Book Review for French Braid by Anne Tyler

 French Braid by  Anne Tyler 

Hardcover, 256 pages

Publication: March 22nd 2022 by Knopf Publishing Group

Genre:  Historical Fiction

 

Taken from Goodreads:  From the beloved best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author--a funny, joyful, brilliantly perceptive journey deep into one Baltimore family's foibles, from a boyfriend with a red Chevy in the 1950s up to a longed-for reunion with a grandchild in our pandemic present.

The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever leave home, 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 understand. 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.

My Thoughts:  I really wanted to like or even love this book.  I had heard so many great things about Anne Tyler and was so excited when I started reading French Braid.   I did not love this book.  I enjoyed the family dynamic, but I felt it was slow and there was not much going on. The family grew apart, yet they seemed to pretend to be okay.  They downplayed so much about their family, things that should have been a bigger deal.   They were worried about appearances way too much for my liking.   They wanted to be a perfect family and put on that appearance for those around them and for each other.

I am wanting to give Anne Tyler another chance and am excited to find another of her books to read and hopefully enjoy.  

**Thank you NetGalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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Meet the Author  (Taken from her website):  ANNE TYLER was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of more than twenty novels. Her twentieth novel, A Spool of Blue Thread, was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2015. Her eleventh novel, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1989. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

annetyler.com