Ladder of Years

Product Information

The thrill of walking away from it all leads to a newfound sense of self and the feeling that she is, finally, the star of her own life story. I think there are probably many, many women living a similar family dynamic who might fantasize about this kind of do-over, even if they never actually walk out the door, or as Delia Grinstead does here, down the beach away from the annual family vacation. I adored Delia even when I was a bit frustrated by her, and her quirky side characters (and their names: Driscoll? I thoroughly sympathized with Delia: how often have we - as parents or caregivers - felt marginalized, unheard, taken for granted? THE novel examines marriage -- there are all sorts of marriages Delia comes across in her adventures, good and bad -- as well as aging and independence, but finally it is a book about choice.

Ladder of Years - Anne Tyler - Google Books

I loved the premise: a woman—loving wife, devoted mom to three mostly grown kids, and all-around "good girl"—simply walks away from her family and her life and starts anew elsewhere. I did not relate well to the main character, a woman who married directly out of high school who lived in the same house her entire life and regretted never having set out on her own at any point in her life. This is a novel about a woman, Delia Grinstead, who finds her own self-identity and battles with familial relationships.I’d like nothing better than for readers to believe they’re actually living in my characters’ world, just as I feel I’m living in it while I’m writing about it.

Ladder of Years - Penguin Books UK

The protagonist, Delia, is a stranger to both her family and herself, which results in a painful quest to find what is missing. However, for Delia, who feels like a tiny gnat buzzing around the edge of her own family, "walking away from it all" is not a premeditated act but an impulse that will lead her into a new, exciting and unencumbered life. Tyler's great strength is taking characters I ordinarily would not care about and investing me in the outcome of their decisions.The more difficult aspects of her father’s character, for instance, and Adrian’s continued attachment to his wife are just two of the unwelcome truths she manages to hide from herself. Opening one of her books in the middle and picking a page at random, a reader might not immediately recognize her individual rhythm or idiosyncratic temperament. Like Tyler's previous protagonists, Liam Pennywell is a man of unexceptional talents, plain demeanor, modest means and curtailed ambition.

Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler - Publishers Weekly Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler - Publishers Weekly

At night, she lay awake wondering where she had gone wrong, and how she could have failed as a parent. It was air she watched, an infinity of air endlessly rearranging itself, and the longer she watched the more soothed she felt, the more mesmerized, the more peaceful.

But this consciousness of herself, of a body and a soul with outlines not defined by her pretty, pastel clothes, is not entirely new for Delia. In perhaps her most mainstream, accessible novel so far, Tyler spins a tale of marriage and middle-class lives, in an age when social standards and life expectations have gone askew. 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. Q: Is her friendship with Nat the most important new relationship Delia has formed and the most important for her to sustain? Q: What is a reader to make of the parallels between Delia’s handling of and socializing of teenagers and cats?

Ladder of Years: Tyler, Anne, Lintz, Kelly: 9781480563605 Ladder of Years: Tyler, Anne, Lintz, Kelly: 9781480563605

If you're a big Anne Tyler fan and have a passion to read absolutely every one of her books, then get this one from the public library. Its a book thats been thrust back into the limelight in the UK, in 2018, by Waterstones (whose local bookclub selected it as my monthly read). She was very conscious of her hairdo, an asymmetrical, angular, high-fashion cut, and held her head constantly to one side as if to accentuate it.Notice what happens when they never go through this stage–as Delia obviously never did with her father.