This is my favorite author! I have been reading her book for over twenty years and now going back to find the ones that I have missed.

Anne Tyler says that it is not her best. She needed a rest after her first book and she would have written it differently today. There is a Reader's Guide and another section for questions and answers. This is a more simple storyline but is about family again. A little girl, Janie died in an accident. Her mother is deeply depressed and takes to her bed and cannot get on with her life. Janie was one that she cared the least about, Janie was eternally optimistic but was desperate to be loved. Her older brother, Simon is ten years old and is dependent on his aunt Joan who came for a visit and stayed. Joan never felt like she was part of a family. Her parents pretty much ignored her. So she lived with her aunt and uncle Pike.

Next door in the duplex were James, a photographer, and his brother Ansel. James left his home and took his brother with him so he could take care of him. Ansel was anemic and was always recovering or getting worse but he could drive you up a wall with his endless talk. He is not employed and expects James to take care of him.

His caretaking is mirrored by Joan's caretaking of Simon and Janie until she dies.

After the death, the Pike family fell apart. Mr. Pike never talked and finally decided he had to get back to working instead of just staring at things. Joan worked in the summer at a tobacco place and her co-workers discussed how to get Mrs. Pike back to her life.

It is a little depressing and it would be impossible to think of the family members and their neighbors growing socially and getting to be back to being sort of a family. But it is difficult to stop reading and I loved the ending. ( )

Photographs represent attempts to stop time, which is why we get out our cameras on Christmas morning, at birthday parties, at family reunions and when children and pets do cute things more than we do at funeral homes and in hospital rooms. Some moments we want to stop more than others.

Anne Tyler seems to have this thought in mind when she uses photography as a metaphor in one of her earliest novels, "The Tin Can Tree" (1965). James, the designated photographer, twice takes photos at gatherings of friends and family. One is soon after the shocking death of little Janie Rose, when smiles prove hard to find. Later he tries again, more successfully, after Simon, Janie Rose's runaway brother, is found and returns home.

Simon feels ignored and unloved after his sister's death. His mother, who hardly even gets out of her bed, ignores him, leaving him in the care of Joan, a young adult relative with a crush on James. Meanwhile Joan herself feels unloved and unappreciated, as James devotes himself to Ansel, his hypochondriac brother. So she runs away, too, later returning with hardly anyone even noticing she had left, finding the party for Simon, the young prodigal, already in progress.

Other times, both past and future, and other places, where the grass appears more green, have their appeal. Yet Tyler's familiar but timeless message seems to be that what we have in this moment's photograph, the place where we are and the people we still have with us, can be worth celebrating. ( )

A good portrait of working people in small-town America in the 1960s. It didn't really move me, though, despite being set in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy for the community.

Tyler's observational skills are excellent, as usual, but there's too much minor detail for my tastes, and the story is rather slow-moving. The ending isn't all that encouraging, either.

Pleasant enough as a light read for odd moments, but not one of my favourites by this author.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-tin-can-tree-by-anne-tyler.html ( )

After the death of 6-year-old Janie Rose, the Pike family and those who are closest to them have to find a way to move on with their lives. Like most of Tyler's novels, the story is primarily focused on the characters and doesn't have a lot of action.

This isn't one of Tyler's best books, but it's a quick and simple read. As always, her characters are as quirky as they can possibly be, but she somehow always manages to keep them believable. ( )

Less engaging than other novels of hers I have read. ( )