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Review
`Anne Tyler has elevated the observation of everyday detail into an art form' --Observer
`a beautifully subtle book, an elegant contemplation of what it means to be happy.'
--Observer
'There is nothing extraneous and nothing overly dramatic here, and in that lies her very considerable strength as a writer.'
--Guardian
'Tyler writes in such prodigious prose it seems effortless.' --Daily Telegraph
'Her simple, nuanced prose reveals some lovely twists'
--Daily Mail
`Reading Tyler's novels often feels like slipping into favourite pyjamas...her simple, nuanced prose reveals some lovely twists.'
--Daily Mail
`Tyler brilliantly anatomises everyday life...Her novels have emotional depth and engaging with her characters is a pleasure'
--The Sunday Times Magazine --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
`a beautifully subtle book, an elegant contemplation of what it means to be happy.'
--Observer
'There is nothing extraneous and nothing overly dramatic here, and in that lies her very considerable strength as a writer.'
--Guardian
'Tyler writes in such prodigious prose it seems effortless.' --Daily Telegraph
'Her simple, nuanced prose reveals some lovely twists'
--Daily Mail
`Reading Tyler's novels often feels like slipping into favourite pyjamas...her simple, nuanced prose reveals some lovely twists.'
--Daily Mail
`Tyler brilliantly anatomises everyday life...Her novels have emotional depth and engaging with her characters is a pleasure'
--The Sunday Times Magazine --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Review
‘her novels have a grace and an emotional depth that few romances can match’ - Sunday Times, Nick Rennison
‘Compassionate and funny dissection of the workings of the human heart’ - Woman & Home, Fanny Blake --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
‘Compassionate and funny dissection of the workings of the human heart’ - Woman & Home, Fanny Blake --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
75 of 75 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Have spent my weekend reading this, Anne Tyler's 18th novel and can say without doubt that it is one of the most beautiful, gentle novels I have ever read. A long time fan of Tyler's work, my expectations were high and were definitely met. The main character, Liam, is a gentle, bewildered man who invites great sympathy from the reader. At the beginning of the story, he is going through a time of great uncertainty in his life, having lost his job and downsized to a rather seedy apartment. His circumstances worsen when he is attacked by an intruder the very first night he spends in his new home. I won't take time retelling the story, but in short, he is more traumatised by the fact that he cannot recall the incident than by the physical attack, and sets about finding a rather novel solution to his memory problems... In the course of his search he meets Eunice, a delightfully eccentric woman, whom he is immediately drawn to. What follows is a lovely, meandering tale, which is both entertaining and also touching. Liam is constantly brow beaten by his (mainly dreadful) female relatives - his daughters, ex wife and sister and is generally treated with contempt by all except his teenaged daughter who stays with him during a difficult time. The conclusion to the novel is, although, not entirely satisfying, quite fitting. I was so sorry to reach the end, and Liam will stay with me for quite some time. Another magical tale from Anne Tyler, master storyteller and observer of human nature.
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Like most of Anne Tyler's books, Noah's Compass was gently written and uncomplicated. No postmodern literary gimmicks for her, thank goodness. Just a straightforward story with a few surprises, and with eccentric characters who probably live down the street.
I love the way Tyler takes everyday happenings and makes the reader realize that nothing is really insignificant, that everything has meaning or value.While reading the book, you hardly realize the layers of character development that she has woven into the story. Her observations of the human condition are always so on-target, but she never makes judgments about what she sees.
The story is a year in the life of Liam Pennywell, sixty years old, who has just lost his teaching job. Liam has been widowed and divorced and has three daughters, so he lives in a world of women, most of whom he cannot comprehend! He is a drifter in the sense that he just lets life happen to him without doing much about anything. Not that he is incompetent, but he just prefers to "go along". Until his first night in his new and smaller apartment when something happens to upset his equilibrium. Tyler works her magic and Liam, while not transformed, at least broadens his approach to life.
While this will not rank up there with A Patchwork Planet, my very very favorite of Tyler's, it certainly was well worth reading and provides lots of food for thought. I am always astounded that her sweet and gentle books keep me thinking about them for so long afterwards.
I am in the U.S. and I have no sense of deferred gratification when it comes to this author's books, so I bought it last month from the UK.
Being familiar with the area of Baltimore where Tyler's books are all set makes her books even more enjoyable. A pivotal scene in this book took place in Eddie's, an upscale grocery store that I often visit on N. Charles Street....in fact, Charles Street is often mentioned.
Here are three quotes I wrote down while reading...just so well-said by Tyler, with such economy. Other writers would/could have taken pages to say essentially the same thing:
<<<Damian had the posture of a consumptive - a narrow curved back and buckling knees. He resembled a walking comma.>>>
<<<She collected and polished resentments as if it were some sort of hobby.>>>
<<<All along, it seemed, he had experienced only the most glancing relationship with his own life. He had dodged the tough issues, avoided the conflicts, and gracefully skirted adventure. "I just don't seem to have the hang of things, somehow. It's as if I've never been entirely present in my own life.">>>
I love the way Tyler takes everyday happenings and makes the reader realize that nothing is really insignificant, that everything has meaning or value.While reading the book, you hardly realize the layers of character development that she has woven into the story. Her observations of the human condition are always so on-target, but she never makes judgments about what she sees.
The story is a year in the life of Liam Pennywell, sixty years old, who has just lost his teaching job. Liam has been widowed and divorced and has three daughters, so he lives in a world of women, most of whom he cannot comprehend! He is a drifter in the sense that he just lets life happen to him without doing much about anything. Not that he is incompetent, but he just prefers to "go along". Until his first night in his new and smaller apartment when something happens to upset his equilibrium. Tyler works her magic and Liam, while not transformed, at least broadens his approach to life.
While this will not rank up there with A Patchwork Planet, my very very favorite of Tyler's, it certainly was well worth reading and provides lots of food for thought. I am always astounded that her sweet and gentle books keep me thinking about them for so long afterwards.
I am in the U.S. and I have no sense of deferred gratification when it comes to this author's books, so I bought it last month from the UK.
Being familiar with the area of Baltimore where Tyler's books are all set makes her books even more enjoyable. A pivotal scene in this book took place in Eddie's, an upscale grocery store that I often visit on N. Charles Street....in fact, Charles Street is often mentioned.
Here are three quotes I wrote down while reading...just so well-said by Tyler, with such economy. Other writers would/could have taken pages to say essentially the same thing:
<<<Damian had the posture of a consumptive - a narrow curved back and buckling knees. He resembled a walking comma.>>>
<<<She collected and polished resentments as if it were some sort of hobby.>>>
<<<All along, it seemed, he had experienced only the most glancing relationship with his own life. He had dodged the tough issues, avoided the conflicts, and gracefully skirted adventure. "I just don't seem to have the hang of things, somehow. It's as if I've never been entirely present in my own life.">>>
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The fact that I have read 11 of Anne Tyler's 18 novels suggests that I think highly of this fine author. She is one of the few writers whose books I pre-order and then devour, putting everything else aside for a few days, and then finding that for the next two weeks or so her characters keep coming back to me.
Noah's Compass was no disappointment, being up there with the best of Tyler's work. The book focuses on another troubled man, recently retired Liam Pennywell, a teacher of classics who has been recently let-go in a down-sizing exercise. He feels the need to simplify and down-size his life and moves into a small apartment where on his first night disaster happens and Liam ends up in hospital with gaps in his memory.
On his release, his family are remarkably unsympathetic to his quest to remember what happened. They all have their own concerns and "do their duty" in visiting and phoning, but simply don't have the time or inclination to help Liam work through his worries. And then he meets Eunice, a much younger woman who works as a "rememberer" for an elderly businessman who is losing his own memory (and every Tyler book features at least one career you've never heard of before!). Through chance meetings, Liam strikes up a relationship with Eunice and for a while they both help each other unpack the difficulties of their lives.
At the end of her book, Tyler leaves us with unresolved questions, but also with a sense of hope. Life never comes in neat packages, and yet the solutions to one stage, often lead to a more creative approach to the problems of the next. We leave Liam Pennywell with much greater understanding of his difficult nature, but also a sense of acceptance that "this is how he is", and a feeling that things are going to work out for him.
Tyler is a deeply humanistic writer who depicts the complexities of the human condition while making no attempt to judge or comment on what she sees. We see people follow the tracks laid out for them, and the way these often appear to be dead-ends. Her characters get "stuck", unable to move on, trapped in other people's disappointments and their own sense of failure. And then Tyler works her magic, healing and redeeming through relationships, which often unexpectedly come into her characters' lives in bizarre ways and casting a whole new light on her cast-list.
Tyler understands family more than most. In real life, we know that families are rarely supportive, being beset by sibling rivalry and parental criticism. The cast list in Noah's Compass provides plenty of this, with ex-wives and grown-up children all expressing misguided opinions and offering inappropriate advice, with only adolescent Kitty accepting her Dad for what he is.
Noah's Compass will not disappoint Tyler fans and would make a good starting point for anyone who has not read her before.
Noah's Compass was no disappointment, being up there with the best of Tyler's work. The book focuses on another troubled man, recently retired Liam Pennywell, a teacher of classics who has been recently let-go in a down-sizing exercise. He feels the need to simplify and down-size his life and moves into a small apartment where on his first night disaster happens and Liam ends up in hospital with gaps in his memory.
On his release, his family are remarkably unsympathetic to his quest to remember what happened. They all have their own concerns and "do their duty" in visiting and phoning, but simply don't have the time or inclination to help Liam work through his worries. And then he meets Eunice, a much younger woman who works as a "rememberer" for an elderly businessman who is losing his own memory (and every Tyler book features at least one career you've never heard of before!). Through chance meetings, Liam strikes up a relationship with Eunice and for a while they both help each other unpack the difficulties of their lives.
At the end of her book, Tyler leaves us with unresolved questions, but also with a sense of hope. Life never comes in neat packages, and yet the solutions to one stage, often lead to a more creative approach to the problems of the next. We leave Liam Pennywell with much greater understanding of his difficult nature, but also a sense of acceptance that "this is how he is", and a feeling that things are going to work out for him.
Tyler is a deeply humanistic writer who depicts the complexities of the human condition while making no attempt to judge or comment on what she sees. We see people follow the tracks laid out for them, and the way these often appear to be dead-ends. Her characters get "stuck", unable to move on, trapped in other people's disappointments and their own sense of failure. And then Tyler works her magic, healing and redeeming through relationships, which often unexpectedly come into her characters' lives in bizarre ways and casting a whole new light on her cast-list.
Tyler understands family more than most. In real life, we know that families are rarely supportive, being beset by sibling rivalry and parental criticism. The cast list in Noah's Compass provides plenty of this, with ex-wives and grown-up children all expressing misguided opinions and offering inappropriate advice, with only adolescent Kitty accepting her Dad for what he is.
Noah's Compass will not disappoint Tyler fans and would make a good starting point for anyone who has not read her before.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disappointed
I've read and enjoyed most of Anne Tyler's books but found this one disappointing. I found the main character uninteresting, even tedious with no redeeming features. Read more
Published 18 days ago by F Wapple
Review
I ordered this item for a friend - she was happy with the product so I can only assume it was all OK.
Published 19 days ago by Bic
Great writing; gentle story
Anne Tyler always manages to create such life-like characters, many of them with characteristics or attitudes you can admire, and all of them interesting in their own way. Read more
Published 23 days ago by DEG
Inconsequential drivel
One of the dullest books I have ever read. Only when I had finished and looked at the back cover did I see that it was supposed to be a comedy!
Published 2 months ago by Rupert Young
Anne Tyler on Form
I have been a fan of Anne Tyler for many years and this book lived up to my expectations. As usual her characters are quirky and live on in the memory long after one has read the... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Hili
Tyler-esquely wonderful
Anne Tyler's eighteenth novel picks a familiar path through the scattered debris of dislocated familial relationships. Read more
Published 9 months ago by BookRambler
Emotional Cripples
Anne Tyler writes beautiful cameos that prove her core thesis: Men are emotional cripples, inarticulate and withdrawn who may or may not be rescued by women. Read more
Published 10 months ago by The Outsider
Simple ...but charming
A simple, but charming tale. Not a lot happens in this story, but it is a thoughtful description of a man entering old age and downsizing his life in general. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Freckles
Nicely written character driven story
As always, Anne Tyler delivers a gently paced, nicely written story, if ultimately not very memorable. Read more
Published 13 months ago by BookWorm
A quiet life
Liam is a rather passive character, eager to avoid confrontation and feeling at 60 that his life is in its final stage. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Clive A. H. Still
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