Anne Tyler Summary

Tyler, Anne (1941—) Anne Tyler, a novelist who has received much critical and popular acclaim, is known for her insightful, often comic depictions of family relationships and ordinary life. Her... Read more

Biography Essay"The real heroes to me in my books," Anne Tyler told interviewer Marguerite Michaels, "are first the ones who manage to endure and second the ones who somehow are able to grant other pe... Read more

Anne Tyler has been steadily gaining well-deserved critical and popular attention for the eight novels and numerous short stories she has produced over the past seventeen years. Her work is as remark... Read more

In the following essay, Dasgupta asserts that Tyler's fiction “may be regarded as a felicitous fusion of social and individual consciousness with emphasis on the latter, a common charact... Read more

In the following essay, Grove discusses Tyler as a Southern writer and elucidates the role of place in Morgan's Passing. Place is one of the lesser angels that watch over the racing hand of fic... Read more

In the following essay, Durham explores the shifting gender roles in Saint Maybe. In a 1982 lecture at Waterloo University on “Writing the Male Character,” Canadian novelist Margaret Atw... Read more

In the following review, Stovel deems The Patchwork Planet “an amusing and enlightening odyssey.” Tyler, author of over a dozen novels and dozens of stories, may be the best novelist wri... Read more

In the following mixed review, Brookner argues that although Back When We Were Grownups “is as accomplished as ever there are signs that the formula may be showing its age.” Anne Tyler&#... Read more

In the following review, Jacobs claims that although Back When We Were Grownups is a good read, it is not one of Tyler's best novels. Anne Tyler's characters can be so familiar and so fu... Read more

In the following essay, Jones perceives Ladder of Years as a “postfeminist revision” of Kate Chopin's The Awakening. Following the 1995 publication of Anne Tyler's Ladder o... Read more

In the following mixed review of The Amateur Marriage, Brookner compares the novels of Tyler and Carol Shields. Anne Tyler has written 15 excellent novels—this is her 16th [The Amateur Marriage... Read more

Critical Essay by Walter Sullivan Anne Tyler goes at her work with as much gusto as Margaret Drabble, but on a smaller scale and in a style that is more tightly controlled. Miss Tyler has learned a gr... Read more

Critical Essay by Roger Sale I was born right here in Clarion; I grew up in that big brown turreted house next to Percy's Texaco. My mother was a fat lady who used to teach first grade. Her ma... Read more

Critical Essay by Thomas M. Disch In the paradoxical character of Emily, at once passive and inflexible, ruthless in her rejections and unswerving in her loyalty, Tyler has created [in Morgan's... Read more

Critical Essay by John Leonard Before she is done, Anne Tyler will have populated an entire imaginary state of Maryland with odd people about whom you are obliged to care because their oddities are wh... Read more

Critical Essay by James Wolcott Like a sentry or a detective, Anne Tyler seems to notice everything: the pale fluorescent gloom of laundromats, pockets filled with lint-covered jellybeans, the smell o... Read more

Critical Essay by John Updike Anne Tyler, [like John Cheever], has sought brightness in the ordinary, and her art has needed only the darkening that would give her beautifully sketched shapes solidity... Read more

Critical Essay by Millicent Bell The fact that 24-year-old Anne Tyler … grew up in Raleigh, N.C., must seem to her significant enough to make her publishers note on the jacket of ["The T... Read more

Critical Essay by Vivian Gornick Good writers often have preoccupations. Sets of characters or pieces of experience repeat themselves in book after book because an idea of life is being obsessed over.... Read more

In the following essay, Robertson analyzes how Tyler changes traditional ideas about family and its interaction with outsiders in her novels. John Updike, a fan of Anne Tyler's work, remarked i... Read more

In the following essay. Bowers discusses the inside knowledge that Tyler shares with the readers of her novels. In her most successful novel, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Anne Tyler's cen... Read more

In the following review, Parini states that Tyler's Saint Maybe is "a realistic chronicle that celebrates family life without erasing the pain and boredom that families almost necessaril... Read more

In the following essay, Willrich presents an overview of Tyler's life, career, and approach to writing. Novelist Anne Tyler has spent most of her 50 years observing from a distance, using her i... Read more