SOURCE: Brookner, Anita. Review of Back When We Were Grownups, by Anne Tyler. Spectator 286, no. 9017 (2 June 2001): 40.

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's protagonists [in Back When We Were Grownups] are dutiful, wistful people who, after a lifetime of looking after others, plan a timid and almost overlooked rebellion, such as walking away from a family picnic, or contacting a long-lost friend. Rebecca Davitch has every excuse for leaving her nearest and dearest, since they all have names like Patch, Min Foo, NoNo, Jeep, Zeb, Troy, Hakim and Dixon. These irritating people, as irritating as their names, are the extended family of a typically hapless matriarch, a professional party organiser who is more successful than the reader at distinguishing between her daughter, her...