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Title: A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler ISBN: 0-8041-1918-X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 (151 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Refreshing
Comment: I finished this book with a smile on my face - Anne Tyler never ceases to entertain. What I love about her books is the fluid drawing out of interesting people, her characters are fleshed out into genuine characters - it's like walking into a scene peopled with friends and family of your own.
I did have one beef (or two) with the novel. I was hoping that Anne would focus more on the relationship between Opal and Barnaby, for there seemed to be no satisfactory closure there, or no real hint of what was to come of their relation to one another. Opal was a fascinating character! As was Barnaby, of course - focussing on these two would have been the real clincher in this book. Perhaps a sequel?
Also, the ending left me confused . . . was he finally turning to Martine? Was his last line a realization of some sort, a discardment of Sophia? (Good choice: Sophia was a dullard)
Read this book! I also recommend "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant." :)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Masterpiece
Comment: I am an avid reader, 50 - 60 books a year, roughly half of which are fiction. So I read a lot of books and feel at least qualified to make a statement about a book.
I have not read a book before this that so accurately reflects America today. Tom Wolfe is consistently, and rightly so, recognized for his ability to describe the society he lives in in his books. In my opinion Anne Tyler has done that in "A Patchwork Planet" about as well as anything I have ever read. Her portrayal of Barnaby, Sophia, Margot, Natalie, Opal, Jeff, I mean, even Natalie's Lawyer husband, and more, make for a nice story. But the way these characters interact with each other and represent how people in our society think of and treat each other, how they view, participate and deal with relationships, how they create, dispel and foster stereotypes and how they buy into images of things the way they want to see them is sooooooooo accurate. Perhaps to most who don't see society in these tones, this story will not blow you away. But for me it did.
I think this book is important. As I read it my thoughts were frequently drifting to two of my favorite books, Catcher in the Rye and To Kill A Mockingbird. Ernest Hemingway said that a story should be like an iceberg, 1/3rd above water 2/3rd's below.
Of A Patchwork Planet, Salinger, Lee and Hemingway would be proud.
Rating: 1
Summary: Disappointing
Comment: *A Patchwork Planet* tells the story of misfit, Barnaby Gaitlin. Barnaby's in his early thirties, and is not particularly pleased his life. He's got a demanding ex-wife, a pre-teen daughter he can't connect with, a nowhere job and wealthy parents that don't understand him. He's in a rut, and he doesn't know how he got there or how to get out of it. Really, it isn't so much that he made poor choices, as that he never really made *any* choices--he just sort of lets things happen to him. I think that's why I didn't like him as a character, and couldn't get terribly interested in what happened to him next.
Barnaby believes that his life will improve once he finds his "angel". (His family fortune came about as a result of several family members finding their angel--kind of like a muse, I guess.) Early on in the book, Barnaby believes his found his angel in Sophia, a woman whom he overheard in conversation in a train station. Against his character, he decides to pursue her. Once they become involved he proceeds, for essentially the rest of the book, to wait for the "angel" to bring about his reversal of fortune. What passive, frustrating character! He doesn't grow or improve. Things do somewhat improve for him by the book's end, but more by chance than by his actions.
Tyler's writing is good, but perhaps I've missed her point. I can't recommend this book.
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Title: Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler ISBN: 0804113475 Publisher: Ivy Books Pub. Date: 30 March, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler ISBN: 0345446860 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 09 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler ISBN: 0804108749 Publisher: Ivy Books Pub. Date: 23 August, 1992 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler ISBN: 0449911594 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 27 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Clock Winder by Anne Tyler ISBN: 0449911799 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 27 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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