AN AUTHOR I DISCOVERED RECENTLY AND LOVE

Just like how the famous saying "Birds of the same feather flock together" goes, readers who read the same genre bond together as well. In the world of fiction and poetry, it's imperative to find your tribe to keep the habit of reading alive and to discover new authors and books. An author whom I found through such a habit is a phenomenon named Anne Tyler. Ever since I read her book, "A Spool of Blue Thread", after a friend recommended it to me, I have been returning to her works whenever I feel I need something simple, cosy and profound.

Anne Tyler's books are simple and similar in more than one way. They are all mostly set in Baltimore or its surroundings, and in the heart of it lies a complicated and dysfunctional family. Her stories are based in the mid-1900s, which makes them feel vintage and classy. In her stories, a family, its members and their core values are always the base, and everything else revolves around this concept. But how can someone write 24 books with the same values yet make everything unique and exciting in their own way?

 

You may ask, if all her books are the same, why should you even care to read them all? That's because Tyler can write dysfunctional families and mundane lives like the back of her hand. She captures individuals and moments with a keen eye that any normal human being tends to miss. It's like she is always aiming for a perfect story, and it hits the bull's eye every time.

What made me fall for the author and her writing is how effortlessly she writes about the intricacies of families and their complexities. It feels comforting, just like having my favourite meal on a rainy day or listening to my grandmother narrate a story. The best part about her books is that they are all simple. There are no suspenses or damsels in distress and neither are nerve-wrecking twists. Though her books are about drama and chaos, in the end, they always leave me at peace. And I resort to her books whenever I am in need of a book that will heal me.

In 'A Spool of Blue Thread', the story revolves around the Whitshank family, perfect from the outside but broken on the inside. There is a mother worried about her less-settled child, Denny, who is a constant source of worry and problems. While this is the major plot, there are multiple subplots involving other family members, including an exploration of marital companionship. In this book, the author writes about the acceptance of ageing, Alzheimer's, living with a problem child and coping with the loss of a family member. While reading this book, I didn't realise how huge it was until I was done. When the book ended, it felt like the book and I exchanged a part of us with each other. I bid farewell to the book with a heavy heart that I won't be reading it again the same way as the first time.

In 'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant ', Tyler weaves a simple tale about Pearl Tull, her estranged husband, and her three children. Pearl's perfect middle child, Ezra, hopes to have one peaceful family dinner at his "homesick" restaurant, which never happens for one reason or another. In contrast, his brother Cody is always plotting to defeat his brother in a competition that never existed. The struggles of a single mother, sibling rivalry and a chaotic family have been written with such nuance that you wonder if there's anything that Tyler can't write about. Every time the dinner was hosted, my heart would skip a beat in anticipation of what was to come. I was distraught when Ezra was helpless and lonely, but the ending soothed me a bit.

Onto her next is 'The Vinegar Girl', which is a retelling of the Shakespearean classic Taming of the shrew, and I am eagerly looking forward to reading it next month. Have you read any books by Anne Tyler? What do you think about the author?

This is a part of Blogchatter’s July #TBRchallenge 

#penbooksandscalpel