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Summary
Summary
Anne Tyler gives us a wise, haunting, and deeply moving new novel in which she explores how a middle-aged man, ripped apart by the death of his wife, is gradually restored by her frequent appearances--in their house, on the roadway, in the market.
Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron spent his childhood fending off a sister who wants to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, a plain, outspoken, self-dependent young woman, she is like a breath of fresh air. Unhesitatingly he marries her, and they have a relatively happy, unremarkable marriage. But when a tree crashes into their house and Dorothy is killed, Aaron feels as though he has been erased forever. Only Dorothy's unexpected appearances from the dead help him to live in the moment and to find some peace.
Gradually he discovers, as he works in the family's vanity-publishing business, turning out titles that presume to guide beginners through the trials of life, that maybe for this beginner there is a way of saying goodbye.
A beautiful, subtle exploration of loss and recovery, pierced throughout with Anne Tyler's humor, wisdom, and always penetrating look at human foibles.
Author Notes
Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 25, 1941. She graduated from Duke University at the age of 19 and completed graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a librarian and bibliographer.
Her first novel, If Morning Ever Comes, was published in 1964. Her other works include Saint Maybe, Back When We Were Grownups, Digging to America, Noah's Compass, The Beginner's Goodbye, A Spool of Blue Thread, and Vinegar Girl. She has won several awards including the PEN Faulkner Award in 1983 for Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, the 1985 National Book Critics Circle Award for The Accidental Tourist, and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Breathing Lessons. The Accidental Tourist was adapted into a 1988 movie starring William Hurt and Geena Davis. In 2018 her title, Clock Dance, made the bestsellers list.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In Tyler's latest novel, a physically disabled man named Aaron is devastated when his wife, Dorothy, is killed in a freak accident. As he tries to pick up the pieces of his life, Dorothy begins to appear to him from beyond the grave. Narrator Kirby Heyborne turns in a workmanlike performance in this compelling audio edition. Heyborne is sensitive and believable in his rendition of quirky, polite, and antisocial Aaron, who struggles to understand how to function after his wife's death, while also facing painful truths about the ups and downs of his marriage. Heyborne's nuanced narration captures the protagonist's emotional growth, his grief, and the ways he is able to better understand himself and his needs. A Knopf hardcover. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
In Tyler's latest work, publisher Aaron Woolcott has led a painful life. He suffers from a crippled right arm and leg, a speech impediment, and a domineering sister. Now, an accident takes the life of his wife, Dorothy, an independent woman who provided him with much-needed joy and balance. An overwhelmed Aaron attempts to start over despite interference from his sister and coworkers. Dorothy's ghost appears to help him through these trials and to try to find peace in his new life. -VERDICT This quiet, reflective work touches thoughtfully on issues of loss and recovery. Reader Kirby Heyborne does an excellent job. Recommended to all Tyler fans and listeners who enjoy intelligent, low-key stories. ["Pulitzer Prize winner Tyler brilliantly explores a stunning range of human emotion, -poignantly considering the challenges of death while creating lovable characters whose foibles capture our hearts. Essential reading," read the review of the Knopf hc, LJ 4/1/12.-Ed.]-Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ. Parkersburg Lib. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
The strangest thing about my wife's return from the dead was how other people reacted. We were strolling through Belvedere Square, for instance, on an early-spring afternoon when we met our old next-door neighbor, Jim Rust. "Well, what do you know," he said to me. "Aaron!" Then he noticed Dorothy beside me. She stood peering up at him with one hand shielding her forehead from the sun. His eyes widened and he turned to me again. I said, "How's it going, Jim?" Visibly, he pulled himself together. "Oh . . . great," he said. "I mean . . . or, rather . . . but of course we miss you. Neighborhood is not the same without you!" He was focusing on me alone--specifically, on my mouth, as if I were the one who was talking. He wouldn't look at Dorothy. He had pivoted a few inches so as to exclude her from his line of vision. I took pity on him. I said, "Well, tell everybody hello," and we walked on. Beside me, Dorothy gave one of her dry chuckles. Other people pretended not to recognize either one of us. They would catch sight of us from a distance, and this sort of jolt would alter their expressions and they would all at once dart down a side street, busy-busy, much to accomplish, very important concerns on their minds. I didn't hold it against them. I knew this was a lot to adjust to. In their position, I might have behaved the same way. I like to think I wouldn't, but I might have. The ones who made me laugh aloud were the ones who had forgotten she'd died. Granted, there were only two or three of those--people who barely knew us. In line at the bank once we were spotted by Mr. von Sant, who had handled our mortgage application several years before. He was crossing the lobby and he paused to ask, "You two still enjoying the house?" "Oh, yes," I told him. Just to keep things simple. I pictured how the realization would hit him a few minutes later. Wait ! he would say to himself, as he was sitting back down at his desk. Didn't I hear something abou t . . . ? Unless he never gave us another thought. Or hadn't heard the news in the first place. He'd go on forever assuming that the house was still intact, and Dorothy still alive, and the two of us still happily, unremarkably married. I had moved in by then with my sister, who lived in our parents' old place in north Baltimore. Was that why Dorothy came back when she did? She hadn't much cared for Nandina. She thought she was too bossy. Well, she was too bossy. Is. She's especially bossy with me, because I have a couple of handicaps. I may not have mentioned that. I have a crippled right arm and leg. Nothing that gets in my way, but you know how older sisters can be. Oh, and also a kind of speech hesitation, but only intermittently. I seldom even hear it, myself. In fact, I have often wondered what made Dorothy select the moment she did to come back. It wasn't immediately after she died, which is when you might expect. It was months and months later. Almost a year. Of course I could have just asked her, but somehow, I don't know, the question seemed impolite. I can't explain exactly why. One time we ran into Irene Lance, from my office. She's the design person there. Dorothy and I were returning from lunch. Or I had had lunch, at least, and Dorothy had fallen into step beside me as I was walking back. And suddenly we noticed Irene approaching from St. Paul. Irene was hard to miss. She was always the most elegant woman on the street, not that that was much of a challenge in Baltimore. But she would have seemed elegant anywhere. She was tall and ice-blonde, wearing a long, flowing coat that day with the collar turned up around her throat and the hemline swirling about her shins in the brisk spring breeze. I was curious. How would a person like Irene handle this type of thing? So I slowed my pace, which caused Dorothy to slow hers, and by the time Irene caught sight of us we were almost at a standstill, both of us waiting to see what Irene would do. Two or three feet away from us, she stopped short. "Oh . . . my . . . God," she said. We smiled. "UPS," she said. I said, "What?" "I phoned UPS for a pickup and there's nobody in the office." "Well, never mind. We're heading back there right now," I told her. I used the word "we" on purpose, although Dorothy would most likely depart before I entered the building. But all Irene said was, "Thanks, Aaron. I must be getting Alzheimer's." And off she went, without another word. She would really have worried about Alzheimer's if she had known what she'd just overlooked. I glanced over at Dorothy, expecting her to share the joke, but she was pursuing her own line of thought. "Wild Strawberries," she said, in a reflective tone of voice. "Pardon?" "That's who Irene reminds me of. The woman in the old Bergman movie--the daughter-in-law, with the skinned-back bun. Remember her?" "Ingrid Thulin," I said. Dorothy raised her eyebrows slightly, to show she was impressed, but it wasn't so very difficult to dredge that name up. I had been enamored with Ingrid Thulin since college. I liked her cool, collected air. "How long do you suppose it will be before Irene does a double take?" I asked Dorothy. Dorothy merely shrugged. She seemed to view our situation much more matter-of-factly than I did. Maybe the reason I didn't ask Dorothy why she had come back when she did was that I worried it would make her ask herself the same question. If she had just sort of wandered back, absentmindedly, the way you would return to an old address out of habit, then once I'd brought it up she might say, "Oh! My goodness! I should be going!" Or maybe she would imagine I was asking what she was doing here. Why she had come back at all, in other words. Like when you ask a houseguest how long he's planning to stay and he suspects you're asking, "When can I hope to be rid of you?" Maybe that was why I felt it wouldn't be polite. It would kill me if she left. I had already gone through that once. I didn't think I could do it all over again. She was short and plump and serious-looking. She had a broad, olive-skinned face, appealingly flat-planed, and calm black eyes that were noticeably level, with that perfect symmetry that makes the viewer feel rested. Her hair, which she cut herself in a heedless, blunt, square style, was deeply, absolutely black, and all of a piece. (Her family had come from Mexico two generations before.) And yet I don't think other people recognized how attractive she was, because she hid it. Or, no, not even that; she was too unaware of it to hide it. She wore owlish, round-lensed glasses that mocked the shape of her face. Her clothes made her figure seem squat--wide, straight trousers and man-tailored shirts, chunky crepe-soled shoes of a type that waitresses favored in diners. Only I noticed the creases as fine as silk threads that encircled her wrists and her neck. Only I knew her dear, pudgy feet, with the nails like tiny seashells. My sister said Dorothy was too old for me, but that was just because I had foolishly told the truth when I was asked. Even though she was eight years my senior--forty-three when she died--she seemed younger, because of that good strong Hispanic skin. Plus, she had enough padding to fill out any lines. You wouldn't really think about age at all, with Dorothy. My sister also said she was too short for me, and it is undeniable that when Dorothy and I hugged, all the wrong parts of us met. I am six-feet-four. Dorothy was not quite five-one. If you saw us walking down the street together, my sister said, you would take us for a father and child heading off to grammar school. And too professional, my sister said. Ha! There's a novel objection. Dorothy was a doctor. I work as an editor in my family's publishing firm. Not all that great a disparity, right? What Nandina meant was, too intent upon her profession. Too work-obsessed. She left for her office early, stayed late, didn't greet me with my slippers in the evening, barely knew how to boil an egg. Fine with me. But not with Nandina, evidently. Maybe it was just a long, long way to travel, and that's why it took Dorothy all those months to come back. Or maybe she had first tried to do without me, the way I had first tried to do without her--to "get over" my loss, "find closure," "move on," all those ridiculous phrases people use when they're urging you to endure the unendurable. But eventually, she had faced the fact that we simply missed each other too much. She had given in and returned. That's what I liked to believe. Excerpted from The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.