What do you think?
Rate this book
A Slipping-Down Life
Evie Decker is a shy, slightly plump teenager, lonely and silent. But her quiet life is shattered when she hears the voice of Drumstrings Casey on the radio and becomes instantly attracted to him. She manages to meet him, bursting out of her lonely shell--and into the attentive gaze of the intangible man who becomes all too real....
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
297 people are currently reading
1684 people want to read
About the author
Anne Tyler
91 books9,031 followersAnne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated at nineteen from Duke University and went on to do graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University. She has published 20 novels, her debut novel being
If Morning Ever Comes
in (1964). Her eleventh novel,
Breathing Lessons
, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 274 reviews
February 19, 2021
This is the twelfth Anne Tyler novel I've read, and it's not among my favourites. Although it's unlike any of her other novels, there's something slight and tentative about it. I'd chalk it up to Tyler's age – she was in her 20s when she wrote it – if I hadn't really liked her first novel, If Morning Ever Comes, written when she was a mere 22 (!).
Evie Decker is a shy, homely teenager living in a small North Carolina town with her widower father, a middle-aged schoolteacher. She doesn't have any particular interest in music, but when she hears a rock singer named Drumstrings Casey being interviewed on a local radio station, she's intrigued and decides to check him out at an upcoming concert out in the country. Soon she's obsessed with the moody, self-absorbed musician, who during his concerts takes to shouting out nonsensical phrases. In order to get herself noticed, she carves his last name ("Drumstrings" is too long) into her forehead during a show. Her antics bring Casey some publicity, and draw the two together in a strange, symbiotic way.
Tyler once said in an interview that "fiction is mostly lies... you set out to tell an untrue story and you try to make it believable, even to yourself, which calls for details; any good lie does." That's fine, but the characters need to be complex and rounded enough for those lies to make sense. And I had a hard time connecting to the passive, strangely obsessive Evie and the stubborn, vain Drumstrings (actual name: Bertram).
Some critics and readers have called this a coming-of-age novel, and I suppose it is. Evie is at a different place in her life at the end; she's learned a lot from this weird detour. And perhaps one of Tyler's points is that adolescence – Drumstrings is only 19 himself – is a confusing time, and people do things then they can't quite explain.
One thing's clear, however. Tyler is a wonderful writer who's incapable of writing a bad sentence. With a few choice words and actions, a secondary character can snap into place. I just wish her leads had a bit more to say and do.
Evie Decker is a shy, homely teenager living in a small North Carolina town with her widower father, a middle-aged schoolteacher. She doesn't have any particular interest in music, but when she hears a rock singer named Drumstrings Casey being interviewed on a local radio station, she's intrigued and decides to check him out at an upcoming concert out in the country. Soon she's obsessed with the moody, self-absorbed musician, who during his concerts takes to shouting out nonsensical phrases. In order to get herself noticed, she carves his last name ("Drumstrings" is too long) into her forehead during a show. Her antics bring Casey some publicity, and draw the two together in a strange, symbiotic way.
Tyler once said in an interview that "fiction is mostly lies... you set out to tell an untrue story and you try to make it believable, even to yourself, which calls for details; any good lie does." That's fine, but the characters need to be complex and rounded enough for those lies to make sense. And I had a hard time connecting to the passive, strangely obsessive Evie and the stubborn, vain Drumstrings (actual name: Bertram).
Some critics and readers have called this a coming-of-age novel, and I suppose it is. Evie is at a different place in her life at the end; she's learned a lot from this weird detour. And perhaps one of Tyler's points is that adolescence – Drumstrings is only 19 himself – is a confusing time, and people do things then they can't quite explain.
One thing's clear, however. Tyler is a wonderful writer who's incapable of writing a bad sentence. With a few choice words and actions, a secondary character can snap into place. I just wish her leads had a bit more to say and do.
January 28, 2016
This little book has a punch; the feel of a Carson McCullers story with the descriptive flair of Markus Zusak.
Zusak from the Book Thief; "The day was gray, the color of Europe. Curtains of rain were drawn around the car".
Tyler from A Slipping-Down Life; "While she was waiting on the front porch, clutching her books to her chest, disapproval hung like a fog up and down her street".
Of course this book was published six years before Zusak was born. Just a good book, plot, characters, style, all combined to create a little gem.
Zusak from the Book Thief; "The day was gray, the color of Europe. Curtains of rain were drawn around the car".
Tyler from A Slipping-Down Life; "While she was waiting on the front porch, clutching her books to her chest, disapproval hung like a fog up and down her street".
Of course this book was published six years before Zusak was born. Just a good book, plot, characters, style, all combined to create a little gem.
November 22, 2021
Definitely my least favorite Tyler novel I’ve read. So bizarre! The plot is wild, like Anne really just went for it with this one. But not in a good way; it really didn’t feel like she developed the characters enough to justify the plot. I think she totally could have made an interesting, more believable story out of this one of the characters were more developed. I have heard Tyler basically wishes she could wipe away her first 4 novels (this was her 3rd), as she says she didn’t really know what she was doing. And granted, I trust her as an author because she has written literally dozens of other books that I enjoy. But this one wasn’t it.
Also, there were a lot of comments about fatness and fat bodies that were not ever addressed, and also some comments directed at characters of color that were not challenged in a way that felt hard to decipher Tyler's meaning. Definitely feels aged and not really enjoyable to read about in 2021.
Also, there were a lot of comments about fatness and fat bodies that were not ever addressed, and also some comments directed at characters of color that were not challenged in a way that felt hard to decipher Tyler's meaning. Definitely feels aged and not really enjoyable to read about in 2021.
May 26, 2021
Apparently Anne Tyler "disowned" her first three novels, and so I expected them to be really different from her other books. Having read her second and third (this one) novel now, I don't really think they're all that different. The writing is a little more immature but they have most of the same advantages and disadvantages. They might not be set in Baltimore but they still handle the same themes of family, relationships and awkward people. And the books don't feel any more old-fashioned than they ones she wrote in the 21th century.
"A slipping-down life" is about a school girl who falls in love with an unsuccessful rock singer. Against all odds, they end up together, but as the title suggests, it's not exactly a fairy tale. Both of the main characters are strange, but guy is a whiny entitled asshole. Tyler has this thing for writing immature creative young men who seem horrible to me but who are desirable to other characters in her books. It can be infuriating, especially because a lot of the relationships are so old-fashioned. The women are nagging and self-sacrificing, while the men are thankless and oblivious. And yet, if it works, you somehow care about them. Or at least, you don't want to look away.
The Tin Can Tree (1965) - 4/5
A Slipping-Down Life (1970) -3/5
Celestial Navigation (1974) - 4/5
Morgan's Passing (1980) - 4/5
The Accidental Tourist (1985) - 3/5
Breathing Lessons (1988) - 4/5
Saint Maybe (1991) - 4/5
Ladder of Years (1995) - 4/5
A Patchwork Planet (1998) - 4/5
Back When We Were Grownups (2001) - 3/5
The Amateur Marriage (2004) - 3/5
Digging to America (2006) - 4/5
The Beginner’s Goodbye (2012) - 3/5
A Spool of Blue Thread (2015) - 5/5
Vinegar Girl (2016) - 2/5
Clock Dance (2018) - 3/5
Redhead by the Side of the Road (2020) - 3/5
"A slipping-down life" is about a school girl who falls in love with an unsuccessful rock singer. Against all odds, they end up together, but as the title suggests, it's not exactly a fairy tale. Both of the main characters are strange, but guy is a whiny entitled asshole. Tyler has this thing for writing immature creative young men who seem horrible to me but who are desirable to other characters in her books. It can be infuriating, especially because a lot of the relationships are so old-fashioned. The women are nagging and self-sacrificing, while the men are thankless and oblivious. And yet, if it works, you somehow care about them. Or at least, you don't want to look away.
The Tin Can Tree (1965) - 4/5
A Slipping-Down Life (1970) -3/5
Celestial Navigation (1974) - 4/5
Morgan's Passing (1980) - 4/5
The Accidental Tourist (1985) - 3/5
Breathing Lessons (1988) - 4/5
Saint Maybe (1991) - 4/5
Ladder of Years (1995) - 4/5
A Patchwork Planet (1998) - 4/5
Back When We Were Grownups (2001) - 3/5
The Amateur Marriage (2004) - 3/5
Digging to America (2006) - 4/5
The Beginner’s Goodbye (2012) - 3/5
A Spool of Blue Thread (2015) - 5/5
Vinegar Girl (2016) - 2/5
Clock Dance (2018) - 3/5
Redhead by the Side of the Road (2020) - 3/5
December 16, 2024
My first Anne Tyler, and possibly an idiosyncratic one. This is the tale of Evie Drake, an outwardly placid girl who commits a bizarre act: after developing what initially seems to be a mild interest in local musician Drum Casey, she carves his name into her forehead. I was reeled in by the drama of this and the mystery that surrounds it – even Evie herself doesn’t seem quite sure why she’s done it. The early scenes, with Evie and her friend Violet sneaking into a nightclub to watch Drum performing, are so captivating. The rest of the novel is quiet; a story of unfulfilled lives that doesn’t live up to its first few chapters. The title is taken from Drum’s description of himself: ‘I ain’t but nineteen years old and already living a slipping-down life.’ Even in this early novel, Tyler has a great line in character sketches, for example Drum’s bandmate, to whom a nickname refuses to stick because ‘he was the kind who slid out from under [them]. He was not light-minded enough.’ Not really a book for me, yet so different from my usual reading that there seemed something special about it anyway.
November 11, 2012
I read this book having failed to complete a viewing of the movie; reading the book has put me more firmly in the "what on earth were they thinking" camp. It is, I think, the worst film adaptation I have ever encountered. It succeeds on no level. I suppose I suggest you watch it, try to guess what the book might have been, and then read the book, simply because the (bad) movie is tremendously strange and then more strange when you realize where it started.
As for the book, it offers a window into the predicament that faced small-town American teenagers in the late '60s. You suddenly had youth culture and Civil Rights and rock 'n' roll, but Out There, in other cities and maybe other states. Whatever you did, you were a failure, unable and perhaps unwilling to participate in the far-away and frightening zeitgeist, and similarly unable to simply put your head down and become an adult in the traditional way without the sense that you were missing something. We've heard a lot about the hippies; here is a book that fills in what it felt like to be one of the squares.
As for the book, it offers a window into the predicament that faced small-town American teenagers in the late '60s. You suddenly had youth culture and Civil Rights and rock 'n' roll, but Out There, in other cities and maybe other states. Whatever you did, you were a failure, unable and perhaps unwilling to participate in the far-away and frightening zeitgeist, and similarly unable to simply put your head down and become an adult in the traditional way without the sense that you were missing something. We've heard a lot about the hippies; here is a book that fills in what it felt like to be one of the squares.
December 2, 2020
"I'll never get anywhere. I ain't but nineteen years old and already leading a slipping down life."
Ok, not to spoiler your reading experience to come but this line was my favorite moment in this book and made me think of my favorite novel about the anticlimactic reality of adulthood, Rabbit, Run.
This little slip of a novel is a real change of pace if you are more accustomed to Tyler's later, more famous efforts chronicling the disaffected lives of the middle-aged. This is Tyler's third book, written when she was still in her 20's and is unlike anything else I've read by her.
The protagonist is 17 year old Evie Dekker, a high school student in late 1960's North Carolina who is so used to be being invisible to her widowed father and the kids at school that she glides through life like a chalk mark. That is until she hears a sullen musician named Drumstrings Casey being interviewed on the local radio and develops an unusual interest in him-unusual as you'll see because Evie doesn't seem to care about much of anything. She drags her one friend to see him perform a few times until an incident at a local club one night binds her and Casey together in unexpected ways. I'm not going to get into specifics because other reviews and synopsis give it away and I think it's really better if you don't know what's coming.
This isn't a difficult read but takes a little effort to get engaged because Evie's character (by design) is so passive that even when she finds herself the center of small town gossip and fascination, she's barely involved. But what else can you expect from a girl whose whole social universe is one friend, an indifferent maid and a father who doesn't know how old she is? I enjoyed the thick 1960's atmosphere as the South and the rest of the country, along with Evie, teetered on the edge of a new age. It's not up to the level of the Updike I referenced earlier, but it's interesting.
January 5, 2020
If you are wanting to read any Anne Tyler novels, do NOT start with this one. I would encourage you to check out her later works and after you've read a few, then you should read this and her earlier two works. In an interview, Tyler mentioned that she does not really acknowledge these first three books, and I can see why. While they are not that great, they do play a role in helping the reader to see the evolution of a novelist. In this novel (as well as If Morning Every Comes and The Tin-Can Tree), we see Tyler exploring the narratives structures that will become paramount to her later works, but she is still learning her way through the form.
As to this novel, specifically, it is rather boring. I know that sounds weird to say about a novel centering around a girl who becomes obsessed with a local band and its lead singer to the point of carving his name into her forehead, but it is rather boring. Tyler examines the characters to a certain degree but what is lacking is a further exploration of the variety of characters who surround the protagonist. Tyler's strength in her later novels is her ability to examine many characters to show the complex nature of many people in the protagonist's life, but in this novel, they are rather flat. One could argue that this is because Evie, the main character, is so self-centered that everyone else around her does indeed appear one-dimensional, but that might be giving more credit to her than she is due. When the novel ends, I felt satisfaction because I could finally move on to the next book.
As to this novel, specifically, it is rather boring. I know that sounds weird to say about a novel centering around a girl who becomes obsessed with a local band and its lead singer to the point of carving his name into her forehead, but it is rather boring. Tyler examines the characters to a certain degree but what is lacking is a further exploration of the variety of characters who surround the protagonist. Tyler's strength in her later novels is her ability to examine many characters to show the complex nature of many people in the protagonist's life, but in this novel, they are rather flat. One could argue that this is because Evie, the main character, is so self-centered that everyone else around her does indeed appear one-dimensional, but that might be giving more credit to her than she is due. When the novel ends, I felt satisfaction because I could finally move on to the next book.
January 15, 2024
I read the reviews before I read this book, contrary to the general opinion, I found this earlier book quite enjoyable. To me, this is a song and Anne Tyler later wrote symphonies.
Evie Decker is an overweight seventeen-year-old. I identified with her shyness and awkwardness at that age. She only had one friend, Violet who outweighed her so much that she almost looked normal sitting beside her. She feels lonely and unnoticed, she lives with her father and they seem to keep to themselves but he cares for her. There is a hired cleaning lady, Clotelia who is quiet until Evie begins to change her life, then we know what Clotelia is thinking.
Evie hears a hapless interview of Bertram Casey, aka Drumstrings, a rock singer without much talent, and goes with her friend, Violet to hear him sing. She is impressed and wants to be noticed by him. She doesn't feel it is possible to get him to be hers but something dramatic and off-putting happens and he slowly notices her.
I love the ending the most of all. Please read this book and see if you agree.
Evie Decker is an overweight seventeen-year-old. I identified with her shyness and awkwardness at that age. She only had one friend, Violet who outweighed her so much that she almost looked normal sitting beside her. She feels lonely and unnoticed, she lives with her father and they seem to keep to themselves but he cares for her. There is a hired cleaning lady, Clotelia who is quiet until Evie begins to change her life, then we know what Clotelia is thinking.
Evie hears a hapless interview of Bertram Casey, aka Drumstrings, a rock singer without much talent, and goes with her friend, Violet to hear him sing. She is impressed and wants to be noticed by him. She doesn't feel it is possible to get him to be hers but something dramatic and off-putting happens and he slowly notices her.
I love the ending the most of all. Please read this book and see if you agree.
February 28, 2025
One of these books that make you regret that GR doesn't have extra stars for an unexpected masterpiece.
I'd never think that a small novel like this could cover so many themes and could give a reader such a broad range of emotions: anger, fun, amazement and total involvement.
I'd never think that a small novel like this could cover so many themes and could give a reader such a broad range of emotions: anger, fun, amazement and total involvement.
March 8, 2023
If I were to make a list of my favorite contemporary writers, Anne Tyler would be near the top. I haven't read all of her books, but I have read most of them and there's not a single one that I haven't enjoyed, some more than others, of course.
This one would probably rate near the middle of the pack. It is actually one of her earlier ones, having been published in 1970. It just recently came to my attention that I had not read it, so I immediately set out to rectify that oversight.
A Slipping-down Life gives us the story of young Evie Decker. Evie is a lonely, shy teenager living in a small North Carolina town with her widowed father, a teacher.
There is nothing special about Evie. She's slightly plump and not especially attractive. There's really nothing to make her stand out or make people notice her. She doesn't have any particular talents or interests. But then she hears a rock singer named Drumstrings Casey being interviewed on a local radio station and she becomes obsessed with him.
She expresses that obsession in a truly weird way; she carves his last name (his first name is too long) into her forehead during one of his shows. At last, people begin to notice her! And her antics bring her to the attention of Casey himself. Her actions generate some publicity for him and the two develop a strange kind of symbiotic relationship.
Drumstrings (his actual name is Bertram!) is utterly self-absorbed. He is only nineteen and so both of these two characters are adolescents who are still feeling their way in the world.
Tyler conveys quite well what a confusing time this is for these young people and the fact that they do things without really considering the consequences of their actions. I suppose in that sense this could be considered a coming-of-age novel. Evie, at least, has made a kind of transition by the end of the novel and is in a different, maybe better, place emotionally.
This really is a quiet little gem of a book, only 196 pages. The plot and the characters are so wonderfully developed by the author that one feels almost as though one is visiting with friends. Friends whom one sincerely wishes well. Oh, to be able to write like that!
This one would probably rate near the middle of the pack. It is actually one of her earlier ones, having been published in 1970. It just recently came to my attention that I had not read it, so I immediately set out to rectify that oversight.
A Slipping-down Life gives us the story of young Evie Decker. Evie is a lonely, shy teenager living in a small North Carolina town with her widowed father, a teacher.
There is nothing special about Evie. She's slightly plump and not especially attractive. There's really nothing to make her stand out or make people notice her. She doesn't have any particular talents or interests. But then she hears a rock singer named Drumstrings Casey being interviewed on a local radio station and she becomes obsessed with him.
She expresses that obsession in a truly weird way; she carves his last name (his first name is too long) into her forehead during one of his shows. At last, people begin to notice her! And her antics bring her to the attention of Casey himself. Her actions generate some publicity for him and the two develop a strange kind of symbiotic relationship.
Drumstrings (his actual name is Bertram!) is utterly self-absorbed. He is only nineteen and so both of these two characters are adolescents who are still feeling their way in the world.
Tyler conveys quite well what a confusing time this is for these young people and the fact that they do things without really considering the consequences of their actions. I suppose in that sense this could be considered a coming-of-age novel. Evie, at least, has made a kind of transition by the end of the novel and is in a different, maybe better, place emotionally.
This really is a quiet little gem of a book, only 196 pages. The plot and the characters are so wonderfully developed by the author that one feels almost as though one is visiting with friends. Friends whom one sincerely wishes well. Oh, to be able to write like that!
March 2, 2025
Oh. My. God. That’s been a roller-coaster and completely beyond my expectations of a small Anne Tyler novel.
November 7, 2022
My least favorite Tyler book, as in I hated it. Evie has no ambition or interests before becoming obsessed with a loser musician who is mostly nasty to her. A bleak, depressing look at dreary lives.
Read
July 30, 2024One of only two Anne Tyler novels I don't enjoy at all (the other is Celestial Navigation).
June 25, 2020
It was really interesting to read one of her early novels (her third, published in 1970, when she was 29. Crazy that she’s the same age as Bob Dylan!! And that she’s basically Peggy’s age in Mad Men). Anyway, this was a fun read. Really fun, quirky dialogue (the best friend Violet in particular is crazy). It’s even a bit zany in parts. I thought an updated version of this story would be really interesting (and probably a lot darker), as it deals with fans and their obsessions. Would the modern day version have a Justin Bieber-esque character rather than a rockstar? Rock is truly dead, sigh. I had a lot of sympathy for the main character and her drab life, and the weird fucked up way she tried to break out. She lives in a world where everything is hot and slow and sad and fuzzy, people die in the same houses they were born in. The ending was a bit abrupt and open-ended but I honestly don’t know what else could have happened (apart from like a weird epilogue set five years in the future). Overall, an entertaining and absorbing read, and bonus points for being short.
”Where has my luck gone? When am I going to rise above all this? Am I going to grow old just waiting?”
”If every evening lasted this long, how much time would it take to get her whole life lived? Centuries. She pictured herself growing older and fatter in this airless dark house, turning into a spinster with a pouched face and a zipper of lines across her upper lip, caring for her father until he died and she had no one left but cats or parakeets.”
”Where has my luck gone? When am I going to rise above all this? Am I going to grow old just waiting?”
”If every evening lasted this long, how much time would it take to get her whole life lived? Centuries. She pictured herself growing older and fatter in this airless dark house, turning into a spinster with a pouched face and a zipper of lines across her upper lip, caring for her father until he died and she had no one left but cats or parakeets.”
March 26, 2014
Evie Decker is 17-years-old - a painfully shy, slightly plump teenager whose mother died in childbirth, and she lives with her father. All in all, Evie's life is terribly lonely - until she hears the voice of 'Drumstrings' Casey on the radio. She is completely captivated and is resolute in her desire to eventually meet him. With her only friend, Violet, she discovers where Drumstrings is singing next and goes to see his show.
It is while she is attending Drumstrings' shows, that Evie truly bursts out of her lonely shell - once and for all - and comes under the intense scrutiny of the one man who at first seemed so intangible to her. In the space of time that it takes Evie to commit a single drastic act, her life is irrevocably changed. And she will never be the same again.
In my opinion, this book was really quite good, and I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting. It was a fast read for me - and while the plot was certainly quirky - I still found that the characters were well-crafted and extremely likable. Overall, I give A Slipping-Down Life by Anne Tyler a definite A!
It is while she is attending Drumstrings' shows, that Evie truly bursts out of her lonely shell - once and for all - and comes under the intense scrutiny of the one man who at first seemed so intangible to her. In the space of time that it takes Evie to commit a single drastic act, her life is irrevocably changed. And she will never be the same again.
In my opinion, this book was really quite good, and I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting. It was a fast read for me - and while the plot was certainly quirky - I still found that the characters were well-crafted and extremely likable. Overall, I give A Slipping-Down Life by Anne Tyler a definite A!
June 9, 2021
This was a curious & compelling little read. Teenager Evie becomes obsessed with a local singer Drum Casey & their lives become entwined after she carves his name on her forehead (or does she? I'm not quite clear on that) Evie's only goal seems to be furthering Drum's career & they seem to have a strange relationship which results in their marriage, despite the apparent lack of real affection between them. The story concludes with the death of Evie's father & the unsurprising - to me anyhow - break up of their marriage with Evie returning to her father's home, alone & pregnant. However this does seem to bring things full circle with Evie potentially bringing up a child alone as her father did.
A sad but at times sweet yet unsettling story & while I liked it I can't help feeling I've missed the point of it!
A sad but at times sweet yet unsettling story & while I liked it I can't help feeling I've missed the point of it!
Read
February 21, 2016I am a huge fan of Anne Tyler's. She writes about quirky characters with such art, fleshing out their traits and circumstances. I wouldn't hesitate recommending her works, but this one did not resonate with me. I think it's because both the main characters, the girl, who's an outsider at school, and the boy, a musician who has a habit of blurting out sentences that make little or no sense, are apathetic. They both have caring parents and yet there seems to be no connection with them, no love or anger shown. Maybe in their passivity at home. Yes, the girl acts out in a major way, which I won't reveal and that is startling. But on the whole, since the main characters didn't seem to care, I didn't either. But all art, including books, are subjective. I'd encourage readers to have a look and form their own opinion.
March 14, 2015
a funny book but not happy
Anne Tyler is the only author I know who could bring this book off without leaving me totally depressed. Well, she and Lee Smith. The words flow right from the dirt poor South, but you can't find offense in them. There are people who live this way all over the world. The South just uses them for characters. It's a sad story of a girl who wants more but doesn't really know how or what to want, and a boy who lacks the talent to be what he needs to be. Don't read it looking for an uplifting experience, but read it for the words, the people, the South. It is a treasure.
Anne Tyler is the only author I know who could bring this book off without leaving me totally depressed. Well, she and Lee Smith. The words flow right from the dirt poor South, but you can't find offense in them. There are people who live this way all over the world. The South just uses them for characters. It's a sad story of a girl who wants more but doesn't really know how or what to want, and a boy who lacks the talent to be what he needs to be. Don't read it looking for an uplifting experience, but read it for the words, the people, the South. It is a treasure.
March 6, 2016
3.5 stars
A very eccentric tale about a 17 year old plump average looking girl who is apparently obsessed with a struggling guitarist nicknamed Drum, and carves his name on her forehead. Therein starts a slow and steady drumroll of events which culminate abruptly. This is not a love story, neither is it a story progression. I couldn't fully fathom the emotions of the two main characters. Clotilia, the maid, and Mr. Dekker, the father, thouh secondary characters, were powerfully portrayed. This was a slow paced, but highly entertaining short novel.
Would recommend this to anyone who likes out of the way themes.
A very eccentric tale about a 17 year old plump average looking girl who is apparently obsessed with a struggling guitarist nicknamed Drum, and carves his name on her forehead. Therein starts a slow and steady drumroll of events which culminate abruptly. This is not a love story, neither is it a story progression. I couldn't fully fathom the emotions of the two main characters. Clotilia, the maid, and Mr. Dekker, the father, thouh secondary characters, were powerfully portrayed. This was a slow paced, but highly entertaining short novel.
Would recommend this to anyone who likes out of the way themes.
January 10, 2021
I love Anne Tyler. But this book was hard for me to read.. I constantly stopped reading to rant about the main character's decisions and her refusal to stand up for herself. I had to force myself to keep reading. It wasn't until the end that I realized that the whole book was SUPPOSED to be grueling.. it hurt to read and made me mad. But by the end, you realize that sometimes you put up with so much before you finally realize what you really want. I would never read this book again, but the literary technique was different than what I've ever read before, and that intrigued me.
January 15, 2022
Well…it was a book.
This is an uneventful story with a cast of thoroughly annoying characters. You can catch glimpses of writing talent in some clever descriptions (I enjoyed descriptions such as “her scars shining like snail trails” and “a scribble of hair”) but the actual plot is nearly nonsensical. I was left in mild confusion by the end. I’m not sure I’d call it bad but just kinda…weird and inexplicable? Also, there are a few instances throughout the book of casual racism and fatphobia, although that seemed to be a reflection of the characters being shitty people more than anything else.
This is an uneventful story with a cast of thoroughly annoying characters. You can catch glimpses of writing talent in some clever descriptions (I enjoyed descriptions such as “her scars shining like snail trails” and “a scribble of hair”) but the actual plot is nearly nonsensical. I was left in mild confusion by the end. I’m not sure I’d call it bad but just kinda…weird and inexplicable? Also, there are a few instances throughout the book of casual racism and fatphobia, although that seemed to be a reflection of the characters being shitty people more than anything else.
October 1, 2018
A teenage girl falls for a singer-guitarist in a local band, and her adoration of him drives her to extraordinary measures. Among other things, this is a Tyler look at the teenager-to-adult transition among ordinary folks (as opposed to the transition among the well-heeled). The unexpected yet foreseeable in hindsight happens, and as a reader I wanted to reach into the lives of this girl and boy and fix things, as we want to do in real life.
July 3, 2018
3.2***
Edie is a relatively unmotivated teen until she discovers the singer Drumstrings Casey. In a violent out of character move she captures his attention, only to eventually begin to wonder if he was work it. Edie is at once bland and fathomless, I kept reading to see what she would do next.
Edie is a relatively unmotivated teen until she discovers the singer Drumstrings Casey. In a violent out of character move she captures his attention, only to eventually begin to wonder if he was work it. Edie is at once bland and fathomless, I kept reading to see what she would do next.
January 2, 2020
I love Anne Tyler and am trying to read all of her novels. This is the third novel she wrote. I enjoy her writing style and that her story lines are about quirky people in quirky situations. This story was just a little too strange for me.
September 4, 2008
Sad, but has one of my all-time favorite book moments... carving your boyfriends name into your forhead and accidentally doing it backward pretty much sums it all up.
August 1, 2020
Not set in Baltimore!
An Ann Tyler I hadn't heard of but with all the qualities I love. A strange story with a peculiar ending.
Weirdly, there was no connection to Baltimore!
An Ann Tyler I hadn't heard of but with all the qualities I love. A strange story with a peculiar ending.
Weirdly, there was no connection to Baltimore!
January 26, 2025
A Slipping-Down Life isn’t Anne Tyler’s best work. It’s one of her early novels and although it’s good, it hasn’t quite reached the level of insight into family and relationships of her later books. It’s distant without a lot of closure but still interesting because of the now historical setting.
Evie Decker lives in a small town in North Carolina. She doesn’t particularly stand out for anything – looks, talent – kind of just drifts through her days listening to the radio, being mean to her father’s housekeeper and talking with her one friend. It seems to be set in the mid-1960s as the Beatles and The Rolling Stones are referred to but Evie has her heart set on a local musician she heard interviewed on the radio, ‘Drumsticks’ Casey. She goes to a local rock ‘n’ roll show to see him, becoming fascinated with his way of speaking random phrases during the middle of his songs. This leads to going to see him play every weekend, which culminates in her dramatic cry for attention from Drum one night that lands her in hospital. It also gives her newfound celebrity, both locally and in the sermons of preachers talking about the evils of rock and roll. But in a strange way, it brings Evie and Drum closer together to the point that they feel they need each other – until they don’t. The ending is abrupt but in a way demonstrates the fickleness of teenagers against the harsh realities of life.
Both Evie and Drum are intriguing characters, but not well developed enough to really understand them. Evie’s obsession with Drum doesn’t always feel authentic (more something to do to fill in the time). Drum is closed off, and kind of lazy in that he doesn’t want to chase fame, but wants it on a platter. Evie is passive but champions Drum to the extreme, but he’s not keen on actually lifting a finger to take part it in her schemes. It is difficult to see what Evie sees in Drum beyond his songs because he doesn’t do much except complain. Both he and Evie are stifled in the small southern town, but neither show the impetus to do something about it. Despite this, the narrative is strangely gripping. It’s sad, but does offer a glimmer of hope towards the end. An odd little novel, but an interesting glimpse into a past where rock ‘n’ roll seemed to be the major problem of the times.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
Evie Decker lives in a small town in North Carolina. She doesn’t particularly stand out for anything – looks, talent – kind of just drifts through her days listening to the radio, being mean to her father’s housekeeper and talking with her one friend. It seems to be set in the mid-1960s as the Beatles and The Rolling Stones are referred to but Evie has her heart set on a local musician she heard interviewed on the radio, ‘Drumsticks’ Casey. She goes to a local rock ‘n’ roll show to see him, becoming fascinated with his way of speaking random phrases during the middle of his songs. This leads to going to see him play every weekend, which culminates in her dramatic cry for attention from Drum one night that lands her in hospital. It also gives her newfound celebrity, both locally and in the sermons of preachers talking about the evils of rock and roll. But in a strange way, it brings Evie and Drum closer together to the point that they feel they need each other – until they don’t. The ending is abrupt but in a way demonstrates the fickleness of teenagers against the harsh realities of life.
Both Evie and Drum are intriguing characters, but not well developed enough to really understand them. Evie’s obsession with Drum doesn’t always feel authentic (more something to do to fill in the time). Drum is closed off, and kind of lazy in that he doesn’t want to chase fame, but wants it on a platter. Evie is passive but champions Drum to the extreme, but he’s not keen on actually lifting a finger to take part it in her schemes. It is difficult to see what Evie sees in Drum beyond his songs because he doesn’t do much except complain. Both he and Evie are stifled in the small southern town, but neither show the impetus to do something about it. Despite this, the narrative is strangely gripping. It’s sad, but does offer a glimmer of hope towards the end. An odd little novel, but an interesting glimpse into a past where rock ‘n’ roll seemed to be the major problem of the times.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
July 6, 2025
Many Anne Tyler aficionados have expressed disappointment in this early novel by the author, but I think it contains all the things I love in all her books. It has quirky characters making important decisions without much thought. These characters fall into marriages and pregnancies despite flashing warning signs, and I have personally seen so many young people do exactly this. Parents and teachers shake their heads at the dilemmas young people find themselves in, but perhaps it is an unavoidable part of being young.
In this novel, Evie, a shy, overweight teenager, falls in love with a musician she sees performing at a club. Since she feels she can't compete with all the young beauties flocking around him during his breaks, she decides to try to attract his attention by carving his name into her forehead. Evie certainly attracts the musician's attention and gets him free publicity since people figure he must be fabulous for this woman to scar herself like this. Unfortunately, Evie carved the reverse image of the musician's name into her forehead because she was looking in the bathroom mirror at the club to guide her handiwork. In addition, the opportunistic musician is willing to have Evie attend all his future performances to continue to attract public attention, but he has absolutely no romantic interest in her.
This story is a depressing tale, and I didn't admire any of the characters, but I still enjoyed reading it. Perhaps this is because I am curious about any life I am not living, or because it makes me feel schadenfreude, or it distracts me from the grossness of what is happening politically in the United States right now.
In this novel, Evie, a shy, overweight teenager, falls in love with a musician she sees performing at a club. Since she feels she can't compete with all the young beauties flocking around him during his breaks, she decides to try to attract his attention by carving his name into her forehead. Evie certainly attracts the musician's attention and gets him free publicity since people figure he must be fabulous for this woman to scar herself like this. Unfortunately, Evie carved the reverse image of the musician's name into her forehead because she was looking in the bathroom mirror at the club to guide her handiwork. In addition, the opportunistic musician is willing to have Evie attend all his future performances to continue to attract public attention, but he has absolutely no romantic interest in her.
This story is a depressing tale, and I didn't admire any of the characters, but I still enjoyed reading it. Perhaps this is because I am curious about any life I am not living, or because it makes me feel schadenfreude, or it distracts me from the grossness of what is happening politically in the United States right now.
April 2, 2017
Evie Decker is a teenager who's not popular at school, not particularly pretty or talented, and not especially engaged with her humdrum existence. She has a well-meaning but distant father and one good friend in classmate Violet, but other than that, people don't notice her much. All that changes when Evie, on a seeming whim, starts devotedly following a local rock singer. The drastic lengths she goes to in order to prove her devotion earn her notoriety at school, and the notice of the aloof singer himself. This is probably my least favorite Anne Tyler novel so far. Her characters are always so real, but at a certain point, the cast of this book takes a turn for the bizarre and unbelievable.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 274 reviews