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French Braid
A major new novel from the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author—a freshly observed, funny, joyful, brilliantly perceptive journey deep into one family’s foibles, from the 1950s up to our pandemic present.
The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever venture beyond Baltimore, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family's orbit, for reasons none of them understands. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts' influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation.
Full of heartbreak and hilarity, French Braid is classic Anne Tyler: a stirring, uncannily insightful novel of tremendous warmth and humor that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives, the impossibility of breaking free from those who love us, and how close—yet how unknowable—every family is to itself.
The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever venture beyond Baltimore, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family's orbit, for reasons none of them understands. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts' influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation.
Full of heartbreak and hilarity, French Braid is classic Anne Tyler: a stirring, uncannily insightful novel of tremendous warmth and humor that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives, the impossibility of breaking free from those who love us, and how close—yet how unknowable—every family is to itself.
258 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 22, 2022
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About the author
Anne Tyler
115 books9,087 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 6,132 reviews
December 26, 2021
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” (The first line of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy).
Anne Tyler is a prolific and consistently wonderful story teller. She’s a writer I have followed and read for many years, having read 21 of her novels. She tells it like it is, writes her characters real and relatable, even though not always likable and sometimes quirky.
I’m in awe of how in a novel that is not very lengthy, she tells the story of a family over decades and generations with such well developed characters in one family, so different from each other. There are ups and downs, selfishness and selflessness and there is love. Classic Anne Tyler - family, Baltimore, and a good story. She could be called the Tolstoy of Baltimore.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Knopf through Edelweiss.
Anne Tyler is a prolific and consistently wonderful story teller. She’s a writer I have followed and read for many years, having read 21 of her novels. She tells it like it is, writes her characters real and relatable, even though not always likable and sometimes quirky.
I’m in awe of how in a novel that is not very lengthy, she tells the story of a family over decades and generations with such well developed characters in one family, so different from each other. There are ups and downs, selfishness and selflessness and there is love. Classic Anne Tyler - family, Baltimore, and a good story. She could be called the Tolstoy of Baltimore.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Knopf through Edelweiss.
April 8, 2022
French Braid by Anne Tyler, Kimberly Farr (Narrator)
French Braid left me feeling sad although I do see that some people in the family are able to do better at reaching out and connecting than Robin and Mercy, parents of three children who went on to give them grandchildren. We go through the points of view of several family members and it was Mercy who put me off from enjoying the story more. So self centered, selfish, apathetic to the feelings of others and the things going on in her children's lives. Both parents don't even care when their fifteen year old daughter meets a twenty one year old guy and spends her days and parts of her nights with him for a week. Mercy has been planning her escape from her family since before her son goes to college. She leaves the life of wife and mother and becomes something else in such a cold way. She's even colder when she abandons an animal that relies on her totally. She just does not care, she's in her own world, no longer responsible for anyone or anything and that's the way she likes it.
Robin is on the other end of the stick, wondering where everyone went, trying to hide that he's alone, sort of floating until he fades away to nothing. The Garrett kids actually turn into pretty good parents from what little we know and it's a surprise to me. I liked them better than their parents, the oldest girl is loud and bossy but she also tries to parent her sister when her parents seemed to be checked out. The second girl is wild and rebellious but there is no one to stop her but her older sister and who wants to listen to an older sister. Their youngest child, a son, is the one whose POV shows us how much family always meant to him and how much he wants to be a good dad, good granddad, different from his own dad.
The story spans decades and I felt those decades, seeing so much that seemed trivial, probably wasn't, but not understanding it because it's not well defined, or maybe drawing conclusions the author didn't intend. I usually enjoy loose, scattered stories such as this more, and I know this story will be more touching to most readers. I am left with the a feeling of hopefulness for Robin and Mercy's kids and grandkids and I'm glad for that.
Published March 22nd 2022
French Braid left me feeling sad although I do see that some people in the family are able to do better at reaching out and connecting than Robin and Mercy, parents of three children who went on to give them grandchildren. We go through the points of view of several family members and it was Mercy who put me off from enjoying the story more. So self centered, selfish, apathetic to the feelings of others and the things going on in her children's lives. Both parents don't even care when their fifteen year old daughter meets a twenty one year old guy and spends her days and parts of her nights with him for a week. Mercy has been planning her escape from her family since before her son goes to college. She leaves the life of wife and mother and becomes something else in such a cold way. She's even colder when she abandons an animal that relies on her totally. She just does not care, she's in her own world, no longer responsible for anyone or anything and that's the way she likes it.
Robin is on the other end of the stick, wondering where everyone went, trying to hide that he's alone, sort of floating until he fades away to nothing. The Garrett kids actually turn into pretty good parents from what little we know and it's a surprise to me. I liked them better than their parents, the oldest girl is loud and bossy but she also tries to parent her sister when her parents seemed to be checked out. The second girl is wild and rebellious but there is no one to stop her but her older sister and who wants to listen to an older sister. Their youngest child, a son, is the one whose POV shows us how much family always meant to him and how much he wants to be a good dad, good granddad, different from his own dad.
The story spans decades and I felt those decades, seeing so much that seemed trivial, probably wasn't, but not understanding it because it's not well defined, or maybe drawing conclusions the author didn't intend. I usually enjoy loose, scattered stories such as this more, and I know this story will be more touching to most readers. I am left with the a feeling of hopefulness for Robin and Mercy's kids and grandkids and I'm glad for that.
Published March 22nd 2022
March 8, 2022
Anne Tyler gives us an astutely observed novel, set in Baltimore, of the dynamics of an ordinary American family that begins in 1959 when the Garretts, father Robin, mother Mercy and their three children, the sensible and responsible Alice, the more flighty and rebellious Lily, attractive to and attracted to boys, and the sensitive 7 year old David, take their one and only family holiday at Deep Creek Lake. On holiday they can be seen as people who appear to not even know each other, alone and apart, yet in the relating of small acts that occur then and through time, we see how the effects ripple through the decades. In the title, Tyler gives us the metaphor of a French braid, which on being undone, crinkles are left in the hair for a considerable length of time, informing us "That's how families work too. You think you're free of them but you're never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever."
Through the decades we are given perspectives of different family members and others, their efforts to attain personal agency, their desires, the marriages, divorce, death, having children and grandchildren. When David leaves for college in 1970, Mercy is left with an empty nest and uses the opportunity to move essentials to live at her art studio, intent on putting all her energies into her painting, doing it gradually so that Robin doesn't notice, but, of course, he does eventually, but nothing is said. Whilst Alice and Lily maintain family ties, David's visits home are few and far between, and when he marries Greta, it is not him that lets the family know of the event. Two Robins are born, a girl to Alice and a boy to Lily, it is Candle (Kendall) who forms a close relationship with Mercy through her love of art, whilst the family come together for Robin and Mercy's 50th wedding anniversary. We finally begin to understand David, now a retired teacher, and who he is with his personal family experience of Covid when his young grandson, Benny, comes to stay with his son, Nicolas.
Running through the narrative is humour, compassion and humanity, capturing the resentments, judgements, bickering, love, and the need for independence within families, much of which will resonate for so many readers, along with the knowing and yet not knowing close family members. Tyler nails it when it comes to identifying and painting a picture of the complex and emotional ties that bind and pull apart the modern American family. This is a wonderfully engaging novel that is a delight and joy to read, beautifully written, covering life through the decades, which given its relatively short length, showcases the remarkable talents of the author. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
Through the decades we are given perspectives of different family members and others, their efforts to attain personal agency, their desires, the marriages, divorce, death, having children and grandchildren. When David leaves for college in 1970, Mercy is left with an empty nest and uses the opportunity to move essentials to live at her art studio, intent on putting all her energies into her painting, doing it gradually so that Robin doesn't notice, but, of course, he does eventually, but nothing is said. Whilst Alice and Lily maintain family ties, David's visits home are few and far between, and when he marries Greta, it is not him that lets the family know of the event. Two Robins are born, a girl to Alice and a boy to Lily, it is Candle (Kendall) who forms a close relationship with Mercy through her love of art, whilst the family come together for Robin and Mercy's 50th wedding anniversary. We finally begin to understand David, now a retired teacher, and who he is with his personal family experience of Covid when his young grandson, Benny, comes to stay with his son, Nicolas.
Running through the narrative is humour, compassion and humanity, capturing the resentments, judgements, bickering, love, and the need for independence within families, much of which will resonate for so many readers, along with the knowing and yet not knowing close family members. Tyler nails it when it comes to identifying and painting a picture of the complex and emotional ties that bind and pull apart the modern American family. This is a wonderfully engaging novel that is a delight and joy to read, beautifully written, covering life through the decades, which given its relatively short length, showcases the remarkable talents of the author. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
March 15, 2022
For a 256-page book, this one felt much longer. It took me a month to get through and when I put it down I was never drawn to pick it back up.
The story started off strongly with two characters who discover their families of origin were very, very different. One was closed, while the other was open, which was bound to create difficulties in their relationship. But then their story is dropped and we go back to 1959. When the story switched to Mercy, I lost interest. I didn't care for her character, and when she did a heinous thing involving a cat, I cared even less what happened to her. (She didn’t kill the cat or physically abuse him, but it was heartless. If you want details before picking up the book, PM me.)
Not much happens and the story meanders along following a family through the generations, but for me, it was too slow, with no story arc to keep it interesting. No one is a villain, but no one is particularly likable either. A line in the book says that families show little kindnesses toward each other and also little cruelties. Which is true, but I don’t want to read a book about it. I could write a book about my own family that would be more interesting. At least I have a few villains to spice up the story!
Near the end of the book a character muses about French braids: “…that’s how families work, too. You think you’re free of them, but you’re never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever.”
It's a rather silly analogy that I don't think a man would ever make. Or a woman.
I’m a huge Anne Tyler fan. She usually writes with an astute understanding of human nature and can write about the ordinary in an extraordinary way. But this one didn’t touch me, as her earlier books did. Many of my friends here loved it, so don’t take my word for it. It's not a bad book, it simply wasn’t for me.
* I received a digital copy for review via Edelweiss. All opinions are my own
Pub date 3/22/22 by Knopf Doubleday publishing
The story started off strongly with two characters who discover their families of origin were very, very different. One was closed, while the other was open, which was bound to create difficulties in their relationship. But then their story is dropped and we go back to 1959. When the story switched to Mercy, I lost interest. I didn't care for her character, and when she did a heinous thing involving a cat, I cared even less what happened to her. (She didn’t kill the cat or physically abuse him, but it was heartless. If you want details before picking up the book, PM me.)
Not much happens and the story meanders along following a family through the generations, but for me, it was too slow, with no story arc to keep it interesting. No one is a villain, but no one is particularly likable either. A line in the book says that families show little kindnesses toward each other and also little cruelties. Which is true, but I don’t want to read a book about it. I could write a book about my own family that would be more interesting. At least I have a few villains to spice up the story!
Near the end of the book a character muses about French braids: “…that’s how families work, too. You think you’re free of them, but you’re never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever.”
It's a rather silly analogy that I don't think a man would ever make. Or a woman.
I’m a huge Anne Tyler fan. She usually writes with an astute understanding of human nature and can write about the ordinary in an extraordinary way. But this one didn’t touch me, as her earlier books did. Many of my friends here loved it, so don’t take my word for it. It's not a bad book, it simply wasn’t for me.
* I received a digital copy for review via Edelweiss. All opinions are my own
Pub date 3/22/22 by Knopf Doubleday publishing
March 30, 2022
I wanted to love this book but unfortunately this one wasn’t for me. I had a hard time keeping focused on this book. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen to suck me in but it didn’t happen. This book followed family members over generations of time and I just felt no connection to it and I didn’t enjoy any of the characters or their connections either. I’ve seen great reviews of other books from this author so I look forward to giving her books a try in the future.
Thank you Net Galley and Knopf Doubleday publishing group for a gifted copy in return for my honest review.
Thank you Net Galley and Knopf Doubleday publishing group for a gifted copy in return for my honest review.
December 23, 2021
4.5 rounded up
In the summer of 1959 the Garrett family take their first and last family vacation to sleepy woods but this holiday is pivotal to future events. There is father Robin who is definitely not a born vacationer as you can see, they only have the one. His wife Mercy just wishes for time to devote to painting and takes every opportunity to escape. There are two teenage daughters, steady, sensible Alice who seems to be the only adult present (!) and boy mad Lily who are absolutely poles apart in every possible way. Finally, there is seven year old David who is a very perceptive child and especially smart about people. You could describe this as a typical Anne Tyler novel with it incisive look at extended family situations and their dynamics. The storytelling seems so natural that when they are bickering you feel as if you are ear-wigging! Their history is told from 1959 through to the pandemic and is written in the third person but keeps switching character perspective which is fantastic as the views and perceptions constantly changes.
I love how Anne Tyler turns the every day ordinary (maybe even mundane)into something extra-ordinary. It should be dull but it’s riveting because of how she writes so you are drawn into the dynamic, fly on the wall style. It’s amusing and droll in parts, there is tenderness and empathy for the characters and what emerges is a gentle tale showing moments of genuine connection between the characters. The one I especially like is that of grandmother Mercy with granddaughter Candle (Kendall) which is very heartwarming.
The book examines how actions and interactions have lasting consequences which you see vividly especially through Mercy and the siblings.They love but they don’t necessarily like or understand.The characterisation is masterful. You empathise with Mercy as she slowly drifts away to pursue her passion for art, you wince at Alice’s judgements and kind of applaud Lily for doing it her way. I love how it rounds off the end so you finally really ‘see’ sensitive and lovely David for what he is. It’s interspersed with family memories that pulls them back together albeit temporarily, which is so true to life.
My one reservation is the start of the novel in 2010 begins with two interesting characters we don’t really see again and it’s just used as a vehicle to introduce the Garretts. It didn’t quite work for me hence the 4.5 not the full five stars though it’s well and truly worthy of the rounding up to 5 stars.
Finally, nobody can write about family dynamics as well as Anne Tyler, she weaves magic into the every day elevating it into something special. In my view she is one of the most skilful writers of her generation.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Random House U.K./ Vintage/ Chatto and Windus for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.
In the summer of 1959 the Garrett family take their first and last family vacation to sleepy woods but this holiday is pivotal to future events. There is father Robin who is definitely not a born vacationer as you can see, they only have the one. His wife Mercy just wishes for time to devote to painting and takes every opportunity to escape. There are two teenage daughters, steady, sensible Alice who seems to be the only adult present (!) and boy mad Lily who are absolutely poles apart in every possible way. Finally, there is seven year old David who is a very perceptive child and especially smart about people. You could describe this as a typical Anne Tyler novel with it incisive look at extended family situations and their dynamics. The storytelling seems so natural that when they are bickering you feel as if you are ear-wigging! Their history is told from 1959 through to the pandemic and is written in the third person but keeps switching character perspective which is fantastic as the views and perceptions constantly changes.
I love how Anne Tyler turns the every day ordinary (maybe even mundane)into something extra-ordinary. It should be dull but it’s riveting because of how she writes so you are drawn into the dynamic, fly on the wall style. It’s amusing and droll in parts, there is tenderness and empathy for the characters and what emerges is a gentle tale showing moments of genuine connection between the characters. The one I especially like is that of grandmother Mercy with granddaughter Candle (Kendall) which is very heartwarming.
The book examines how actions and interactions have lasting consequences which you see vividly especially through Mercy and the siblings.They love but they don’t necessarily like or understand.The characterisation is masterful. You empathise with Mercy as she slowly drifts away to pursue her passion for art, you wince at Alice’s judgements and kind of applaud Lily for doing it her way. I love how it rounds off the end so you finally really ‘see’ sensitive and lovely David for what he is. It’s interspersed with family memories that pulls them back together albeit temporarily, which is so true to life.
My one reservation is the start of the novel in 2010 begins with two interesting characters we don’t really see again and it’s just used as a vehicle to introduce the Garretts. It didn’t quite work for me hence the 4.5 not the full five stars though it’s well and truly worthy of the rounding up to 5 stars.
Finally, nobody can write about family dynamics as well as Anne Tyler, she weaves magic into the every day elevating it into something special. In my view she is one of the most skilful writers of her generation.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Random House U.K./ Vintage/ Chatto and Windus for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.
March 23, 2022
There is much to respect about Ann Tyler. Like many readers, I have enjoyed several of her books throughout the years. Not all equally.
“The Amateur Marriage” was my favorite. It was [familiar crafting] a Tyler-multigenerational family book. The characters felt authentic and by the end of that novel, I felt as if I knew them well. It was deeper than her other novels and I was emotionally very connected.
In “French Braid”…..also a multigenerational family book, it often felt like names were picked out of hat to ‘share-and-tell’.
Truthfully…..(a hunch that kept me from requesting an early copy to review a month ago), the plot was so thin, the dialogue laborious and contrived, the characters passionless and stoic. The only real emotion I felt was irritated. I was itching to be done with the babble chatter.
Not trying to be disrespectful….but I couldn’t wait to finish this book. It wasn’t worth my ‘can’t sleep read’…..
I’ll return to the other book I am enjoying very much:
“Hakawati”, by Rabih Alameddine.
2 stars tops. [rated on my pure experience]
I apologize to others who loved this book - to Ann Tyler …. it just wasn’t sincerely an enjoyable read for me.
“The Amateur Marriage” was my favorite. It was [familiar crafting] a Tyler-multigenerational family book. The characters felt authentic and by the end of that novel, I felt as if I knew them well. It was deeper than her other novels and I was emotionally very connected.
In “French Braid”…..also a multigenerational family book, it often felt like names were picked out of hat to ‘share-and-tell’.
Truthfully…..(a hunch that kept me from requesting an early copy to review a month ago), the plot was so thin, the dialogue laborious and contrived, the characters passionless and stoic. The only real emotion I felt was irritated. I was itching to be done with the babble chatter.
Not trying to be disrespectful….but I couldn’t wait to finish this book. It wasn’t worth my ‘can’t sleep read’…..
I’ll return to the other book I am enjoying very much:
“Hakawati”, by Rabih Alameddine.
2 stars tops. [rated on my pure experience]
I apologize to others who loved this book - to Ann Tyler …. it just wasn’t sincerely an enjoyable read for me.
September 18, 2024
It’s been ten minutes since I finished this wonderful book. I feel exactly like I did, all those years ago, when the kids were little and Mum and Dad, my brother and friends used to visit my little family in Regional South Australia and then head back to Adelaide after staying for a few days. I felt empty then.
I feel empty now – same feeling. These characters have gone. I’m watching their taillights disappear into the dusty horizon.
I’ll miss this family – five generations of Garrett’s. Too many characters to mention, better not to list them. Anne Tyler is the absolute superstar of families, of their dramas, or their quiet Sunday dinners. The parents, children, partners – deaths, births, arguments, gossip, the love, and discontent. It’s all here.
But that’s only the skeleton, the framework of this book. Where Tyler really nails it is the precision of her description of the interactions. I can’t think of anyone who does it better.
That’s all I want to say about this beautiful book. I need to start another book immediately and flush this lot out of my system, otherwise I will start moping.
5 Stars
I feel empty now – same feeling. These characters have gone. I’m watching their taillights disappear into the dusty horizon.
I’ll miss this family – five generations of Garrett’s. Too many characters to mention, better not to list them. Anne Tyler is the absolute superstar of families, of their dramas, or their quiet Sunday dinners. The parents, children, partners – deaths, births, arguments, gossip, the love, and discontent. It’s all here.
But that’s only the skeleton, the framework of this book. Where Tyler really nails it is the precision of her description of the interactions. I can’t think of anyone who does it better.
That’s all I want to say about this beautiful book. I need to start another book immediately and flush this lot out of my system, otherwise I will start moping.
5 Stars
April 16, 2022
Family members can inspire you or they can drain you. Trying to place your feet on your own ground invites high waves of drama. And that drama invites fissures seen and unseen.
French Braid by the renowned Anne Tyler left me in the gray areas of maybe yes and maybe no. Tyler seems to play the usual keys of familiarity on this life piano instead of including the deep richness of the sharps and flats. From my own perspective, I felt that the mundane was far more emphasized and the heaviness of human interaction was glossed over far too quickly or never addressed at all. Tyler presents more of a character study here (and not an indepth one on distinct traceable connectives) with no solid signs of a true storyline. The timeline jumped and pages were filled with automatic new characters.
Tyler introduces us to the Garretts on their first Summer vacation back in 1959. Parents Robin and Mercy seem to float away from parenting and interaction with their children: Alice, Lily, and the youngest David. Alice steps up to fill the void from the escapism of her mother. Lily meets a boy and desires marriage at fifteen. David draws into himself and drops out of site for a bulk of the novel. Robin doesn't know how to disconnect from his job and enjoy himself. Yes, it's 1959 and verbalization was buried deep. Yet, families did survive and grow stronger. The combined weakness of both Robin, and especially, Mercy chipped away here. I wanted more background on Mercy's tendencies. We never got it.
French Braid has received stellar reviews. I'd encourage you to experience this book for yourselves. You may certainly come away with a far different take on it. Maybe the depth was enough. Maybe the intention all along was just the waves on the surface. I wanted more from Anne Tyler. I certainly did.
French Braid by the renowned Anne Tyler left me in the gray areas of maybe yes and maybe no. Tyler seems to play the usual keys of familiarity on this life piano instead of including the deep richness of the sharps and flats. From my own perspective, I felt that the mundane was far more emphasized and the heaviness of human interaction was glossed over far too quickly or never addressed at all. Tyler presents more of a character study here (and not an indepth one on distinct traceable connectives) with no solid signs of a true storyline. The timeline jumped and pages were filled with automatic new characters.
Tyler introduces us to the Garretts on their first Summer vacation back in 1959. Parents Robin and Mercy seem to float away from parenting and interaction with their children: Alice, Lily, and the youngest David. Alice steps up to fill the void from the escapism of her mother. Lily meets a boy and desires marriage at fifteen. David draws into himself and drops out of site for a bulk of the novel. Robin doesn't know how to disconnect from his job and enjoy himself. Yes, it's 1959 and verbalization was buried deep. Yet, families did survive and grow stronger. The combined weakness of both Robin, and especially, Mercy chipped away here. I wanted more background on Mercy's tendencies. We never got it.
French Braid has received stellar reviews. I'd encourage you to experience this book for yourselves. You may certainly come away with a far different take on it. Maybe the depth was enough. Maybe the intention all along was just the waves on the surface. I wanted more from Anne Tyler. I certainly did.
March 15, 2022
Anne Tyler's strength as a writer is her uncanny ability to understand families. The Garrett's, a family of five is the family here and we follow them all through Covid, where much has changed. The distance that can open between siblings, second chances at a different life, and the empty next feeling that often accompanies the last child to leave the nest. Parental expectations, an incident in ones youth that shadows a life and of course secrets and love. As much unsaid as said. Tyler gets it.
I had such a bittersweet feeling as I read this. Could identify with some incidents, and while others didn't apply to my life, I could see the truth in them. Terrific book about a family that could be ours.
ARC by Edelweiss.
I had such a bittersweet feeling as I read this. Could identify with some incidents, and while others didn't apply to my life, I could see the truth in them. Terrific book about a family that could be ours.
ARC by Edelweiss.
May 23, 2022
3.5
A good old family story, Tyler style
Hm. This is one of those books where I drove myself nuts trying to decide how many stars to dole out. I enjoyed the read, and I think that Tyler is pretty amazing, but yet . . . I have a bunch of complaints. So 3.5 stars it is, rounded down.
The story is about a family in Baltimore in the 1950s—a couple and their three kids. The dad is boring; the mom wants to do her painting. The two daughters are polar opposites: one is blasé and suburban, the other one is a little wild. The brother is detached. The story does spend a little time in the present, which gives the story a (good) saga feel to it.
Joy Jar
-What a pro Tyler is! Before I even know it, I am swooped up into the story. I’m reading along, thinking “this isn’t bad” when suddenly I realize I really really care about the characters. Magic! The pull is subtle, somewhat similar to what happens in Strout’s books.
-Lots of nuances. Lots of unsaid stuff that goes POP and creates tension in its silence.
-And man, can Tyler describe family dynamics. There’s strain, sadness, jealousy, wounds, distance, and love. The interactions are all so real, it’s familiar in a good way. I loved that I got to peek into someone else’s family. Tyler has so much insight and she can do families like no other.
-The characters are each unique. Actually, they are ordinary people, but Tyler shows you their guts and makes them stand out.
-I looked forward to picking up the book. I liked hanging out with this family (even though I didn’t like the mom).
Complaint Board
-Wait. What happened to that young, interesting couple I met at the beginning of the book? You’ve made me curious, so why go back to the 1950s and talk about the girl’s grandmother and her family all the sudden? And stay there! Call me crazy, but when I meet people at the start of a book, and pay all this attention to them, I get invested and I expect that the book is going to be about them. Not so, here. We’re stuck with the grandparents. Oh, I got into that family pretty fast (see the Joy Jar), but I still was wondering what happened to those two cool people introduced at the beginning.
-BS meter alert! The family is on vacation and the 15-year-old girl meets a guy who is 21, and they hang out together—every day he picks her up in his car and whisks her off for hours, usually the whole day. The parents don’t blink an eye. What???? NO parents are going to let their young teenage daughter hang out with a 21-year-old guy. Period. End of story (unless they are neglectful or out of it, which they’re not). I can’t for the life of me figure out why Tyler made the guy 21. The girl could have been boy-crazy and wild with someone her own age and it would have gotten the point across.
-The main character, the mom named Mercy (of all things), doesn’t like cats and she does something nasty. Don’t worry, she doesn’t hurt the cat, but she’s not nice to it. Biting my tongue to avoid spoilers. As a cat lover, I found this especially awful.
-I didn’t like Mercy anyway, but the cat deal made me hate her. It’s a drag not to care for a character that’s front and center.
-The book got a little sentimental at the end, with a little boy running around at his grandparents’ house and other wholesome, heartwarming things happening. I heard Hallmark being whispered into my ear.
-My only complaint about Tyler in the past was that her male characters are too passive. Here, same deal. I read that Tyler denies this allegation, LOL.
-Now this really is just me: Tyler’s brand of realism, like many others’, includes descriptions of clothes. Also kitchen and food descriptions. In the past few years, I’ve had more and more trouble stomaching stories where all the middle-ness of middle-class families is described in excruciating detail. It always makes me feel rebellious and lonely; I feel like a kid who is expected to conform but is bored by it all and wants to escape. I guess I just want descriptions of what’s going on inside the heads, not outside the heads. People will argue that describing outfits gives us a full picture of the character. This is true; people’s clothes could tell us something about their heads—but this doesn’t stop me from being bored by outfits and meal prep and tedious family traditions.
-Also, just me: The style is too quiet. I like more drama. I didn’t mind that not much happened; it’s just that the tone was hushed.
In the old days, I read several books by Tyler and absolutely loved them. Maybe this book just isn’t as good as some of her others, or maybe my tastes have changed. It was better than an okay read—as I said earlier, Tyler magically reeled me in and suddenly I gave a damn about the characters. But the book did make me pull out my Complaint Board—I had a lot of whines.
I think since the book does so skillfully pull you into the lives of complex, interesting characters, though, it will be a hit with most people. And although I gave the book only 3 stars, I already found myself recommending it to a friend!
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.
A good old family story, Tyler style
Hm. This is one of those books where I drove myself nuts trying to decide how many stars to dole out. I enjoyed the read, and I think that Tyler is pretty amazing, but yet . . . I have a bunch of complaints. So 3.5 stars it is, rounded down.
The story is about a family in Baltimore in the 1950s—a couple and their three kids. The dad is boring; the mom wants to do her painting. The two daughters are polar opposites: one is blasé and suburban, the other one is a little wild. The brother is detached. The story does spend a little time in the present, which gives the story a (good) saga feel to it.
Joy Jar
-What a pro Tyler is! Before I even know it, I am swooped up into the story. I’m reading along, thinking “this isn’t bad” when suddenly I realize I really really care about the characters. Magic! The pull is subtle, somewhat similar to what happens in Strout’s books.
-Lots of nuances. Lots of unsaid stuff that goes POP and creates tension in its silence.
-And man, can Tyler describe family dynamics. There’s strain, sadness, jealousy, wounds, distance, and love. The interactions are all so real, it’s familiar in a good way. I loved that I got to peek into someone else’s family. Tyler has so much insight and she can do families like no other.
-The characters are each unique. Actually, they are ordinary people, but Tyler shows you their guts and makes them stand out.
-I looked forward to picking up the book. I liked hanging out with this family (even though I didn’t like the mom).
Complaint Board
-Wait. What happened to that young, interesting couple I met at the beginning of the book? You’ve made me curious, so why go back to the 1950s and talk about the girl’s grandmother and her family all the sudden? And stay there! Call me crazy, but when I meet people at the start of a book, and pay all this attention to them, I get invested and I expect that the book is going to be about them. Not so, here. We’re stuck with the grandparents. Oh, I got into that family pretty fast (see the Joy Jar), but I still was wondering what happened to those two cool people introduced at the beginning.
-BS meter alert! The family is on vacation and the 15-year-old girl meets a guy who is 21, and they hang out together—every day he picks her up in his car and whisks her off for hours, usually the whole day. The parents don’t blink an eye. What???? NO parents are going to let their young teenage daughter hang out with a 21-year-old guy. Period. End of story (unless they are neglectful or out of it, which they’re not). I can’t for the life of me figure out why Tyler made the guy 21. The girl could have been boy-crazy and wild with someone her own age and it would have gotten the point across.
-The main character, the mom named Mercy (of all things), doesn’t like cats and she does something nasty. Don’t worry, she doesn’t hurt the cat, but she’s not nice to it. Biting my tongue to avoid spoilers. As a cat lover, I found this especially awful.
-I didn’t like Mercy anyway, but the cat deal made me hate her. It’s a drag not to care for a character that’s front and center.
-The book got a little sentimental at the end, with a little boy running around at his grandparents’ house and other wholesome, heartwarming things happening. I heard Hallmark being whispered into my ear.
-My only complaint about Tyler in the past was that her male characters are too passive. Here, same deal. I read that Tyler denies this allegation, LOL.
-Now this really is just me: Tyler’s brand of realism, like many others’, includes descriptions of clothes. Also kitchen and food descriptions. In the past few years, I’ve had more and more trouble stomaching stories where all the middle-ness of middle-class families is described in excruciating detail. It always makes me feel rebellious and lonely; I feel like a kid who is expected to conform but is bored by it all and wants to escape. I guess I just want descriptions of what’s going on inside the heads, not outside the heads. People will argue that describing outfits gives us a full picture of the character. This is true; people’s clothes could tell us something about their heads—but this doesn’t stop me from being bored by outfits and meal prep and tedious family traditions.
-Also, just me: The style is too quiet. I like more drama. I didn’t mind that not much happened; it’s just that the tone was hushed.
In the old days, I read several books by Tyler and absolutely loved them. Maybe this book just isn’t as good as some of her others, or maybe my tastes have changed. It was better than an okay read—as I said earlier, Tyler magically reeled me in and suddenly I gave a damn about the characters. But the book did make me pull out my Complaint Board—I had a lot of whines.
I think since the book does so skillfully pull you into the lives of complex, interesting characters, though, it will be a hit with most people. And although I gave the book only 3 stars, I already found myself recommending it to a friend!
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.
June 19, 2022
This book is peak Anne Tyler: A slowly moving and quietly told multigenerational family novel that thrives on astute observations and empathic character studies. At the center are Robin Garrett, a plumber, and his wife Mercy, a stay-at-home mother of three who later in life aims to pursue her career as a painter, tellingly capturing domestic subjects that highlight the special in the ordinary. We follow the Garretts over four generations while pondering the main theme of finding the balance between individual autonomy and familial connection.
Many characters harbor secrets or refrain from sharing information about themselves or their feelings (be it trauma, fears, personal ambitions, or sexual orientation), and Tyler investigates when it is better to not address some truths to spare others, and when non-confrontational behavior might be harmful to the individual or the family unit. Specific concerns are also the role of women as well as the gap between personal wish and outside expectations. All the while, Tyler elegantly depicts the changing cultural climate from the 1950's to the Covid pandemic.
Tyler certainly isn't a daring innovator or wildly unusual writer aesthetically or plotwise, but she is an expert when it comes to depicting (US-American) families in a traditional, but very affecting and captivating way. This is literature that manages to illustrate why the stories of average people are important and interesting, and that elevates frequently overlooked women to complex protagonists. Let's see what the Booker will bring - there are also Zorrie and Crossroads in the running (and my vote goes to Franzen).
Many characters harbor secrets or refrain from sharing information about themselves or their feelings (be it trauma, fears, personal ambitions, or sexual orientation), and Tyler investigates when it is better to not address some truths to spare others, and when non-confrontational behavior might be harmful to the individual or the family unit. Specific concerns are also the role of women as well as the gap between personal wish and outside expectations. All the while, Tyler elegantly depicts the changing cultural climate from the 1950's to the Covid pandemic.
Tyler certainly isn't a daring innovator or wildly unusual writer aesthetically or plotwise, but she is an expert when it comes to depicting (US-American) families in a traditional, but very affecting and captivating way. This is literature that manages to illustrate why the stories of average people are important and interesting, and that elevates frequently overlooked women to complex protagonists. Let's see what the Booker will bring - there are also Zorrie and Crossroads in the running (and my vote goes to Franzen).
April 23, 2022
It's all about family values. Acceptance of how we are different, and taking comfort in how we are alike. The meshing of parents and siblings, how it was growing up and how it is now with grandkids in the mix. One who is bossy, one who is wild, and another who doesn't seem to take after any other family member. How a single incident from long ago will carry with it a significance for all time.
An enjoyable read, but more low key than Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant or The Accidental Tourist. Those two remain my favorites.
An enjoyable read, but more low key than Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant or The Accidental Tourist. Those two remain my favorites.
March 22, 2022
This is the story of a family, which Tyler manages to capture so beautifully, sharing all of their faults, their idiosyncrasies and peculiarities over the years. The things that draw them closer, and the things that divide them. Time, age, changing needs and desires, marriages, divorces, and the desire for returning to that place associated with fond memories, that connection to home. And at the end of it all, the memories we are left with, and the love we have for them despite some of those memories.
There’s nothing particularly exceptional about this family, a father, a mother, three children. Alice, the one most likely to follow the rules, Lily who is less compliant and yearns to break the rules and follow her own, and David who seems to cling to them as a child, but can’t wait to be on his own as he begins to grow older. Each member of the family seems set in fulfilling their own impulses, and unwilling to acquiesce when their desires come at the cost to the others. The mother, Mercy, seems to lose herself in her aspiration to live for her art, and seems almost tortured when she is pulled away to spend time with them after they’ve all left the nest to create families of their own. The father, Robin, seems to fade away a little at a time as time passes.
The wounds of family, their aftermath, and the redemptive power of love to heal.
Published: 22 Mar 2022
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Penguin Random House / Knopf
November 2, 2021
Thank you to the publisher for an advanced reader copy via NetGalley. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
Nobody writes families like Anne Tyler. In her 24th novel, the forthcoming French Braid due out in March 2022, Tyler once again explores the inner lives of various members of a family. Tracing their lives through the latter half of the 20th century and into our 'pandemic present' as the jacket copy explains, Anne Tyler delivers quite possibly her best novel to date: a powerful meditation on the small things that make up a life and the impactful moments that shape the trajectory of our futures.
In the summer of 1959, the Garretts take their first (and last) family vacation. They stay at a lakeside cabin where each member of the family occupies themselves with their own entertainment. Whether its painting for the mother, Mercy, or obsessing over the neighbor boy for middle child Lily, the family weaves in and out of each others lives—not only across these few days but through the next 60 years.
There's nothing extraordinary about this family or their vacation. But as with any Anne Tyler novel, the consequences of small choices, or even the interpretation of one family members actions, has profound and lasting consequences. These feelings reverberate through time and space, showing their effects from various points-of-view through the following chapters.
What I loved so much about this novel echoed a lot of what I loved about Tyler's 2015 novel A Spool of Blue Thread. We start in a near-present day chapter, then jump back to the earliest days of the family's history, slowly moving from character to character and through decades in subsequent chapters. Events are re-examined through new eyes, and the reader gets to fill in the gaps themselves. It makes for a page turning and engaging read from Tyler who tends to focus on the humdrum existence of Baltimoreans.
Of course you can expect empathy and pathos from Tyler's prose. She exquisitely crafts characters that feel SO human and so real, they nearly jump off the page. As frustrating and messy their lives are at times, the Garretts come to life and inspire laughter and tears, outrage and sympathy. I mean, who else but Anne Tyler can make something like a salmon loaf take on such meaning?! Once you read it, you'll see what I mean.
All in all, of the 20 Anne Tyler novels I have read, this has to be my favorite; at the very least, one of the most memorable and enjoyable reading experiences since I first picked up her work with A Spool of Blue Thread back in 2015. So eager for everyone to get their hands on this one next year! For readers new to Tyler's work, this will be a great introduction; and for those who are long-time fans like myself, you surely won't be disappointed.
Nobody writes families like Anne Tyler. In her 24th novel, the forthcoming French Braid due out in March 2022, Tyler once again explores the inner lives of various members of a family. Tracing their lives through the latter half of the 20th century and into our 'pandemic present' as the jacket copy explains, Anne Tyler delivers quite possibly her best novel to date: a powerful meditation on the small things that make up a life and the impactful moments that shape the trajectory of our futures.
In the summer of 1959, the Garretts take their first (and last) family vacation. They stay at a lakeside cabin where each member of the family occupies themselves with their own entertainment. Whether its painting for the mother, Mercy, or obsessing over the neighbor boy for middle child Lily, the family weaves in and out of each others lives—not only across these few days but through the next 60 years.
There's nothing extraordinary about this family or their vacation. But as with any Anne Tyler novel, the consequences of small choices, or even the interpretation of one family members actions, has profound and lasting consequences. These feelings reverberate through time and space, showing their effects from various points-of-view through the following chapters.
What I loved so much about this novel echoed a lot of what I loved about Tyler's 2015 novel A Spool of Blue Thread. We start in a near-present day chapter, then jump back to the earliest days of the family's history, slowly moving from character to character and through decades in subsequent chapters. Events are re-examined through new eyes, and the reader gets to fill in the gaps themselves. It makes for a page turning and engaging read from Tyler who tends to focus on the humdrum existence of Baltimoreans.
Of course you can expect empathy and pathos from Tyler's prose. She exquisitely crafts characters that feel SO human and so real, they nearly jump off the page. As frustrating and messy their lives are at times, the Garretts come to life and inspire laughter and tears, outrage and sympathy. I mean, who else but Anne Tyler can make something like a salmon loaf take on such meaning?! Once you read it, you'll see what I mean.
All in all, of the 20 Anne Tyler novels I have read, this has to be my favorite; at the very least, one of the most memorable and enjoyable reading experiences since I first picked up her work with A Spool of Blue Thread back in 2015. So eager for everyone to get their hands on this one next year! For readers new to Tyler's work, this will be a great introduction; and for those who are long-time fans like myself, you surely won't be disappointed.
March 23, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this story about the Garrett family .. a middle class family of five.
They are from Baltimore and the story starts in 1959 and follows them up until Covid starts.
Tyler writes with such insight and understanding of family relationships, ..secrets, affections, exasperations..
This is only my second Tyler novel..
I plan to read more of her!
Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday for the digital copy!
They are from Baltimore and the story starts in 1959 and follows them up until Covid starts.
Tyler writes with such insight and understanding of family relationships, ..secrets, affections, exasperations..
This is only my second Tyler novel..
I plan to read more of her!
Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday for the digital copy!
March 19, 2022
The Butterfly Effect suggests the slightest, most inconspicuous event can change the course of history.
Anne Tyler's "French Braid" covers generations of the Garrett family from Baltimore. The family consists of wonderfully realized characters, but there always seems to be a fog between them... they are never quite able to completely bond with one another. We see this at the onset as we find them on vacation at a lake and it is noted that passersby could not even detect that the family members knew each other.
My two favorite characters are the mother and father, Mercy and Robin. Robin loves Mercy with every bit of his heart-- and is pretty clueless as to what makes her tick. "He never asked her why (she loves him); he was deeply afraid that if she reflected too deeply, she would realize her mistake." Mercy has been drifting away from him for years; no, nothing as calamitous as a divorce or public separation. She finds a nearby office / apartment / studio to do the painting she's longed to explore her whole life. She gradually spends more and more time there, using her work as a cover to spend nights apart. Meanwhile, Robin exists in absolute denial that anything has changed.
There is also David, the son everybody loves and can not understand why he distances himself from the family. Despite all the family dysfunction, David eventually realizes "that's how families work, too. You think you're free of them, but you're never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever." If you try looking for some big bang, some Hitchcockian MacGuffin to show how the relationships have landed where they have-- well, we will not find that in Anne Tyler's world. We discover the smallest pushes have nudged family dynamics here to this point.
We live in the age of sound-bites, of edited action scenes, of instant gratification. Every 007 movie opens with that splashy "grab their attention" sequence. It is nice to step back, breathe out slowly, and allow Anne Tyler to put her real-life compositions on exhibit. Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Edelweiss, and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #FrenchBraid #KnopfDoubleday
Anne Tyler's "French Braid" covers generations of the Garrett family from Baltimore. The family consists of wonderfully realized characters, but there always seems to be a fog between them... they are never quite able to completely bond with one another. We see this at the onset as we find them on vacation at a lake and it is noted that passersby could not even detect that the family members knew each other.
My two favorite characters are the mother and father, Mercy and Robin. Robin loves Mercy with every bit of his heart-- and is pretty clueless as to what makes her tick. "He never asked her why (she loves him); he was deeply afraid that if she reflected too deeply, she would realize her mistake." Mercy has been drifting away from him for years; no, nothing as calamitous as a divorce or public separation. She finds a nearby office / apartment / studio to do the painting she's longed to explore her whole life. She gradually spends more and more time there, using her work as a cover to spend nights apart. Meanwhile, Robin exists in absolute denial that anything has changed.
There is also David, the son everybody loves and can not understand why he distances himself from the family. Despite all the family dysfunction, David eventually realizes "that's how families work, too. You think you're free of them, but you're never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever." If you try looking for some big bang, some Hitchcockian MacGuffin to show how the relationships have landed where they have-- well, we will not find that in Anne Tyler's world. We discover the smallest pushes have nudged family dynamics here to this point.
We live in the age of sound-bites, of edited action scenes, of instant gratification. Every 007 movie opens with that splashy "grab their attention" sequence. It is nice to step back, breathe out slowly, and allow Anne Tyler to put her real-life compositions on exhibit. Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Edelweiss, and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #FrenchBraid #KnopfDoubleday
March 29, 2022
French Braid is classic Anne Tyler — A slice of life story filled with realistic humans. The Garretts are a Baltimore family who vacation one summer at a lake house. Mercy is an aspiring artist while Robin owns a hardware store. Sisters Alice and Lily are complete opposites and David, the youngest in the family, is much different from the others.
The story follows the Garretts as they grow older, building their own families and detailing their relationships with one another as their lives progress. While this book is not the same, I couldn’t help but be reminded of The Most Fun We Ever Had, a family saga that I read and loved last year! French Braid is its own worthy story and I generally liked each of the Garrett family members.
This is my 4th book by Anne Tyler and while I still have several of her backlist books to catch up on, she does not disappoint! Her ability to create genuine characters is on par with Ann Patchett — Both Ann(e)s are brilliant authors.
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
The story follows the Garretts as they grow older, building their own families and detailing their relationships with one another as their lives progress. While this book is not the same, I couldn’t help but be reminded of The Most Fun We Ever Had, a family saga that I read and loved last year! French Braid is its own worthy story and I generally liked each of the Garrett family members.
This is my 4th book by Anne Tyler and while I still have several of her backlist books to catch up on, she does not disappoint! Her ability to create genuine characters is on par with Ann Patchett — Both Ann(e)s are brilliant authors.
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
June 22, 2022
I have read a lot of this author's books and sometimes I love them and sometimes I do not. This is one where I am tending towards do not.
Families are always the key to Anne Tyler's books, usually slightly dysfunctional ones but generally a bit quirky and loveable. The family members in French Braid are not loveable and in fact most of them are self centred and not very nice at all. I think the only person I liked was Morris and he just married into the family.
The book was still very readable but by the end I was feeling that there was no purpose to it, and when I reached David's eventual understanding of his father I was even depressed! Three stars still because it was beautifully written as always and I did read it to the end, but Tyler has written many better books.
Families are always the key to Anne Tyler's books, usually slightly dysfunctional ones but generally a bit quirky and loveable. The family members in French Braid are not loveable and in fact most of them are self centred and not very nice at all. I think the only person I liked was Morris and he just married into the family.
The book was still very readable but by the end I was feeling that there was no purpose to it, and when I reached David's eventual understanding of his father I was even depressed! Three stars still because it was beautifully written as always and I did read it to the end, but Tyler has written many better books.
February 10, 2022
Oh, the lengths this family would go to so as not to spoil the picture of how things were supposed to be!
Anne Tyler does families the way Rembrandt does art or Frank Lloyd Wright does buildings. That is to say, she is a master at it, uncannily capturing all the eccentricities and quirks but never, not for one minute, judging or belittling her characters.
As you can tell, I’m an unabashed Anne Tyler fan, and I’m so delighted to see that at age 81, she is still going strong. I don’t just read Ms. Tyler’s books – I surrender to them. A day or two later, I emerge, blinking a little and re-acclimating myself to my own world after being happily submerged in hers.
Like many of her past books, French Braid is about a mismatched family that consistently misses the connection that is more evident in larger, more boisterous families. The patriarch and matriarch are Mercy – a housewife-turned-artist-of-sorts and her emotionally awkward husband Robin, who have three children – Alice, Lily and David – who in turn have their own children.
As with other families, this one hides their uncomfortable truths, allows a few self-deceptions, and provides little kindnesses and little cruelties. As each character takes his or her turn dancing into the spotlight, the authenticity is so achingly real it sometimes took my breath away.
It is not Anne Tyler’s way to build up to a crashing crescendo. It’s the little moments that stick in our minds: the wistfulness of a husband whose wife spends most of her time in her art studio while he mines their memories for a 50th anniversary surprise…the granddaughter and grandmother with a special connection whose train journey doesn’t go precisely as planned…another grandmother, decades later, who draws a deep breath of the scent that her grandson has left behind.
The title, French Braid, comes from a tightly woven hairstyle that, when undone, falls in little leftover squiggles for hours afterwards. One character says, “That’s how families work, too. You think you’re free of them but you’re never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever.”
That is the beauty of an Anne Tyler novel. She notices things that we’ve known all along and then expresses them in a way that’s so beautifully-said and so spot-on that we wonder why we never thought of it in quite that way before. This novel, which spans from the late 50s to current pandemic times, is my favorite of her recent works. I am so grateful to Knopf for the opportunity to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.
Anne Tyler does families the way Rembrandt does art or Frank Lloyd Wright does buildings. That is to say, she is a master at it, uncannily capturing all the eccentricities and quirks but never, not for one minute, judging or belittling her characters.
As you can tell, I’m an unabashed Anne Tyler fan, and I’m so delighted to see that at age 81, she is still going strong. I don’t just read Ms. Tyler’s books – I surrender to them. A day or two later, I emerge, blinking a little and re-acclimating myself to my own world after being happily submerged in hers.
Like many of her past books, French Braid is about a mismatched family that consistently misses the connection that is more evident in larger, more boisterous families. The patriarch and matriarch are Mercy – a housewife-turned-artist-of-sorts and her emotionally awkward husband Robin, who have three children – Alice, Lily and David – who in turn have their own children.
As with other families, this one hides their uncomfortable truths, allows a few self-deceptions, and provides little kindnesses and little cruelties. As each character takes his or her turn dancing into the spotlight, the authenticity is so achingly real it sometimes took my breath away.
It is not Anne Tyler’s way to build up to a crashing crescendo. It’s the little moments that stick in our minds: the wistfulness of a husband whose wife spends most of her time in her art studio while he mines their memories for a 50th anniversary surprise…the granddaughter and grandmother with a special connection whose train journey doesn’t go precisely as planned…another grandmother, decades later, who draws a deep breath of the scent that her grandson has left behind.
The title, French Braid, comes from a tightly woven hairstyle that, when undone, falls in little leftover squiggles for hours afterwards. One character says, “That’s how families work, too. You think you’re free of them but you’re never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever.”
That is the beauty of an Anne Tyler novel. She notices things that we’ve known all along and then expresses them in a way that’s so beautifully-said and so spot-on that we wonder why we never thought of it in quite that way before. This novel, which spans from the late 50s to current pandemic times, is my favorite of her recent works. I am so grateful to Knopf for the opportunity to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.
May 7, 2022
I so needed this book right now, after having just finished an intense book that had me needing a brain cleanse and a little normality. Anne Tyler's characters are just everyday people like you and me, going about their daily lives. Sure, a little eccentric and quirky, some of them, families that love each other but don't always like each other, with all those problems and difficulties that get ignored or swept under the rug. But like the rest of us, they plod on through the years doing the best they can under whatever circumstances are presented.
This is Tyler's gift to literature, showing us ourselves, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, parents and children, husbands and wives. The gift of ordinary lives, nothing special, not so very dramatic, but people we recognize as one of us, or someone we know. People we care about enough to wish them the best. At the end of her books, you may either laugh or cry, maybe both, but you turn the last page with satisfaction.
She has written 24 books so far, and I've read every one of them through the years. This is not my favorite, but still gets 5 stars because it gave me what I needed. It's what she does better than anyone else.
This is Tyler's gift to literature, showing us ourselves, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, parents and children, husbands and wives. The gift of ordinary lives, nothing special, not so very dramatic, but people we recognize as one of us, or someone we know. People we care about enough to wish them the best. At the end of her books, you may either laugh or cry, maybe both, but you turn the last page with satisfaction.
She has written 24 books so far, and I've read every one of them through the years. This is not my favorite, but still gets 5 stars because it gave me what I needed. It's what she does better than anyone else.
October 28, 2022
I generally like Anne Tyler's "slice of life" books about families, but I think this one suffers from an overabundance of characters for Tyler's sparse style of writing.
It's the story of a family--Mercy and Robin, who have three children: Alice, Lily, and David, and then those children go onto having children themselves. I really didn't like Mercy and found her decisions off-putting, strange and very selfish. The book covers many years, mostly a series of vignettes about the family and different situations and things in their lives.
I guess I just struggled to see the point of it. There wasn't much of an overarching theme or point, just a family over a number of years. Not sure I'll remember much about it a month from now.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
It's the story of a family--Mercy and Robin, who have three children: Alice, Lily, and David, and then those children go onto having children themselves. I really didn't like Mercy and found her decisions off-putting, strange and very selfish. The book covers many years, mostly a series of vignettes about the family and different situations and things in their lives.
I guess I just struggled to see the point of it. There wasn't much of an overarching theme or point, just a family over a number of years. Not sure I'll remember much about it a month from now.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
March 22, 2022
Everything about Anne Tyler’s 24th novel, “French Braid,” is immediately recognizable to her fans. The story offers such a complete checklist of the author’s usual motifs and themes that it could serve as the Guidebook to Anne Tyler in the Wild. The insular Baltimore family, the quirky occupations, the special foods — they all move across these pages as predictably as the phases of the moon.
There are times when such familiarity might feel tiresome. But we’re not in one of those times. Indeed, given today’s slate of horror and chaos, the rich melody of “French Braid” offers the comfort of a beloved hymn. It doesn’t even matter if you believe in the sanctity of family life; the sound alone brings solace.
The Garretts are a classic Tyler tribe: responsible, middle-class, kind but flinty. Robin and Mercy have inherited the family plumbing supply store. They’re the parents of three blue-eyed children: two teenage daughters — one responsible, one boy-crazy — and a 7-year-old son who’s. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
There are times when such familiarity might feel tiresome. But we’re not in one of those times. Indeed, given today’s slate of horror and chaos, the rich melody of “French Braid” offers the comfort of a beloved hymn. It doesn’t even matter if you believe in the sanctity of family life; the sound alone brings solace.
The Garretts are a classic Tyler tribe: responsible, middle-class, kind but flinty. Robin and Mercy have inherited the family plumbing supply store. They’re the parents of three blue-eyed children: two teenage daughters — one responsible, one boy-crazy — and a 7-year-old son who’s. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
April 4, 2022
Tyler and I aren't that far apart in age, I'm 73 to her 80, but while reading this book I felt like we were generations apart. When I was in my late 30s and early 40s I loved her novels, couldn't wait for the next one to come out but this is the last Tyler book I'll read. I should have known better than to shell out $25, the last novel of hers that I read "A Spool of Blue Thread" left me cold and this one left me downright frigid.
I cared nothing for the characters, particularly Mercy, the mother who although I respected and understood her desire to be more than simply a mother and housewife, I found to be phony and behaving in ways that made no sense. One example being the cat that she takes care of for her landlord and appears, at least the way Tyler wrote it, to get along with quite well. But when she finds out that her having the cat is a permanent situation, she unceremoniously drops it off at the shelter. I didn't understand her reasoning for doing so other than that she didn't want to be responsible for anything living.
The children seemed to age very quickly in the novel, too quickly it seemed sometimes. I'm assuming that Tyler did her homework and had all the dates correct but I wasn't interested or involved enough with any of the characters to go back and check to find out if they should have been in college when she wrote that they were.
There were so many behaviors exhibited in this book that made no sense at all. The parents not caring for instance that their 15 year-old was staying out all hours of the night with a 21-year old she'd met the first day of their vacation. None of the characters were fully drawn, none seemed real, they didn't behave like real people.
And I had a real problem near the end of the novel when one of the grandchildren, Benny, is being read picture books and Tyler writes that he is on the "very edge" of knowing how to read for himself, pouncing on random short words and calling them out. But only two pages later she writes that Benny might say: "Did you know if you stand under a trellis and press the backs of your hands to both sides of it, your arms will float up by themselves after you step away?" Really? Did anyone edit this book?
I think I'll re-read "The Accidental Tourist" and "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" and long for what was.
I cared nothing for the characters, particularly Mercy, the mother who although I respected and understood her desire to be more than simply a mother and housewife, I found to be phony and behaving in ways that made no sense. One example being the cat that she takes care of for her landlord and appears, at least the way Tyler wrote it, to get along with quite well. But when she finds out that her having the cat is a permanent situation, she unceremoniously drops it off at the shelter. I didn't understand her reasoning for doing so other than that she didn't want to be responsible for anything living.
The children seemed to age very quickly in the novel, too quickly it seemed sometimes. I'm assuming that Tyler did her homework and had all the dates correct but I wasn't interested or involved enough with any of the characters to go back and check to find out if they should have been in college when she wrote that they were.
There were so many behaviors exhibited in this book that made no sense at all. The parents not caring for instance that their 15 year-old was staying out all hours of the night with a 21-year old she'd met the first day of their vacation. None of the characters were fully drawn, none seemed real, they didn't behave like real people.
And I had a real problem near the end of the novel when one of the grandchildren, Benny, is being read picture books and Tyler writes that he is on the "very edge" of knowing how to read for himself, pouncing on random short words and calling them out. But only two pages later she writes that Benny might say: "Did you know if you stand under a trellis and press the backs of your hands to both sides of it, your arms will float up by themselves after you step away?" Really? Did anyone edit this book?
I think I'll re-read "The Accidental Tourist" and "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" and long for what was.
August 3, 2022
This the the third review that disappeared. Again, I am reposting
" This is what families do for each other-hide a few uncomfortable truths, allow a few self-deceptions, little kindnesses, and little cruelties."
Anne Tyler's 24th novel, "French Braid," is a multigenerational family saga that explores the interactions of the Garret family, an ordinary middle-class Baltimore family, over six decades. It is my fourth Anne Tyler novel, and I return to her work because I find her non-judgemental humanism and compassionate portrayal of ordinary people refreshing. Washington Post critic Ron Charles captured the essence of her writing when he referred to her as " Our patron saint of the unremarked outlandishness of ordinary life."
In the French Braid, Tyler does not write about family dysfunction. There are no abusers or addicts in the Garret family. Instead, she examines the dissolution of family ties over time and the lack of communication that reduces extended family interaction to weddings, funerals, and anniversary parties. There is still a family feeling, but it is sadly limited.
One of Tyler's strengths is character development. Tyler allows the reader to enter the heads of Mercy and Robin Garret, their children, and grandchildren through a series of stories so finely developed that, at times, felt like short stories rather than chapters in a novel. In addition, her powerful storytelling heightened the tragedy of the gradual dissolution of family ties. I found it disturbing because this quiet malaise is typical of American family life.
" This is what families do for each other-hide a few uncomfortable truths, allow a few self-deceptions, little kindnesses, and little cruelties."
Anne Tyler's 24th novel, "French Braid," is a multigenerational family saga that explores the interactions of the Garret family, an ordinary middle-class Baltimore family, over six decades. It is my fourth Anne Tyler novel, and I return to her work because I find her non-judgemental humanism and compassionate portrayal of ordinary people refreshing. Washington Post critic Ron Charles captured the essence of her writing when he referred to her as " Our patron saint of the unremarked outlandishness of ordinary life."
In the French Braid, Tyler does not write about family dysfunction. There are no abusers or addicts in the Garret family. Instead, she examines the dissolution of family ties over time and the lack of communication that reduces extended family interaction to weddings, funerals, and anniversary parties. There is still a family feeling, but it is sadly limited.
One of Tyler's strengths is character development. Tyler allows the reader to enter the heads of Mercy and Robin Garret, their children, and grandchildren through a series of stories so finely developed that, at times, felt like short stories rather than chapters in a novel. In addition, her powerful storytelling heightened the tragedy of the gradual dissolution of family ties. I found it disturbing because this quiet malaise is typical of American family life.
March 22, 2022
Over 30 years ago I forgot to mail in the monthly card for the Book-of-the-Month club and received the Anne Tyler book "Breathing Lessons" in the mail. It won the Pulitzer Prize, but more importantly, I had just met my favorite author. I was mesmerized by her ability to write about everyday people doing ordinary things and somehow make it a revelation that I could learn from- and often relate to. I pretty much bought every book from Anne Tyler over the years. They made more of a big impression on me when I was much younger and still had a lot of life to live and things to learn. I still enjoy them now, but call them "quiet reads". She has a matter-of-fact way of crafting characters that are believable, and even when behaving badly don't inspire dislike, but just a recognition of, "Okay, so that's the way they are" and accept their faults.
I haven't read one of her books in about ten years, but like a comfortable pair of old slippers experienced the familiar formula that spins Tyler's particular brand of magic. This book follows a married couple of fifty years who have a son, two daughters and grandchildren. It briefly reverts back in time to a singular beach trip when the kids were young, which serves to explains the family dynamic. The main character of matriarch Mercy was pure Anne Tyler. During her 50 year marriage to Robin, she never worked but has a passion for artistic painting. She has a little studio over a neighborhood garage within walking distance of her house which she rents. Now that all the kids are out of the house and she and Robin are empty nesters, Mercy finally employs her plan of basically moving over to living full-time in that studio, without expressly stating that's what she's doing. When Robin's out of the house, she gradually takes short trips over there bringing clothes and other items, just leaving a bit behind in the house. She has business cards made up to drum up future business painting portraits of homes. Mercy has a quirky style of painting where she amplifies a singular item by painting it in minute detail, while the remaining background of the room is left in soft focus. Mercy never really gets much business, but still winds up spending the majority of her residency in this art studio. She seems a bit self-centered and not much of a mother, as suggested in the beach family trip vignette at the beginning of the book. As usual, Tyler conjures up a mix of distinct, vivid characters living out this thing called life. I can see parts of myself in them, which is perhaps why I find comfort and joy reading her books.
Thank you very much to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
May 15, 2022
4.5 🏠🏠🏠🏚
So upon finishing, I immediately want to read every Anne Tyler I've never read.
She must have been a fly on the wall at that yellow house on Wilkie where I was raised.
"So Lily didn't inform her daughter she was getting married?
Oh, well, Greta said. This is America, remember?
What's that have to do with it?
Consider the gene pool...settled by dissidents and malcontents and misfits and adventurers.
Thorny people.
They don't always follow the etiquette."
Family dynamics 101.
Recipients of a life with long stemmed roses minus the thorns might be shrugging.
So upon finishing, I immediately want to read every Anne Tyler I've never read.
She must have been a fly on the wall at that yellow house on Wilkie where I was raised.
"So Lily didn't inform her daughter she was getting married?
Oh, well, Greta said. This is America, remember?
What's that have to do with it?
Consider the gene pool...settled by dissidents and malcontents and misfits and adventurers.
Thorny people.
They don't always follow the etiquette."
Family dynamics 101.
Recipients of a life with long stemmed roses minus the thorns might be shrugging.
May 7, 2022
Loved it! No one understands family dynamics like Anne Tyler, and she really out-did herself with French Braid. I've read 10 or 12 of her books and I can honestly say that this is my new favourite. Absolutely wonderful!
Very highly recommended - 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Very highly recommended - 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
August 15, 2022
This book is divided into several long chapters each telling the story of the Garretts during a different period of their lives, it's multi-generational.
The only chapter I enjoyed was probably Candle's (with Mercy), the chapter wasn't that bad either but then I lost interest in the story. Luckily, the book was short and I was done with the audiobook within a few days since I had two long drives.
I'm usually a fan of family dramas but this one simply didn't hit the mark for me. That being said, I understand why some people would enjoy this book.
The only chapter I enjoyed was probably Candle's (with Mercy), the chapter wasn't that bad either but then I lost interest in the story. Luckily, the book was short and I was done with the audiobook within a few days since I had two long drives.
I'm usually a fan of family dramas but this one simply didn't hit the mark for me. That being said, I understand why some people would enjoy this book.
April 13, 2022
This was both Anne Tyler's 24th novel and mine too. Her writing has long been a mainstay in my love of books and this was no exception.
A bit different book for her, taking place over 70 years with a family originally based in Baltimore as are all her previous novels, but by the end, only one family member remains there. This book started slowly, but as with all families, the book became more involving as it progressed. By the end I wanted it to keep going and delve into all the diverse family members more than it did. I felt there could have been several books written following each family member on their diverse journeys.
Many things about this book were reminicent of my own family growing up in Connecticut, with all of us ending up somewhere else without a whole lot of contact, as happened here. By the end, I was entranced once again with Ms Tyler's writing.
4.5 rounded up.
A bit different book for her, taking place over 70 years with a family originally based in Baltimore as are all her previous novels, but by the end, only one family member remains there. This book started slowly, but as with all families, the book became more involving as it progressed. By the end I wanted it to keep going and delve into all the diverse family members more than it did. I felt there could have been several books written following each family member on their diverse journeys.
Many things about this book were reminicent of my own family growing up in Connecticut, with all of us ending up somewhere else without a whole lot of contact, as happened here. By the end, I was entranced once again with Ms Tyler's writing.
4.5 rounded up.
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