The Accidental Tourist
Mar. 20th, 2023 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI really enjoyed the previous Anne Tyler book I read, so I grabbed this when I saw it in a Paris bookshop - and it's pretty weird!
It's about a man whose marriage falls apart after the violent death of his son, and how he copes with life alone, meeting someone new, negotiating continued contact with his ex-wife, and gaining new perspectives on different aspects of his life.
Somehow, it feels like it wants to be a comedic novel - some of the characters border on caricature, there are funny moments with a dog, bits of it border on farce... But the tragic backstory hangs over the whole thing and the way the central relationships develop is often painfully realistic and sharply well-observed.
So, tonally, it's a bit scattershot, but I connected quite deeply with the main character (even though some of his attitudes - and those of other characters - are a bit iffy in places) and got very invested in what happened to him. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the end - but the way the story played out meant there was never going to be a neat conclusion that would satisfy everyone, and I think perhaps that's exactly as it should be.
Very interesting, overall - well-written and absorbing, if a little odd.
It's about a man whose marriage falls apart after the violent death of his son, and how he copes with life alone, meeting someone new, negotiating continued contact with his ex-wife, and gaining new perspectives on different aspects of his life.
Somehow, it feels like it wants to be a comedic novel - some of the characters border on caricature, there are funny moments with a dog, bits of it border on farce... But the tragic backstory hangs over the whole thing and the way the central relationships develop is often painfully realistic and sharply well-observed.
So, tonally, it's a bit scattershot, but I connected quite deeply with the main character (even though some of his attitudes - and those of other characters - are a bit iffy in places) and got very invested in what happened to him. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the end - but the way the story played out meant there was never going to be a neat conclusion that would satisfy everyone, and I think perhaps that's exactly as it should be.
Very interesting, overall - well-written and absorbing, if a little odd.
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Date: 2023-03-20 10:02 pm (UTC)