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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Barnaby Gaitlin is one of Anne Tyler's most promising unpromising characters. At 30, he has yet to graduate from college, is already divorced and is used to defeat. His mother thrives on reminding him of his adolescent delinquency and debt to his family, and even his daughter is fed up with his fecklessness. Still, attuned as he is to "the normal quota for misfortune," Barney is one of the star employees of Baltimore's Rent-a-Back, Inc., which pays him an hourly wage to help old people (and one young agoraphobe) run errands and sort out their basements and attics. Anne Tyler makes you admire most of these mothball eccentrics (though they're far from idealised) and hope that they can stave off nursing homes and death. There is, for example, "the unstoppable little black grandma whose children phoned us on an emergency basis whenever she threatened to overdo." And then there's Barnaby's new girlfriend's aunt, who will eventually accuse him of theft--"Over her forearm she carried a Yorkshire terrier, neatly folded like a waiter's napkin. "This is my doorbell," she said, thrusting him toward me. "I'd never have known you were out here if not for Tatters." These people are wonderful creations, but their lives are more brittle than cuddly; Barnaby knows better than to think of them as friends, because they'll only die on him. Yet his job offers at least glimpses of roots and affection. Helping an old lady set up her Christmas tree (on New Year's Eve!) gives him the chance to hang a singular ornament--a snowflake "pancake-sized, slightly crumpled, snipped from giftwrap so old that the Santas were smoking cigarettes." And Barnaby himself is sharp and impatient at painful--and painfully funny--family dinners, apparently unable to keep his finger off the auto-self-destruct button every time his life improves. As much as his superb creator, he is a poet of disappointment, resignation, and minute transformation. --Kerry Fried
Book Description
One of five Anne Tyler novels reissued in stunning new jackets
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a gentle, thought-provoking novel which stays with you after you have finished, in a dream-like way. Like many of the other reviewers here this was my first Anne Tyler novel, and I rushed and bought another one as soon as I had finished. It drew me in, and cut to the heart of the matter. To be able to lift the mundane into the remarkable is a talent which breathes life into everything. It was so realistic and although at times sad and even tragic, it made me look again at this amazing thing called ordinary life.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Yet again Anne Tyler delivers a great book. The characters she paints appear to be so strange that at first you think that no-one on earth like this could exist. But She gives them so much description that we start seeing bits of ourselves in them. The book I would recommend first time readers to start with is The Clock Winder - the stubborn old woman, the girl who never turns down an invitation and the two brothers who fall in love with her.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is not often that I can read on an airplane but this dense novel kept me fully absorbed as we crossed Greenland. I found Barnaby a bit too good and managed to forgive his youthful wickedness too easily. But Sophia and Martine, what a choice and what tension I found in the choosing. The unpleasant characters are interesting and you can find sympathy even with the social climbing mother and lazy co worker. Anne Tyler is an author whose characters are so well drawn that every move they make, even when unexpected, are consistent with their creation. I loved the novel and rated it with Tyler's best.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
An enjoyable read
This book made me smile at all the right places, it was a wonderfully written story that forms a connection with the reader. Read more
Published 6 months ago by YasmeenA
Not the edition expected
The paperback was listed as very good. I would rate it, at best, good to average. Also the edition supplied was not the edition illustrated.
Published 10 months ago by S. Mitchell
Boring !
I have slogged through this book to the half way mark and have had to finally admit that I made a mistake buying it. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Pastispast
read this book
Brilliant.
Characterisation: splendid.
Plot: wonderfully everyday.
Content: unashamedly human.
Humour:of the highest order.
Ann Tyler you are brilliant.
Characterisation: splendid.
Plot: wonderfully everyday.
Content: unashamedly human.
Humour:of the highest order.
Ann Tyler you are brilliant.
Published 18 months ago by des teovski
Another little gem from Anne Tyler....
Another little gem from Anne Tyler. Her books never disappoint - she seems to create such lovely quirky characters and some really interesting and original story lines. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Wynne Kelly
Patchwork of simple truths
A Patchwork Planet doesn't draw the reader in with heart-pulsing action, or great tension. This is a novel of emotional conundrums, of everyday life. Read more
Published on 7 Aug 2009 by reader 451
Loved it!
Effortlessly written, so realistic, characters excellently portrayed, I cannot fault this book. Read it!
Published on 11 Feb 2009 by Lukal8
Typical Anne Tyler
Anne Tyler's characters often stay with me long after I've finished the book. This one's no exception. Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2006 by vivsy
My first Tyler
This has been sat on my bookshelf for a year or so but having finished my studies I have gotten round to reading it. It is my first Tyler book and I will be buying more. Read more
Published on 26 July 2005 by "lemonjoose"
crisp, clear prose
I was introduced to Tyler's work while studying American fiction and during a recent re-exploration of her writing started this novel. Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2004
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