DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT BY ANNE TYLER

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BOOK NAME: DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT

AUTHOR NAME: ANNE TYLER

GENRE: DOMESTIC/ LITERARY FICTION

PUBLISHER: VINTAGE BOOKS

BOOK BUY LINK: https://www.amazon.in/Dinner-Homesick-Restaurant-Anne-Tyler/dp/0099916401



BOOK COVER IMAGE




BOOK REVIEW

Remember when your grandma used to tell you stories as you followed her like a shadow before falling asleep in her warm, comfy hug? Well, yes, I do. Watching my Nani narrate me stories as I gape at her with dreamy eyes bewitched by the characters in her tales, the effortless narration as if she had done it a hundred times already or even lived through it, the vivid and lifelike dramatics and the turn of events is a photographic memory etched forever in my brain. And yeah, I think if my Nani had ever decided to publish her tales, they would have sounded just like this book. 


Anne Tyler's storytelling, too, feels so intimate; just that Tyler telling you her story will not put you to sleep but will make you very much alive. The characters in her book are a carnival themselves. They are fascinatingly real, relatable, all shades of grey and thought-provoking. The scenarios in her book seem to happen around us every day that we fail to notice, which she puts in a bigger frame with such clarity and precision. 


In this story, Pearl Tull, abandoned by her husband, finds bringing her three kids up suffocating. Jenny - the youngest and studious- endures the most as a child, grows up tormented, and suffers a string of broken marriages. Ezra - the middle child, kind and soft-spoken, is the perfect one who tries to string the family together after every disaster. Cody - the elder one, is strong and arrogant, and his only mission in life is to be better than Ezra and defeat him even when there is no contest. After every catastrophe, Ezra tries to have at least one normal family dinner at his "homesick" restaurant, but something seems to fall apart every time. Will he ever be successful in getting them all to stay until the end without killing each other? 


At this point, I think I will love anything Tyler writes about dysfunctional families. The characters in her book are unique, though they are entirely regular, and she captures the scenarios in the daily lives of her characters with an eye that any human tends to miss. The sibling rivalry, the burnout of a single parent, the teeny bit of jealousy among family members - everything, everything is written to the point. Tyler really hit the bullseye with this one. My only concern was that I personally felt Ezra deserved much better and Cody needed a reality check. Though the ending felt very abrupt and lacking, I do feel she writes what happens in real instead of giving fictional twists to them. Pick this one because Anne Tyler can never disappoint.



MY REVIEW: 4.5/5 

This is a part of Blogchatter’s #TBRchallenge

#penbooksandscalpel

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