Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Vintage (1987), Edition: New Ed, 208 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. Romance. HTML: "A triumph." HARPERS Ben Joe Hawkes is a worrier. Raised by his mother, grandmother, and a flock of busy sisters, he's always felt the outsider. When he learns that one of his sisters has left her husband, he heads for home and back into the confusion of childhood memories and unforseen love.... From the Paperback edition..
User reviews
LibraryThing member debnance
Ben Joe gets a call from his mom and learns his older sister has left her husband. Ben Joe leaves college and heads home to help the family. Anne Tyler slowly and masterfully flips Ben Joe's family over onto its rough underbelly. A complex picture of a family.
LibraryThing member moonshineandrosefire
Ben Joe Hawkes is a worrier. He has been raised in a family of women and during a phone call with his mother, he learns that one of his sisters has taken her baby and left her husband. Ben Joe's worry for his sister propels him home again; away from law school and stability to the confusion of
I enjoyed this book - Ms Tyler's first. In my opinion, it was a little light on plot but very well-written. I give it an A!
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childhood memories and unforseen love. I enjoyed this book - Ms Tyler's first. In my opinion, it was a little light on plot but very well-written. I give it an A!
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LibraryThing member sturlington
A lukewarm early offering by a gifted novelist. The story concerns a young man trying to leave behind his home of six sisters, but I suggest you skip it altogether in favor of one of Tyler’s later, and much better, offerings.
LibraryThing member jeffome
St. Barts 2013 #7 - Enjoyable read of this, Tyler's first novel. She certainly has away of creating vivid quirky households of people you almost feel you've met in your life. A lot of material here hitting close to home, with the broken home with Dad having another woman, along with those years of
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very necessary things going unspoken and the subtle toll that can take on the family. Rather an amazing job of a 22-year-old woman capturing Ben Joe's character sense....nicely done. How does it all ultimately turn out? I'm sure we all would have different opinion, but I am glad for the chance to be with Joe Ben on his last trip home. Show Less
LibraryThing member turtlesleap
Anne Tyler's voice is very distinctive and I was a bit surprised to see it so well developed in her first novel. The novel is an exploration of family life and small town dynamics set (probably) in the early 1950's. Her art is that she conveys the thought processes and actions of her characters,
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not as we would like to see them, but as they actually unfold---illogical, hazy, confused and erratic. Perhaps because of that, her eccentric characters are easy to relate to and draw the reader into a book that is more like a life experience than a story. This is quite a lovely little book and surprising, given that the author was still in her early 20's when she wrote it. Show Less
LibraryThing member porte01
I love Anne Tyler and find her books in general to be a really comforting and soothing read. This book provides some insight into a rather odd family, who are totally charming aside from their strangeness. The only character I found hard to relate to is the mother, who despite a very thick shell of
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defences, loves her family and does her best to provide support (in her case, financial but not emotional). The emotional support burden has landed on the eldest and only son, Ben Joe, and this book is mainly about his struggle to find himself while balancing the need he feels to be the anchor for his family. A lovely read! Show Less
LibraryThing member Carolee888
Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors. My son told me that I was just like one of the characters in Accidental Tourist. I had to go back that re-read the book and I still wasn't sure of which character. Oh well. I found a lot of her books at used book store. I did not know when I bought this one
Two things struck me: When the main character Ben Joe Hawking said " Every place I go, I miss another place. That rang true for me. Except that I have never missed high school. The grade school that I went to has been demolished and newer and uglier one took its place It is sad when you miss a place and it no longer exists.
I had trouble understanding Ben Joe Hawke, why did he want to get married? Who in his family,did he like the most? Why did he get tired of Columbia and New York? I have many unansered questions for him.
I identified a little with Gram who got tired of the same old food that her daughter cooked every day. Even though I like strawberry Greek yogurt, I do not want to eat it every day. My husband does our grocery shopping and last week, they did not even have vanilla, much less lemon, banana or chocolate. I cannot blame him for that, our choices are fewer with the pandemic.
Gram also wondered what her life would have been like if she had married a different man. I felt anxious for her to get out all her questions to her old boyfriend in the Old Friends Home. That is the same way that I feel when my son calls me from China. I felt very sad for her when her boyfriend died the very next day. I wanted them to connect again.
READING PROGRESS
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that it was her first and that she had disowned this book and the second one! I am giving it a three stars because the characters needed more development and the plot was very simple. I agree with her but she has come so much farther in her later books.Two things struck me: When the main character Ben Joe Hawking said " Every place I go, I miss another place. That rang true for me. Except that I have never missed high school. The grade school that I went to has been demolished and newer and uglier one took its place It is sad when you miss a place and it no longer exists.
I had trouble understanding Ben Joe Hawke, why did he want to get married? Who in his family,did he like the most? Why did he get tired of Columbia and New York? I have many unansered questions for him.
I identified a little with Gram who got tired of the same old food that her daughter cooked every day. Even though I like strawberry Greek yogurt, I do not want to eat it every day. My husband does our grocery shopping and last week, they did not even have vanilla, much less lemon, banana or chocolate. I cannot blame him for that, our choices are fewer with the pandemic.
Gram also wondered what her life would have been like if she had married a different man. I felt anxious for her to get out all her questions to her old boyfriend in the Old Friends Home. That is the same way that I feel when my son calls me from China. I felt very sad for her when her boyfriend died the very next day. I wanted them to connect again.
READING PROGRESS
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LibraryThing member kslade
Pretty good first novel. I don't remember much about it now, I know it's about a young man and his relationships, but I liked it. I especially am fond of her later novels that I read.
Subjects
Awards
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1964
Physical description
208 p.; 5.08 inches
ISBN
0099539101 / 9780099539100