I found this book both beautifully written and slow reading, maybe it was my mood, but I couldn't finish it. ( )

This book creeps up on you. Like a movie that's dull in the beginning, then when it's all over all too soon, you go "Why can't all movies be that simple and that beautiful?" This is storytelling at its simplest and finest. ( )

This is a very readable book and I can't remember when a book has left me laughing so much. Anne Tyler has some very acute percpetions about marraige and family relationships....but I'm surprised it won the Pulitzer. It just have the qualities one expects for that prize. ( )

Maggie Moran is a well meaning wife and mother with a big heart who seems to cause chaos at every turn. She loves her husband Ira, son Jesse and daughter Daisy, but Ira seems indifferent, Jesse has problems of his own, and Daisy, who is about to begin college, is so independent that Maggie thinks she doesn’t need her any more. Jesse is father of Leroy and husband of Fiona, who Maggie is desperately trying to get back together for their daughter’s sake, but sometimes things are just not meant to be, which doesn’t stop her from trying to push them together every chance she gets.

The entire book takes place in a one day time frame as Maggie and Ira are driving to her high school friend’s husband’s funeral. Maggie and Ira get on each other’s nerves during the road trip and each reminisces about life events that brought them to the place they are today. This book is a delightfully funny and honest portrayal of how people, especially those with grown children look back on their lives and imagine various what if scenarios, for example, what if Ira had pursued his dream of becoming a doctor, and what if Maggie had married her first serious boyfriend. Although, sometimes it is fun to look back on your life and imagine what could have been it can also make you thankful for what you do have, even if may seem ordinary to others. This is a realistic portrayal of how spouses can get on each others nerves, children can drive us crazy, etc. but we do love and appreciate them.

I enjoyed reading this book and there were parts that honestly did make me laugh out loud. ( )

This novel is an absolute joy - and I can see why it won a purlitzer prize. Beautifully crafted it brilliantly illustrates the way people are with each other - the way people who know each other so well act toward each other, how the old arguments and resentments resurface quickly and with out warning. Maggie and Ira's conversations while driving to Deer Lick are wonderfully real - you can just hear them, a middle aged couple having the same arguments they have had before, going over the same old ground. As I have probably said in other reviews elsewhere Anne Tylers characters are real people - you believe them absolutley - and thats what makes the novels so enjoyable. ( )