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Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant A Novel Anne Tyler 2015449911594 Books

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Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant A Novel Anne Tyler 2015449911594 Books

Tolstoy famously said "happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant shows one way a family can be miserable.

The novel opens with Pearl Tull, the matriarch of a small family lying on her deathbed. We then go back through Pearl's life, marriage, and parenthood. "She'd been a frantic, angry, sometimes terrifying mother; and ... she'd never shown the faintest interest in her community but dwelt in it like a visitor from a superior neighborhood, always wearing her hat when out walking, keeping her doors tightly shut when at home. ... Her life had been very long indeed but never full; stunted was more like it." [p 296].

Buck, Pearl's husband and the kids' dad, left when the kids were little so Pearl, totally ill equipped, was left to handle the kids. I think today we'd diagnose her as bi-polar. When the kids weren't perfect she's scream at them: "'Parasites,'she told them. 'I wish you'd all die, and let me go free. I wish I'd find you dead in your bed.'" [p 54]

The kids dealt with this in their own ways. Cody, the eldest, became a self-made man and had as little to do with the family as possible. Jealous of his brother, Cody stole Ezra's fiancé.

Ezra, stayed in town, living at home. He worked at a restaurant until it became his and he renamed it the Homesick Restaurant. He always tried to have a family meal at the restaurant but they always broke up before the end - sometimes before the beginning.

Jenny threw herself into her studies at medical school and work. Her husband left her as well and she ended up in a different type of relationship.

The ending was strong and not saccharine. Anne Tyler is a great writer who builds clearly defined characters with definite and clear motivations. Her narrative is exceptional; in describing a baby with croup she writes "The baby's breathing was choked and rough, like something pulled through tightly packed gravel." [p 1] This imagery is rich, descriptive, perfect.

I've now read 6 of the 15 Pulitzer prize winners awarded since 2000. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant was a runner up in 1983. Anne Tyler won in 1989 with Breathing Lessons. This is a great source of books to read.

If you are a dedicated fiction reader, you've read this a long time ago; if somehow it has slipped through the cracks, go get it now.


Tags : Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant: A Novel [Anne Tyler] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b> NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER </b> “Funny, heart-hammering, wise…An extremely beautiful book.” — The New York Times</i> “A Book that should join those few that every literate person will have to read.” — The Boston Globe </i> Abandoned by her wanderlusting husband,Anne Tyler,Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant: A Novel,Vintage,0449911594,Literary,Baltimore (Md.),Baltimore (Md.);Fiction.,Domestic fiction,Mothers - Death,Mothers;Death;Fiction.,Runaway husbands,Runaway husbands;Fiction.,Death,FICTION Family Life General,FICTION Literary,FICTION Psychological,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-Literary,GENERAL,General Adult,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),Modern fiction,Mothers,TYLER, ANNE - PROSE & CRITICISM,american;american fiction;usa;america;contemporary fiction;family;dysfunctional family;siblings;family reunion;family relationships;baltimore;maryland;National Book Award winner;reminiscence;parenting;single mother;recollection;diner;family meals;forgiveness;love;humor;abuse;death and dying;national book award finalists;literary fiction;fiction;novels;fiction books;literature;books fiction;realistic fiction books;fiction psychological;relationships;coming of age;marriage;friendship,american; american writers; american fiction; 20th century american writers; usa; america; contemporary novel; contemporary fiction; 20th century literature; family; dysfunctional family; siblings; sibling envy; sibling rivalries; family reunion; family relationships; baltimore; maryland; National Book Award winner; reminiscence; parenting; parental abandonement; single mother; recollection; memories of the past; family restaurant; diner; family meals; forgiveness; love; humor; families eating together; abuse; death and dying

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant A Novel Anne Tyler 2015449911594 Books Reviews

Anne Tyler is a Pulitzer Prize winning author after all. I love reading Pulitzer Prize winners. I find them interesting, fascinating, deep and exciting. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant was not a winner of the prestigious award but a finalist. I am still in awe of anyone that can achieve that with their writing. As a writer I strive for the same.

I had read that this novel would be a great study in character development. The author herself calls this her favorite novel. I started reading with great anticipation. After only a few chapters I started to wonder what I'd gotten myself into.

It's not that the writing isn't superb. It is. Pearl Tull has depth and detail as a troubled woman, wife and mother. Her husband simply walks out the door one day and she tells the children he's away on a business trip. Cody, the eldest child takes out his frustrations on Ezra, the middle and most loved child. With her mother as her only role model, Jenny, the only girl, focuses strictly on not following in her mother's footsteps.

My issue with this story is that there is nothing about any of these characters that is likeable. Nothing. They are angry, mean, and spiteful toward each other. I didn't see any of them grow and change over the course of the story in any way. Cody remained jealous throughout. Ezra always believed in the family as a unit even though they were never able to finish an entire meal together at his restaurant. Jenny went through the motions, going through several marriages and never really appearing as having found any happiness. And Pearl. Pearl softened some as she aged. But even in death she never released her hold on lives of her children. The appearance of her husband, Beck, at her funeral did little to resolve years of pain.

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is wonderfully crafted and written. The story and it's characters have great depth, and display a colorful palette of emotions. As reader I just couldn't like them. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant didn't turn out to be an enjoyable experience for me. It may be for you.
The story revolves around Pearl, a neurotic woman who has done her best to raise three children on her own. Their lives are by turns tragic and ridiculous. You'll be proud of Jennie, feel hurt for Ezra, and have a hard time relating to Cody. Pearl reminds me a lot of my widowed aunt, who could barely cope with life herself and had to raise three children. Their family, however, is a loving one, due to the legacy of the sad father who died way too young. He loved them with all his heart, but he could not please his wife. See what I mean? The Tull family is not close, but they can't resist trying to be. Thank you, Lord, for the loving family I know.
I am so enjoying Anne Tyler's books and constantly marvel at her wonderful insight into everyday events, people and conversations. Her observation is so highly tuned and her sense of humour delightful. Much food for thought, and I believe reading her books might actually change the way we observe people somewhat. A wonderful writer with serious things to say and a great ability to weave fascinating stories about ordinary families in a way which makes her books so hard to put down.
Dinner at The Homesick Restaurant is no exception. A Mother and her family struggling with their various problems. Sibling rivalry, bitterness at abandonment a somewhat dysfunctional family all trying in their own way to make sense of their lives. A wonderful group of characters, so well drawn and utterly believable. It is impossible not to feel some form of empathy with each of them. I really enjoyed this book.
but to expend her amazing talent on this sad dysfunctional group of people makes me sad . I found this story very boring and difficult to engage with. While Tyler is well known for these types of lonely unhappy characters I felt litle empathy for this family and, but for the lyrical writing I would not have found anything redeeming in this story.
Tolstoy famously said "happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant shows one way a family can be miserable.

The novel opens with Pearl Tull, the matriarch of a small family lying on her deathbed. We then go back through Pearl's life, marriage, and parenthood. "She'd been a frantic, angry, sometimes terrifying mother; and ... she'd never shown the faintest interest in her community but dwelt in it like a visitor from a superior neighborhood, always wearing her hat when out walking, keeping her doors tightly shut when at home. ... Her life had been very long indeed but never full; stunted was more like it." [p 296].

Buck, Pearl's husband and the kids' dad, left when the kids were little so Pearl, totally ill equipped, was left to handle the kids. I think today we'd diagnose her as bi-polar. When the kids weren't perfect she's scream at them "'Parasites,'she told them. 'I wish you'd all die, and let me go free. I wish I'd find you dead in your bed.'" [p 54]

The kids dealt with this in their own ways. Cody, the eldest, became a self-made man and had as little to do with the family as possible. Jealous of his brother, Cody stole Ezra's fiancé.

Ezra, stayed in town, living at home. He worked at a restaurant until it became his and he renamed it the Homesick Restaurant. He always tried to have a family meal at the restaurant but they always broke up before the end - sometimes before the beginning.

Jenny threw herself into her studies at medical school and work. Her husband left her as well and she ended up in a different type of relationship.

The ending was strong and not saccharine. Anne Tyler is a great writer who builds clearly defined characters with definite and clear motivations. Her narrative is exceptional; in describing a baby with croup she writes "The baby's breathing was choked and rough, like something pulled through tightly packed gravel." [p 1] This imagery is rich, descriptive, perfect.

I've now read 6 of the 15 Pulitzer prize winners awarded since 2000. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant was a runner up in 1983. Anne Tyler won in 1989 with Breathing Lessons. This is a great source of books to read.

If you are a dedicated fiction reader, you've read this a long time ago; if somehow it has slipped through the cracks, go get it now.