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Slipping Down Life (New Longman Literature)
  
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Slipping Down Life (New Longman Literature) (Paperback)

by Anne Tyler (Author), Roy Blatchford (Editor)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 199 pages
  • Publisher: Longman (26 Aug 1997)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0582292476
  • ISBN-13: 978-0582292475
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3,991,926 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

In a small town in North Carolina, fat, plain Evie Decker becomes fascinated by a local rock singer. One night, to get his attention, she carves his name on her forehead with a pair of nail scissors. This is the beginning of a bewildering and unlikely relationship which changes both their lives.

About the Author

Born in Minneapolis in 1941, Anne Tyler lives in Baltimore where her novels are set. She is the Pulitzer-prize winning novels of Breathing Lessons and other bestselling novels, including The Accidental Tourist, Saint Maybe, Back When We Were Grownups and The Amateur Marriage. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Great! - if you know you like Anne Tyler's work., 16 Jun 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: A Slipping Down Life (Paperback)
The first Anne Tyler book I read was Ladder of Years and I was immediately won over by Anne Tyler's style of writing. Since then I have been working my way through all her books and this was one of the last I read. Although it is not one of my favourites (those would have to be Ladder of Years, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and Searching for Caleb) I would still be hard pushed to say a bad word about Anne Tyler. Often very little happens in her books but the characterisation is so fantastic and utterly absobing that it doesn't seem to matter.

A Slipping-down Life is about a girl called Evie Decker who is one of life's misfits. She is unattractive, overweight and has very few friends. She becomes obsessed with a local small time rock star called Betram "Drumstrings" Casey. Unlike most hero worship scenarios where the dreamed of life with the star never happens, a relationship does develop between Evie and Drum. As one might expect it isn't happily ever after. The book is an interesting commentary on idolising people, and how some people in life are strong charactes and some are weak. You begin this book thinking you know who are the strong people and who are the weak but your perceptions are manipulated and turned on their head. It doesn't work out as you may think!

The characters in this book are well developed and absorbing. One of Anne Tyler's abilities as a writer is her skill in portraying a character so clearly with so few words. Her characters are completely believeable and their motivations and actions totally realistic.

I love books by authors who are strong on characterisation. As well as Anne Tyler I love the work of John Irving for this reason. If you want a lot of fast, action-packed storylines then this book is probably not for you. If you have never read Anne Tyler I would probably recommend another book of hers to begin with. If you have read Anne Tyler and like her work then I have no hesitation in recommending this book, you will like it!

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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A quirky tale of idolism, 2 Jan 2002
This review is from: A Slipping Down Life (Paperback)
This is my first Tyler that I could be bothered to finished, and it intrigued me no end. After moaning to my Mum that teenagers were incredibly missrepresented in fiction, especially misfit ones, she recommended it to me.
When Evie Decker carves 'Casey', the name of a local rock singer, on her forehead, their lives both change. The relationship between Evie and Drum Casey is interesting, and seeing Drum's change in attitude towards Evie means the plot takes an odd turn. The change in status between the two makes for compelling reading, and the feelings towards the characters are genuine.
A small tale about a relationship of a completely different nature. The characters are exquisite and the tone remains quiet and brewing throughout.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty odd, 11 Nov 2009
By Rachel Ropper (Scotland, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Slipping Down Life (Paperback)
This was, all in all, a pretty odd book. You can probably tell that from the synopsis, but I truly didn't anticipate what happened in this novel. I was intrigued by the blurb as I, like all teenage girls, used to have crushes on musicians and fantasise about them falling in love with me. It was an interesting story and there were aspects which appealed to me, but my problem was with the characters. I just didn't connect with any of them. Maybe this is an issue with books with less than 150 pages, but I just didn't feel like I knew Evie. Her life was interesting and appeared to be realistic (not that I know a lot about southern USA in the 1960s!), but I didn't really care whether or not she made the right decisions regarding Casey. Casey was an arrogant and aggravating character to begin with, but by the end of the book he appeared to have grown more than Evie, and had more common sense than her. Despite these positive aspects, I still definitely prefer Tyler's later novels. I'd recommend reading this if you want to find out what her earlier books are like, as this was an intriguing story and definitely not a waste of time, but I am glad that I didn't buy it new
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not up to her usual standard
I am a HUGE fan of Anne Tyler's having read almost all her books (there are still two on my wishlist), but this one was probably my least favourite. Read more
Published 6 months ago by hiljean

3.0 out of 5 stars Not quite up to expectations
Having read nearly all of Anne Tyler's books (this early one must have slipped through my net) I was a little disappointed with this one. Read more
Published 11 months ago by F. M. M. Stott

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