Ladder Of Years

by Anne Tyler

Hardcover, 1995

Call number

FIC TYL

Collection

Publication

Knopf (1995), Edition: 1st Trade Ed, 325 pages

Description

A runaway wife leaves one domestic situation, only to fall into another. She is Delia Grinstead, 40, of Baltimore, the wife of a physician and mother of three. One day she decides she's had enough of being invisible, moves to another town and gets herself a job--caring for a boy whose mother has abandoned the family. By the author of Saint Maybe.

User reviews

LibraryThing member CatieN
I think every married woman with children who is overworked and unappreciated imagines just walking away from it all and just being ALONE. Delia Grindstead does just that, much to the shock of her family. The characters were written like real people, quirks and all, and jumped off the page, and the
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story was excellent right up until the end. So as not to spoil the book for others, I will only say that the ending was a disappointment and did not live up to the expectations that were created by the rest of the book.
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LibraryThing member smallwonder56
My favorite of all Anne Tyler's books, but you might have to be a mother to understand it. In this book she describes the ways in which women "disappear" into their families. Sooner or later, if you're a woman who thinks, you need to dig yourself back out again, and this is what the main character
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does. I read a book a few years ago about another woman who runs away from home and there's a line in the book that goes something like, "Show me a woman who's never fantasized about grabbing the keys, getting in the car and driving away and I'll show you a woman who doesn't know how to drive."
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LibraryThing member banderson1973
I've never forgotten the opening of this, when a missing woman's family is unable to accurately describe her. An excellent view of the complacency that sometimes occurs within families.
LibraryThing member mhgatti
Ladder of Years tackles a weighty topic - an unappreciated wife/mother who, in an attempt to start her life over again free of her daily obligations, suddenly walks out on her family. Tyler writes it as a kind of fairy tale (an old wife's tale, maybe?), happening in a world where a missing person
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can start a new life undiscovered without leaving her home state or even changing her name.

Even if you can suspend your disbelief of that setup it's hard to really care about the protagonist, who seems to have selfishly traded one predictable life for the comfort of a different, but just as predictable, life. Tyler keeps the story moving along at a good pace, so I never felt like I wanted to give up on the book, but I can't say it was a very satisfying read. A so-so novel from a great novelist, Ladder is my least enjoyable of Tyler's books so far.
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LibraryThing member dawnlovesbooks
i love anne tyler but i got bored with this one, although i loved the premise of the book.
LibraryThing member mrstreme
Ladder of Years is a tale about Delia who suddenly leaves her family while vacationing at the beach. Tired of her unappreciative children, belittling husband and demanding sisters - plus still mourning the loss of her father - Delia impulsively leaves them on their beach blankets and takes off for
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a small town. There, she gets her first job, her first place and her first business clothes.

Then, she learns that working for others is difficult and takes a job as a nanny for a young boy and his divorced father. In effect, she trades one family for another. I won't spoil the ending for you, but I will propose that Delia had the potential to really grow in her journey - but she didn't. She missed her opportunity to become the woman she wanted to be.

I usually enjoy Anne Tyler's books because she develops her characters so beautifully. This is not the case in Ladder of Years. Overall, I was very disappointed with the story and character development. I felt no sense of attachment, usually losing my patience with Delia's simplemindedness. This is definitely not one of Tyler's best works.
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LibraryThing member whirled
Delia Grinstead has become part of the furniture in her own life to the extent that her family can't provide a detailed physical description of her whilst reporting her disappearance to the police. After a lifetime of dependence and dull routine, she walks out in favour of a life of
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independence....and dull routine. I must confess I kept waiting for Delia to do something more exciting with her new-found freedom.

An intriguing premise, and one I think a writer of Anne Tyler's calibre could have done more with.
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LibraryThing member bardin
I don't know why I enjoy Anne Tyler as much as I do. All her books focus on a middle-aged woman living in Baltimore, usually with 3 children who are screwed up in some way or another, and not alot actually happens. However, her writing really is impressive. This book is my favorite, just because
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the story is the most interesting of all her books that I've read. I'm always a sucker for a person who just decides to completely abandon the life they are living.
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LibraryThing member siri51
Tyler is a good story teller but many of her charaters are in need of some sort of counselling.
LibraryThing member DowntownLibrarian
Haven't we all, at some point, wanted to walk away from it all? Here is the story of a woman who did just that. Very readable and an excellent book club pick.
LibraryThing member FireandIce
I'm not really a fan of so-called "chick lit", but this wasn't bad. The premise of the story is a forty-something housewife, Delia, becomes fed up with being ignored and marginalized by her husband, sisters and children and simply walks away from all of them during a beach vacation. Delia hitches a
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ride to a small town and begins to build a new life and rediscovers herself.

I wouldn't call this book fantastic, but it's entertaining enough to pass the time on a beach blanket, in an airport, etc.
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LibraryThing member tikilights
This book grew on me and I really started to like it as the plot progressed. In the beginning, Delia was beyond obnoxious, but she went through a subtle change in maturity that made her endearing in the end.
I can understand the complaints about the book, but I think her escape to a new life of the
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same mediocrity was on the side of selfishness and immaturity, not her being a ditz. She needed to grow up, and her bad decisions at least helped her in that. However, I still don't like how she abandoned a total of 2 families in her "self-discovery".
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LibraryThing member LaBibliophille
While on a family beach vacation, 40 year old Baltimore resident Dee Grinstead strolls down the beach and disappears. She is wearing nothing but a bathing suit and carrying a tote bag containing her husband's robe and $500, the family's vacation money. It is hours before her family realizes that
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she is missing. Anne Tyler's bestseller (albeit of 14 years ago), follows Dee as she walks to the family's vacation rental cottage. Dee then begs a ride from a handyman, and gets out in the town of Bay Borough, Maryland.

In short order, Dee acquires a place to live, a job, and a small wardrobe. By the time her family finds her, Dee is well ensconced in her new life, and has no wish to return to her husband, her three children and her sisters. They are, of course, hurt and uncomprehending, but this is not their story. It is Dee's. She feels unloved by her husband, and unappreciated by everyone else.

When Dee had been gone over a year, she receives a wedding invitation from her daughter. When she returns to the family home, we begin to first learn about matters from the family's perspective.

For me, the most telling part of the book is in the beginning. Dee's family is unable to describe her accurately to the police. No wonder Dee just up and left them! This book is sad and perplexing. Who hasn't wanted to escape their life, but who actually does?

It's hard to imagine that this book could have been written by anyone but such a talented writer as the Pulitzer Prize winning Anne Tyler. And what does Ladder of Years mean? You'll have to read this for a very touching explanation.My only complaint is that, written 15 years ago, it does seem dated, and I keep wondering why the police don't just ping Dee's cell phone! Oh yeah-nobody in this story has one.
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LibraryThing member momofpets
Liked this very much. Delia walks away from her family and moves to another town.
LibraryThing member caroline123
Ladder of Years is one of my favorite books ever. The idea of just walking away from everything and beginning again where nobody knows you is such an intriguing idea and wonderfully written by Anne Tyler.
LibraryThing member aimless22
An intriguing look at marriage, womanhood and inner demons. The demons are not the type with horns and pitchforks. I would categorize them as those lurking thoughts that never seem to leave a person's consciousness. All the 'what ifs' of life.
Delia Grinstead is a married mother of three with a
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settled life in the home she grew up in. Call it a mid-life crisis or just a spur-of-the-moment concept, but she walks down the beach while on the annual family vacation and just keeps going.
She sets up a new life for herself in a small town. Perhaps too conveniently, she finds a place to live and a job within moments of getting to this town.
The idea of running away, of starting from scratch is a romantic vision. Delia's main desire appears to be time alone and she does get that. But she also cannot fully escape into her new life.
Each person who reads this story will have to determine for themselves which of her choices they would select.
Someone who is feeling stuck in their current relationship may wish for one outcome while another who may not be in a relationship at all may choose the opposite. A man may foresee the final outcome while a woman may be disappointed or vice-versa.
Just as each well realized character lives their own lives alongside Delia, each reader envisions their own wish for the end. What would you do? What would I do? How would my family react? Would my friends support or denounce me?
The novel really makes readers think about possibilities, both for Delia and for themselves.
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LibraryThing member cranmergirl
My favorite Anne Tyler book! I read this many years ago but I have never forgotten what a fun read it was. It must have been during a time when I was feeling particularly under appreciated by my family, as I think most wives and mothers do at some point, because I found myself relating to the
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protagonist and cheering her on. This book should be read in the spirit in which I believe it was written and not taken too seriously. It's just a chick fantasy book with a happy ending. Enjoy!
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LibraryThing member LisMB
Have you ever thought of walking away from your life. Starting over? That is exactly what happens in this book. The subject intrigued me and I was not disappointed with this well expressed story.
LibraryThing member porchsitter55
Absolutely LOVED this quirky story. I laughed out loud....Anne Tyler is the best at making the simplest characters so memorable and so totally funny!
LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
With her usual genius for bringing very ordinary people into sharp focus, Tyler tells the story of Delia Grinstead, a 40-year old mother of three who literally walks away from her life without plan or purpose in the middle of a family beach vacation. Not surprisingly, she finds that starting over
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"from scratch" isn't as simple as she tries to make it. The story feels absolutely "true"-- I believe every sentence, every action, and never have that "Oh why don't you just (insert advice here) already!" feeling. And Tyler makes me chuckle over the simple little daily moments that I laugh at in my own life. I think sometimes it's easy to overlook her humor---she's so often gently poking fun at her characters, but with love. I was not at all surprised by the ending, but it did come on a bit abruptly. Otherwise, nary a quibble with this one. Oh, wait, yes, one more---was it absolutely necessary to include an unlikeable character named Linda????
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LibraryThing member Annabel1954
Delia Grinstead is married with three children and a Dr husband who works as her father did as a local GP. Feeling unrecognized and appreciates she walks off from a beach holiday and starts a new life in a little town. This is a great example of learning how she feels and thinks and later how her
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family coped. This author has written heaps of other books which should be worth reading.
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LibraryThing member jepeters333
Woman runs away from her family and ends up living in a small town.
LibraryThing member arielfl
I picked this up after seeing it on Jennifer Weiner's (author of Good in Bed) summer reading list, printed in Entertainment Weekly. I enjoyed one her novels so I was curious to see what she would be reading this summer. This is my first Anne Tyler book and knowing that she is a very popular author
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I decided to check in to see what I have been missing.

The premise seemed so intriguing. Delia is on a beach vacation with her family and with only $500 in her bag she decides to walk away and leave everything, including her three children and doctor husband Sam. Tired of being a doormat, she doesn't even bother to tell anyone she is taking off. A manhunt is launched but by the time they find her she has a new job, new place to live, and new friends. Eventually she becomes the house keeper/ nanny for a lonely father named Joel and his young son Noah. It seems that she may have even replaced her family as well. Eventually a family wedding crisis draws Delia back into her old life and she has to decide which life is really hers.

Although the book premise was strong there were elements that were ultimately frustrating to me. One problem is that the book ends abruptly and story lines are left dangling. Also at times this book had a very old fashioned feel. Even though it was written in the 90's, Delia is the stereotypical 50's housewife who marries young, pumps out a bunch of kids, and has no life ambition for herself. A lot of the expressions uttered by the characters had an old fashioned feel as well, hotdog! The town Delia runs off to and the characters she meets are one dimensional, small town Americana circa 1950. The time period issues left me a little confused as to whether the story was about a modern woman claiming her independence or a weak one looking for a new place to hide out now that her children are grown and ready to set out on their own lives. After reading the author discussion it seems that she meant to imply that Delia was not looking for a new family so much as she was looking for a redo so she could right past mistakes. Despite my qualms this book would ultimately make a good choice for reading groups as there is a lot to ponder about the family dynamics.
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LibraryThing member Annabel1954
A mum whose family lived in her Dr father's home, suddenly walks out on them all ans sets up in a room with a new job. The book follows her learning and the family' coping until a death brings them back together
LibraryThing member pegmcdaniel
Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors. She's a gentle writer, taking family situations to task and I find myself immersed in what's happening. Her characters are created to be interesting and well-developed. This book did not disappoint. It's set in the mid-1980s but at times it seemed more
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recent because of the timeless circumstances.

Delia is a wife and mother of three older children (high school and college). She's feeling very much underappreciated and wonders if she was ever really in love with her husband. She didn't go to college, married very young and missed the growing experience of being on her own. She was always dependent on someone, first her parents and then her husband.

Delia impulsively walks away from her family with $500 of her family's vacation money and starts a new life in a small town. She has new experiences such as finding a place to live, getting a job, making friends and living on her own. It wasn't always easy for her and she wonders if she had done the right thing. You'll have to read the book to find out what happens to Delia and the family she left. I asked myself if most women feel like Delia about just walking away from their situation. I am willing to bet they do but, before doing it, most realize the grass is not always greener.
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Awards

Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist — 1996)

Pages

325

ISBN

0679441557 / 9780679441557
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