A slipping down life (by Anne Tyler)
Anne Tyler always gets to me. I read quite a few of her novels and at some point there’s always a line, a sentence that just cuts through you and plunges you into the book so that when you read the last page you feel dazed and confused by the reality around you.
This short novel, wrote in the year of my birth, does the same: the line for me was “The house had not yet heard of the death” and I won’t spoil you the story but when I read it all the pieces fell into place and all the previous pages made more sense and I was gone.
The blurb at the back of the book says this:
… but there’s so much more… it’s about growing up, and families, and love and friendship… and loneliness… and most of all the desire to belong, to something, to someone.
Is it her best book? No I don’t think so, but it’s a damn good book that lingers in your subconscious for longer you’d expect it to.
Worth reading.
Because it’s Friday after all, because one of the main characters is a wannabe rockstar and because Mr M and I watched ‘Patty Cakes’ this week, (good movie btw) I’m giving you a bonus track too:
The list so far…
2018 The mermaid and Mrs Hancock
2017 – Magari domain resto (Lorenzo Maroni)
2016 – Upstream (Mary Oliver)
2015 – Reasons to stay alive (Matt Haig)
2014 – Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer)
2013 – Careless people (Sarah Churchwell)
2012 – Wonder (RJ Palacia)
2011 – The Paris Wife (Paula McLain)
2010
2009 – Let the great world spin (Colum McCann)
2008 – The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga)
2007
2006 – The Road (Cormac McCarthy)
2005 – Never let me go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
2004 – American Gods (Nail Gainman)
2003
2002 – Everything is illuminated (Jonathan Safran Foer)
2001
2000 – Coram Boy (Jamila Gavin)
1999
1998
1997 – Under Storm’s wings – (Helen Thomas)
1996 – Wilfred and Eileen (Jonathan Smith)
1995
1994
1993
1992 – The daughters of the house (Michele Roberts)
1991- Regeneration (Pat Barker)
1990 – Darkness visible (William Styron)
1989 – Like water for chocolate (Laura Esquivel)
1988
1987 – Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami)
1986
1985 – Oranges are not the only fruit (Jeanette Winterson)
1984 – Hotel du Lac (Anita Brookner)
1983 – Heartburn (Nora Ephron)
1982 – The colour purple (Alice Walker)
1981
1980 – Emmeline (Judith Rossiter)
1979– The bloody chamber (Angela Carter)
1978
1977 The passion of New Eve (Angela Carter)
1976
1975 – First love, last rites – (Ian McEwan)
1974
1973 – the honorary consul (Graham Greene)
1972
1971 – Reunion (Fred Uhlman)
1970 – A slipping down life (Anne Tyler)
while you're ahead... 