Ann Tyler Does It Again

I hope ya’ll like the new look of the blog (if anyone is reading this – thanks!)

I had been saving Noah's Compass, the new Anne Tyler book, like you save a particularly delicious piece of candy. She is my favorite author.

This book is a character study – her specialty. Liam is a sixty year old school teacher forced to retire. He never particularly liked teaching anyway. He is in the process of simplifying, paring down, trimming away all the little extras of his life. He has no close relationships except with his philosophy books. He’s a bit like Malcolm in Accidental Tourist, going through life unattached. Then he moves into a smaller apartment, goes to bed, and wakes up in a hospital. He has been attacked, but he has no memory of anything other than going to bed.

As always, Ann Tyler has us rooting for this odd bird. He’s someone I probably wouldn’t particularly care for if I knew him in real life, but she manages to make me care what happens to him. Getting to know people – fictional or real- is the main reason I read fiction, I think. Human beings are endlessly fascinating, and endlessly the same. What Shakespeare observed about human feelings and failings is just as true now as it was when he wrote it.

I think we also read fiction because we don’t want to be alone. Increasingly we are separated, each of us in our houses at our computers. That’s why we like reality TV. It’s a community we become a part of when we turn on the set. If gossip is a sin, then we all sin all the time. Of course we talk about people. We need to.

I wish we had more face to face conversations though. As wonderful as email and video conferencing and Facebook are, they are not substitutes for a party with interesting people. Which reminds me – it’s time I had people over. (But right now we have three feet of snow and more on the way. I’ll have lots of time to plan, won’t I?)