Clock Dance
by Anne Tyler
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Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life. In 1967, she is a schoolgirl coping with her mother's sudden disappearance. In 1977, she is a college coed considering a marriage proposal. In 1997, she is a young widow trying to piece her life back together. And in 2017, she yearns to be a grandmother, yet the prospect is dimming. So, when Willa receives a phone call from a stranger, telling her that her son's ex-girlfriend has been shot, she drops everything and flies show more across the country to Baltimore. The impulsive decision to look after this woman and her nine-year-old daughter will lead Willa into uncharted territory--surrounded by eccentric neighbors, plunged into the rituals that make a community a family, and forced to find solace in unexpected places. show lessTags
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I know it was supposed to tell a fascinating story of Willa waking up and rediscovering her life based on the past occurrences that she had experienced. I said "supposed to" because I just couldn't become invested in her life journey. From childhood until she was 60, Willa had allowed everyone else to define her life. Her defining moments were ones in which she consistently remained passive... only giving parts of herself up for the often selfish needs of others. By the time Willa began to show a little backbone...I had given up on her. It wasn't a bad story...it was a bad character who didn't even make bad decisions. She made absolutely NO decisions. One thing I did find enjoyable was the quirky group of neighbors that Willa finally show more found herself a welcome part of. These characters were original and real. show less
I have only read one other Anne Tyler novel and she's written so many! I need to catch up. Clock Dance is another beautifully told story about wonderful characters, like A Spool of Blue Thread. Readers who need invincible protagonists and constant action might give up after a few chapters, because nothing really happens, but Tyler manages to bring to life ordinary people in everyday situations with only observation and emotion.
Willa Brendan, formerly McIntyre, nee Drake, has reached sixty by letting life happen to her - her mother's moods when she was growing up, marriage to the first man who asked, being widowed in a road rage incident. And then one day, she decides to fly all the way across the country, from Arizona to Baltimore, to show more take on the care of a child who is mistakenly believed to be her granddaughter. Willa takes on nine year old Cheryl, an old soul in a young body, her mother Denise and their mixed assortment of neighbours - and finally finds herself ready to take charge of life. Husband Peter is not happy about her sudden detour, son Sean, who lives close by, has no interest in what his mother does, and her other son Ian rarely calls and never visits, But Denise and Cheryl need her, even though they are practically strangers.
I fell in love with Willa and everyone in her life, and finished the book in practically a day. She's the type of wishy washy character that annoys some readers but who I always find myself identifying with, just existing and not really living. And Cheryl is utterly endearing, self-sufficient yet constantly seeking paternal affection. I loved her too.
The first sections are quite brief, setting the scene with Willa's loopy mother in 1967, then her courtship in 1977, and finally her first husband's death in 1997. The rest of the book is about Willa moving to Baltimore to look after her son's ex-girlfriend's daughter, and rediscovering herself after fifty years. Nothing really happens except life, and isn't that enough? show less
Willa Brendan, formerly McIntyre, nee Drake, has reached sixty by letting life happen to her - her mother's moods when she was growing up, marriage to the first man who asked, being widowed in a road rage incident. And then one day, she decides to fly all the way across the country, from Arizona to Baltimore, to show more take on the care of a child who is mistakenly believed to be her granddaughter. Willa takes on nine year old Cheryl, an old soul in a young body, her mother Denise and their mixed assortment of neighbours - and finally finds herself ready to take charge of life. Husband Peter is not happy about her sudden detour, son Sean, who lives close by, has no interest in what his mother does, and her other son Ian rarely calls and never visits, But Denise and Cheryl need her, even though they are practically strangers.
I fell in love with Willa and everyone in her life, and finished the book in practically a day. She's the type of wishy washy character that annoys some readers but who I always find myself identifying with, just existing and not really living. And Cheryl is utterly endearing, self-sufficient yet constantly seeking paternal affection. I loved her too.
The first sections are quite brief, setting the scene with Willa's loopy mother in 1967, then her courtship in 1977, and finally her first husband's death in 1997. The rest of the book is about Willa moving to Baltimore to look after her son's ex-girlfriend's daughter, and rediscovering herself after fifty years. Nothing really happens except life, and isn't that enough? show less
I love Anne Tyler's writing. She writes about real people, and she treats their inevitable quirks and idiosyncrasies with such acceptance that allows the reader to get to know and appreciate her characters and the situations they find themselves in.
In this story, we have Willa Drake, a 61-year-old who has always strove to be taken for granted -- after growing up with a sometimes hysterical and abusive mother, Willa believes the best thing she can give her children is consistency and calmness. After being widowed young, and later re-married, she finds that her children (and her younger sister) are distant from her. Her husband has moved her from California and a job she loved to Arizona, where she knows no one. As often happens in Ms. show more Tyler's novels, a chance encounter, a mistake, a misunderstanding....opens possibilities. In this case, Willa receives a phone call asking her to care for a young girl whose mother has been injured in a shooting. The caller thinks Willa is the child's grandmother, but Willa is no relation and has never met the child nor her mother. Nevertheless, Willa agrees to fly to Baltimore. In Baltimore, Willa begins to realize that she has not been happy and thinks about the choices she's made (more realistically, the things she's allowed to happen). I loved watching her come into her own!
As always, we have wonderful characters, touches of humour and sadness, great writing. I'll be waiting somewhat patiently for Ms. Tyler's next book. show less
In this story, we have Willa Drake, a 61-year-old who has always strove to be taken for granted -- after growing up with a sometimes hysterical and abusive mother, Willa believes the best thing she can give her children is consistency and calmness. After being widowed young, and later re-married, she finds that her children (and her younger sister) are distant from her. Her husband has moved her from California and a job she loved to Arizona, where she knows no one. As often happens in Ms. show more Tyler's novels, a chance encounter, a mistake, a misunderstanding....opens possibilities. In this case, Willa receives a phone call asking her to care for a young girl whose mother has been injured in a shooting. The caller thinks Willa is the child's grandmother, but Willa is no relation and has never met the child nor her mother. Nevertheless, Willa agrees to fly to Baltimore. In Baltimore, Willa begins to realize that she has not been happy and thinks about the choices she's made (more realistically, the things she's allowed to happen). I loved watching her come into her own!
As always, we have wonderful characters, touches of humour and sadness, great writing. I'll be waiting somewhat patiently for Ms. Tyler's next book. show less
Anne Tyler is the kind of author who can make even the smallest domestic drama absolutely fascinating. She can take a well-worn family scenario and help the reader to view it through a new lens. Her novels are without a fault, relaxing and enjoyable, forcing me to slow down.
Clock Dance is the story of Willa, someone who has always done something to please others without considering herself. The novel takes the reader through two of these events in Willa’s earlier life, when her mother disappeared and when her parents first met her boyfriend followed by the later death of that boyfriend, now husband. Fast forward to the present, and Willa is married again but at a loose end. Her new husband lives for his ‘semi-retired’ work and the show more gold course and her children are distant. So when Willa receives a phone call from a stranger pleading her to look after her son’s ex-girlfriend’s daughter (who she has never met), she agrees to the surprise of all those who think they know her. Willa and her husband fly to Baltimore to look after Cheryl while mother Denise is in hospital after being shot. Willa finds more community, friendship and openness in that neighbourhood than she’s ever seen. Looking after Cheryl is a pleasure, as is feeling needed by others. Will Willa go back to her old life, or is she ready to do what she wants?
As always with Anne Tyler’s novels, the characters are an utter delight. Willa has chosen to go with the flow after being scarred as a young girl (and feeling that giving in, equals an easier life). But inside, there is still a woman with her own drive, feelings and needs and it’s lovely to see her grow into the person that’s been hiding behind others for years. Cheryl and Denise’s neighbours are a motley bunch, all with their individual quirks, right down to the roaming cat. But these characters all have wisdom where the men in Willa’s life have failed – they notice her and are grateful for any assistance she offers. To them, she is a real person, while previously Willa has been a shadow to her husbands. Willa’s coming of age might be much later than is trendy, but it’s still lovely to see.
So much has been said of Anne Tyler’s writing and all of the good things are true. She’s an author not to be missed (and she has a terrific backlist).
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com show less
Clock Dance is the story of Willa, someone who has always done something to please others without considering herself. The novel takes the reader through two of these events in Willa’s earlier life, when her mother disappeared and when her parents first met her boyfriend followed by the later death of that boyfriend, now husband. Fast forward to the present, and Willa is married again but at a loose end. Her new husband lives for his ‘semi-retired’ work and the show more gold course and her children are distant. So when Willa receives a phone call from a stranger pleading her to look after her son’s ex-girlfriend’s daughter (who she has never met), she agrees to the surprise of all those who think they know her. Willa and her husband fly to Baltimore to look after Cheryl while mother Denise is in hospital after being shot. Willa finds more community, friendship and openness in that neighbourhood than she’s ever seen. Looking after Cheryl is a pleasure, as is feeling needed by others. Will Willa go back to her old life, or is she ready to do what she wants?
As always with Anne Tyler’s novels, the characters are an utter delight. Willa has chosen to go with the flow after being scarred as a young girl (and feeling that giving in, equals an easier life). But inside, there is still a woman with her own drive, feelings and needs and it’s lovely to see her grow into the person that’s been hiding behind others for years. Cheryl and Denise’s neighbours are a motley bunch, all with their individual quirks, right down to the roaming cat. But these characters all have wisdom where the men in Willa’s life have failed – they notice her and are grateful for any assistance she offers. To them, she is a real person, while previously Willa has been a shadow to her husbands. Willa’s coming of age might be much later than is trendy, but it’s still lovely to see.
So much has been said of Anne Tyler’s writing and all of the good things are true. She’s an author not to be missed (and she has a terrific backlist).
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com show less
Anne Tyler has been doing the same kind of thing for decades now, but she is supremely good at it, able to conjure up complex sets of family relationships with a few telling lines of dialogue or a minor bit of background detail. This time she tries to fool us into thinking she’s doing something different from usual, by spending the first hundred pages with people who live in weird foreign places like Pennnsylvania and California. But don’t worry, we get back to familiar ground soon enough, and all the rest of the book plays in a pleasantly quaint neighbourhood of Baltimore, just as we’ve been expecting! The central character, Willa, is summoned there (from her retirement in Arizona) as a result of a minor misunderstanding, but of show more course it soon becomes clear that this is where her true elective family is waiting for her. Nothing very radical or challenging, just beautiful writing and a lot of diverse and unexpected people being very nice to each other. show less
If you've read one Anne Tyler...but if you've only read ONE, then you don't get her and her ongoing, adamant, humorous, gentle support for people swerving out of their lanes. Here, Willa's childhood was all passivity, living in fear that her volatile mother would leave her gentle father. As a grown woman, Willa gives up her own dreams, twice, to follow both her husbands away from her own happiness, first at college and at then at her job. After the death of her first husband in a road rage accident he caused, Willa raises her two sons. She winds up in Arizona, where the sanguaro cactus in her yard is more sympathetic than second husband Peter. So much for the bleak and depressing first half. But then an unexpected phone call made in show more error brings Willa to Baltimore (where all Tyler novels are set) and the second half of the novel is brimming with hope and humor. There are some first rate encounters here, as always, when various characters open their hearts and their fears, and a particularly genius one when Willa's older son, a carbon copy of his jerky father, mimics Willa's crabby second husband Peter. Far from her best, but a quick pleasurable read, as always with this sweetheart of a novelist. show less
Anne Tyler is a new author to me so I went into this not knowing what to expect. I was impressed with the way it started out and with Tyler’s skillful writing. The first several sections covering the years – 1967, 1977, 1997 – were incredible in the way characters and the relationships between them unfolded with just a few well-chosen words. But then came the final section, 2017, and with it my slow but unstoppable disconnect from the storyline and the main character, Willa. The situation in Baltimore was a stretch but what I just could not accept as believable was that a woman who taught ESL had virtually no computer skills (please, you need a computer just to take attendance and it doesn’t stop there) and no backbone (try show more surviving workplace politics without one). I know there was supposed to be a shift, an epiphany, there at the end, in the time between her husband’s phone call and her arrival in Tucson (on a direct flight from Baltimore? I don't think so), but I was no longer on board at that point.
I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways. show less
I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways. show less
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ThingScore 75
The Baltimore author’s 22nd book has familiar comforts, but lacks narrative drive
added by private library
More predictable and less profound than her most recent full-scale work (the magical A Spool of Blue Thread, 2015), but Tyler’s characteristic warmth and affection for her characters are as engaging as ever.
added by private library
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Author Information
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Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 25, 1941. She graduated from Duke University at the age of 19 and completed graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a librarian and bibliographer. Her first novel, If Morning Ever Comes, was published in 1964. Her other works show more include Saint Maybe, Back When We Were Grownups, Digging to America, Noah's Compass, The Beginner's Goodbye, A Spool of Blue Thread, and Vinegar Girl. She has won several awards including the PEN Faulkner Award in 1983 for Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, the 1985 National Book Critics Circle Award for The Accidental Tourist, and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Breathing Lessons. The Accidental Tourist was adapted into a 1988 movie starring William Hurt and Geena Davis. In 2018 her title, Clock Dance, made the bestsellers list. (Bowker Author Biography) Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. "Back When We Were Grownups" is her 15th novel; her 11th, "Breathing Lessons", won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland. (Publisher Provided) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Clock Dance
- Original title
- Clock dance
- Original publication date
- 2018
- People/Characters
- Willa Drake Brendan; Elaine Drake; Melvin Drake; Alice Drake; Derek MacIntyre; Sean MacIntyre (show all 25); Ian MacIntyre; Denise Carlyle; Cheryl Carlyle; Peter Brendan; Carl Dexter; Callie Montgomery; Hal Adams; Elissa; Ben Gold; Erland Erikson; Sergio Lopez aka Sir Joe; Lucinda Minton; Richard; Barry; Patty Dumont; Laurie Dumont; Fran Dumont; Magnus Alden; Sonia Bailey
- Important places
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Lark City, Pennsylvania, USA; Kinney College, Northern Illinois, USA; California, USA; Tucson, Arizona, USA
- First words
- Willa Drake and Sonya Bailey were selling candy bars door-to-door.
- Quotations
- Later, crossing the upstairs hall with a basket of laundry, Willa glanced into Cheryl's room to see what they were up to. Patty stood facing her, both arms extended from her sides with Laurie and Cheryl directly behind ... (show all)her. All that showed of Laurie and Cheryl were their own arms, extended too so that Patty seemed to possess six arms, all six moving in stiff, stop-and-start arcs in time to the clicking sounds that Willa could hear now punctuating the music. "It's a clock dance!" Cheryl shouted, briefly peeking out from the tail end. "Can't you tell?"
If Willa were to invent a clock dance, it wouldn't look like the one the three little girls had shown her. No, hers would feature a woman racing across the stage from left to right, all the while madly whirling so that ... (show all)the audience saw only a spinning blur of color before she vanished into the wings, pouf! Just like that. Gone
"But sometimes it feels so repetitive. You know? Like when I'm getting dressed, I'll think, These same old, same old colors; I wish I had some new ones. But there aren't any new ones, anywhere on earth..." - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)She sees herself as a tiny skirted figure like the silhouette on a ladies' room door, skimming the curve of the earth as it sails through space.
- Original language*
- englanti
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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