I know so many families where one child seems to absorb all the oxygen in the room, driving parents and teachers to distraction. Over their protests, their dutiful son Stem and his family move in with them, only to be joined unexpectedly by Denny, the black sheep son.Ībby’s baffled love for Denny, a rebel from a young age whom she has never understood, won my heart for this story. Abby has begun to blank out for periods of time, finding herself in odd places when she comes to. Red has trouble hearing and has pulled back from the family construction business started by his father. The house itself is a character, a vessel for all of their narratives: the wide, deep porch where Abby discovered her love for Red, the curving staircase that funnels sound up to someone hidden upstairs, the kitchen where the real heart-to-hearts take place.Ībby and Red, in their 70s, are starting to experience the effects of aging. One has to do with the way Red’s father came to build and then own their house on Bouton Road. There are also the stories that they tell about themselves. Part of the glue holding them together is their belief that they, as a family, are special, though Tyler undercuts this assertion by telling us that it is based, among other things, on their ability to keep pets alive to a great age.

They take for granted their connection with each other, just as they know that if asked to go for a walk on the beach, one is expected to agree. You know families like this one: while there are tensions and long-held grudges between Abby and Red and their four grown children, there is also love and concern and care, even if these emotions are sometimes tempered with frustration or incomprehension. In this, her 20th novel, Tyler introduces us to the Whitshank family. It’s not just because she writes about Baltimore, and specifically the part of Baltimore we are most familiar with.

My book club rarely comes up with a unanimous verdict on a book, but we all loved this book by Anne Tyler, as we have loved other of her books we’ve read.

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