made for dinner: Sofrito Paella
What I think:
This is a very Anne Tyler book. It's about a woman's mid-life crisis, about ordinary people and their ordinary unhappiness and regrets. It's about the epiphany of learning to accept the way things are. Nothing really happens, but it's still interesting to watch.
I liked Rebecca, the main character, and the way she dealt with her big, blended family. And I felt comfortable immersed in the world of the Baltimore row house and professional party-giving that Tyler created. I hated the nicknames every character had, hated them so much it almost ruined the book for me. Consider: NoNo, Min Foo, Patch, Jeep, Zeb, Biddy and Poppy. Rebecca herself is called "Beck" until she stages an extremely mild rebellion, with limited success.
One of the themes in the book is how you transform from your younger self into your older self, and the nostalgia and also the weirdness of bridging the years. Rebecca reconnects with an old boyfriend who satisfyingly remembers the girl she was, but annoyingly makes assumptions about the woman she now is.
Another theme is loss and grief. Dispite his silly nickname, 100-year-old Poppy is profoundly wise when he says, ''People imagine that missing a loved one works kind of like missing cigarettes. The first day is really hard but the next day is less hard and so forth, easier and easier the longer you go on. But instead it's like missing water. Every day, you notice the person's absence more.''
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