The Accidental Tourist

Yes, it was on the cards that I would become a huge Anne Tyler fan, and so many kind people made recommendations that I am in danger of glutting myself on it all. This one is probably one her best known, partly because it was made into a film (though not one I have seen). And of course it is a delight. Having said that, I must admit that most of the way through I was thinking, Oh, am I enjoying this as much as the Patchwork Planet? I think this may have been because I loved the central character of that one so much, and Macon, the protagonist and indeed the eponymous accidental tourist, takes a bit of getting used to. Stiff, conventional, frighteningly addicted to list-making, planning and routine, he is not, at first sight, the most appealing of heros. When his wife of twenty years leaves him, unable to bear his lack of emotion any longer, he reacts by setting up the most sad and funny series of short-cuts in his lonely house -- sewing his sheets into bags to save on washing,  fixing up the popcorn maker onto the tea-maker alarm clock so he doesn't have to get out of bed in the morning, trampling his worn clothes underfoot in the shower every day. Macon is cracking up and he doesn't know it. But everything changes, albeit very very slowly, when he allows scatty Muriel, the trainer of his angry dog, to  make her way into his life. And just as gradually, gradually, Macon comes to appreciate Muriel and even to become fond of her strange little son, so gradually gradually we come to appreciate Macon. Or at least that's how it was for me. As for the ending, it is truly superb -- if you have by some chance not read this, I think and hope you will be as surprised -- and maybe delighted -- as I was by the way things turn out almost on the final page. True, nothing is simple, but that is I think one of the joys of this wonderful novelist's writing. There is so much here that is so endearing and at the same time infuriating -- Macon's terrible family, and his even more terrible dog, his guidebooks, his trips abroad... Fantastic.