Tyler has that knack of showing them in scenes full of humour, and yet simmering beneath it all is the potential for heartbreak. They could be members of your own family. And while you don’t always like what the characters do, you can’t help warming to them as people. Like many of her books, French Braid appears to be a fairly simple story, full of everyday events that anyone might recognise. So many unexpected people seemed to edge into a person’s life, once that person had children. Tyler describes the fine line between loving your family and wanting to be your own person. We’re through the sixties and out the other side by now, and the times they are a-changing.

Meanwhile, Mercy sets herself up with a studio a mere walk from home, complete with a divan and finds a new freedom as an artist.

Lily gets over the heartbreak, but David seems to withdraw further through the book, into his student years and beyond. Mercy spends so much time painting at the kitchen table, she doesn’t notice what’s going on with her kids.īy the end of the holiday, Lily is heart-broken and David is withdrawn. His older sister Alice is helpful but bossy, and fifteen-year-old Lily is ensconced in a holiday romance. His mission is to teach David, a tender boy of around seven, to swim. You can tell they don’t do this often as Robin wears his work shoes and black socks when walking to the lake in his bathers. are off to the the lake for a summer holiday. The Garretts seem to have become fragmented over the years, going for long stretches of time without meeting or checking in on each other.įlip back to 1959 and the Garretts – Robin, Mercy and co. Have a look at the opening scene of The Accidental Tourist for the way Tyler shows a marriage in trouble. How can you not know your own cousin? What kind of family is this? It’s a simple snapshot from ordinary life that displays something deeper, something Tyler does brilliantly. She won’t even go up to Nicholas to see if it’s him, which James finds perplexing. Serena thinks she’s spotted her cousin, but isn’t sure. But then that might be because the scenes are mostly in homes, often around a meal table.įrench Braid begins with the next generation when Serena and her boyfriend James are waiting for a train to take them from Philadelphia to Baltimore. Again we’re in Baltimore which in Tyler’s world always comes across as a sensible, solid kind of city, oozing with good old-fashioned American values. This time we’ve got the Garretts: Mercy and Robin, parents to Alice, Lily and David. A new Anne Tyler novel means a new family.

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