A Patchwork Planet
by Anne Tyler
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In this, her fourteenth novel--and one of her most endearing--Anne Tyler tells the story of a lovable loser who's trying to get his life in order. Barnaby Gaitlin has been in trouble ever since adolescence. He had this habit of breaking into other people's houses. It wasn't the big loot he was after, like his teenage cohorts. It was just that he liked to read other people's mail, pore over their family photo albums, and appropriate a few of their precious mementos. But for eleven years now, show more he's been working steadily for Rent-a-Back, renting his back to old folks and shut-ins who can't move their own porch furniture or bring the Christmas tree down from the attic. At last, his life seems to be on an even keel. Still, the Gaitlins (of "old" Baltimore) cannot forget the price they paid for buying off Barnaby's former victims. And his ex-wife would just as soon he didn't show up ever to visit their little girl, Opal. Even the nice, steady woman (his guardian angel?) who seems to have designs on him doesn't fully trust him, it develops, when the chips are down, and it looks as though his world may fall apart again. There is no one like Anne Tyler, with her sharp, funny, tender perceptions about how human beings navigate on a puzzling planet, and she keeps us enthralled from start to finish in this delicious new novel. show lessTags
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This novel tells the story of a young man, Barnaby Gaitlin, who’s very much the black sheep of a successful family. The Gaitlins have made a fortune in business and run a charitable foundation, while Barnaby’s older brother Jeff is a model son, with a perfect family and career. Faced with the realisation that his parents disapprove of him, Barnaby has rebelled and completely dropped out of this money and status-driven existence. With an adolescence of petty crime and reform school as well as a divorce behind him, he works in a low-paid manual labour job that his parents see as being beneath a member of such a renowned family. He lives in a basement, has no money and dresses like a tramp, causing his mother especially to nag him to show more change his ways and be more like his brother.
We soon learn that all the Gaitlin men throughout the generations have, at some time or other, encountered an ‘angel’, a woman who suddenly appeared to them for a moment and conveyed a supernatural message that changed the course of their lives. The novel opens with a chance meeting at a railway station that leads Barnaby to wonder whether he too has finally met his angel, the woman who will transform his directionless life...
This is a very funny novel that creates humour and drama out of the mundane events of one person’s life. It is written in the first person and I loved the voice of Barnaby – he is very observant and perceptive about those around him: the family he gets frustrated with, and his colleagues and clients at Rent-a-Back, the company he works for, carrying out odd-jobs and DIY for people who can’t manage it themselves. I also liked the clear and precise writing style, which, although fairly unadorned and unshowy, somehow immerses the reader immediately into Barnaby’s world. Barnaby is an engaging character. He sees himself as being pretty much a worthless person, as do certain neighbours and members of his family, but the reader can see clearly that he’s actually kind-hearted and very sympathetic to his clients, although he denies any praise with lines such as ‘None of my customers had the least inkling of my true nature’. His family see his job as pointless, without any future, but it’s clear that Barnaby makes a huge difference in the lives of the often lonely and elderly people he works for.
This novel has a large cast of characters, including Barnaby’s ex-wife and daughter, his family, colleagues and old school friends. For this reason, it seems rather meandering at times but it still kept me interested throughout. His eccentric clients and awkward family get-togethers are all conveyed wonderfully. I liked the way the book portrayed relationships developing slowly, and showed that people can be attracted to others without realising it at first. The reader can enjoy being one step ahead of Barnaby, seeing what isn’t obvious to him, and predicting what’s going to happen to him next. But A Patchwork Planet also shows how life can be complicated and relationships ambiguous, and it certainly doesn’t wrap everything up neatly. I think one of the main ideas expressed is that all our connections in life, whoever we interact with, contribute to giving life meaning. It’s quite a cheering book that is ideal to read curled up on a dull, rainy afternoon. [2011] show less
We soon learn that all the Gaitlin men throughout the generations have, at some time or other, encountered an ‘angel’, a woman who suddenly appeared to them for a moment and conveyed a supernatural message that changed the course of their lives. The novel opens with a chance meeting at a railway station that leads Barnaby to wonder whether he too has finally met his angel, the woman who will transform his directionless life...
This is a very funny novel that creates humour and drama out of the mundane events of one person’s life. It is written in the first person and I loved the voice of Barnaby – he is very observant and perceptive about those around him: the family he gets frustrated with, and his colleagues and clients at Rent-a-Back, the company he works for, carrying out odd-jobs and DIY for people who can’t manage it themselves. I also liked the clear and precise writing style, which, although fairly unadorned and unshowy, somehow immerses the reader immediately into Barnaby’s world. Barnaby is an engaging character. He sees himself as being pretty much a worthless person, as do certain neighbours and members of his family, but the reader can see clearly that he’s actually kind-hearted and very sympathetic to his clients, although he denies any praise with lines such as ‘None of my customers had the least inkling of my true nature’. His family see his job as pointless, without any future, but it’s clear that Barnaby makes a huge difference in the lives of the often lonely and elderly people he works for.
This novel has a large cast of characters, including Barnaby’s ex-wife and daughter, his family, colleagues and old school friends. For this reason, it seems rather meandering at times but it still kept me interested throughout. His eccentric clients and awkward family get-togethers are all conveyed wonderfully. I liked the way the book portrayed relationships developing slowly, and showed that people can be attracted to others without realising it at first. The reader can enjoy being one step ahead of Barnaby, seeing what isn’t obvious to him, and predicting what’s going to happen to him next. But A Patchwork Planet also shows how life can be complicated and relationships ambiguous, and it certainly doesn’t wrap everything up neatly. I think one of the main ideas expressed is that all our connections in life, whoever we interact with, contribute to giving life meaning. It’s quite a cheering book that is ideal to read curled up on a dull, rainy afternoon. [2011] show less
Thirty-year-old Barnaby Gaitlin has spent most of his life so far failing to live up to his family's high standards. Instead going to an Ivy League school and working for his family's charitable foundation, he got sent to a reform school for wealthy boys and does manual labor for a company called Rent-a-Back, where he helps his elderly clients with any tasks they can no longer handle themselves. When he meets Sophia on a train, she changes his life in ways that no one, including the reader, could imagine.
Anne Tyler's books can be hit-or-miss. I didn't have to get very far into this one before I knew it was going to be really good. There are so many different layers to the characters and the themes that I can't even begin to touch them show more all. Every single one of the characters in the book has flaws, is carrying some kind of burden, and makes mistakes, and yet you do get the sense that they're all trying as hard as they can to cope with what life has given them. The characters come across as very real people. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is still my favorite Tyler book, but this one comes in at a close second. show less
Anne Tyler's books can be hit-or-miss. I didn't have to get very far into this one before I knew it was going to be really good. There are so many different layers to the characters and the themes that I can't even begin to touch them show more all. Every single one of the characters in the book has flaws, is carrying some kind of burden, and makes mistakes, and yet you do get the sense that they're all trying as hard as they can to cope with what life has given them. The characters come across as very real people. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is still my favorite Tyler book, but this one comes in at a close second. show less
Beautiful observations, gentle, wry humour, and some pathos in this typical Tyler novel.
Barnaby has grown out of his wild teenage years, helped by the trust of his grandfather, and now works for a company that does odd jobs for the elderly. His wife has left him, and he finds his family stressful.
When he meets the organised, trustworthy and attractive Sophia, he feels as if she is some kind of angel, sent to turn him into a worthy human being who will fit in better with other people.
There's not much more plot than that; the enjoyment of the book is in Barnaby's observations and musings. The story is told in the first person from his perspective. I did find the ending slightly inconclusive, as one does with Anne Tyler's books. I also show more found some of the reflections on the inevitability of old age to be rather depressing. But overall, I thought it a very good book. Recommended. show less
Barnaby has grown out of his wild teenage years, helped by the trust of his grandfather, and now works for a company that does odd jobs for the elderly. His wife has left him, and he finds his family stressful.
When he meets the organised, trustworthy and attractive Sophia, he feels as if she is some kind of angel, sent to turn him into a worthy human being who will fit in better with other people.
There's not much more plot than that; the enjoyment of the book is in Barnaby's observations and musings. The story is told in the first person from his perspective. I did find the ending slightly inconclusive, as one does with Anne Tyler's books. I also show more found some of the reflections on the inevitability of old age to be rather depressing. But overall, I thought it a very good book. Recommended. show less
I picked this up for a funny reason. I am writing a novel with a “passive” main character and heard that by Anne Tyler had done this masterfully in A Patchwork Planet. So I was looking for her technique – the problem is she does it so seamlessly that I was hardly aware of any technique – or I was so absorbed in the novel that I forgot to analyze the writing.
Her protagonist, Barnaby is a misfit (his wealthy family would say a loser) but an endearing one who works for a service company called “Rent-a-Back” and struggles to get his life together. He progresses at a snail’s pace but we find ourselves rooting for his little victories and despairing over any rejections.
Her protagonist, Barnaby is a misfit (his wealthy family would say a loser) but an endearing one who works for a service company called “Rent-a-Back” and struggles to get his life together. He progresses at a snail’s pace but we find ourselves rooting for his little victories and despairing over any rejections.
Then a hand arrived on my arm, so light it took a moment to register, and I turned and found Sophia smiling into my eyes. It was the most serene and radiant smile, the most seraphic smile. "Goodbye, Barnaby," she said, and she dropped her hand and walked away.
I never did explain her presence to Natalie. I honestly don't know what I would have said.
The story of Barnaby Gaitlin, the black sheep son of a rich Baltimore family, who works for a company called Rent-a-back, which does the jobs that its elderly clients can't manage for themselves, no matter how small. I loved the descriptions of Barnaby's clients, such as "Over her forearm she carried a Yorkshire terrier, neatly folded like a waiter's napkin", and "Dirt was her personal enemy. show more Let her catch sight of a cobweb and she would not rest until she had killed it dead", and I think that every city could do with having a Rent-a-back. show less
I never did explain her presence to Natalie. I honestly don't know what I would have said.
The story of Barnaby Gaitlin, the black sheep son of a rich Baltimore family, who works for a company called Rent-a-back, which does the jobs that its elderly clients can't manage for themselves, no matter how small. I loved the descriptions of Barnaby's clients, such as "Over her forearm she carried a Yorkshire terrier, neatly folded like a waiter's napkin", and "Dirt was her personal enemy. show more Let her catch sight of a cobweb and she would not rest until she had killed it dead", and I think that every city could do with having a Rent-a-back. show less
I want to be Anne Tyler when I grow up.
Less ambitiously, if ever somebody was going to write me, write my life, my family, my friends, my fuck-ups, my fuck-downs - which I hope are the very opposite of ups - this is the only person I would want to do it. She'd make it all okay.
Less ambitiously, if ever somebody was going to write me, write my life, my family, my friends, my fuck-ups, my fuck-downs - which I hope are the very opposite of ups - this is the only person I would want to do it. She'd make it all okay.
What is it about Barnaby Gaitlin? He's almost 30 (oh, that dreaded birthday!), lives in a run-down basement, is divorced, with a young daughter who he seldom sees, works at a menial job & generally struggles to survive. This at least is the description of Barnaby's life, if you look at it from a detached, criticizing point of view. He's the ultimate "loser" in a society that measures people through their wealth, beauty, image. Barnaby comes from a rich family, but is a former juvenile delinquent. He's not particulary handsome & he couldn't care less about his image. Still, in a world that would measure people in different ways, he would be considered a wonderful man: through his work he helps those most in need (elderly clients in the show more company "Rent-a-back") & is a kind, thoughtful, gentle man, but hopelessly insecure & maybe misdirected.
Along comes Sophia, a school-marmish sort of woman, who, as is mentioned in the book, "each night scrubs her face, brushes her teeth & climbs- alone- into her four-poster-bed". Barnaby thinks Sophia is his guardian-angel (a tradition in his family) & forms a relationship with her, striving to be as good as she is. What he doesn't realise, until the end, is that Sophia's goodness is only skin-deep, while his own character & potential is more truthful & honest by far.
What stays with me after closing the book is first, the whole theme of goodness & the ability to give to others, which is explored beautifully, & second, Anne Tyler's thoughts about old-age & elderly people...very chilling, very true. Those chapters broke my heart but I thought they were true to life. show less
Along comes Sophia, a school-marmish sort of woman, who, as is mentioned in the book, "each night scrubs her face, brushes her teeth & climbs- alone- into her four-poster-bed". Barnaby thinks Sophia is his guardian-angel (a tradition in his family) & forms a relationship with her, striving to be as good as she is. What he doesn't realise, until the end, is that Sophia's goodness is only skin-deep, while his own character & potential is more truthful & honest by far.
What stays with me after closing the book is first, the whole theme of goodness & the ability to give to others, which is explored beautifully, & second, Anne Tyler's thoughts about old-age & elderly people...very chilling, very true. Those chapters broke my heart but I thought they were true to life. show less
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Anne Tyler, die 1988 für den Roman "Atemübungen" den Pulitzer-Preis erhielt, beschreibt auch in "Engel gesucht" die kleinen ironischen Wechselfälle des Lebens mit unaufdringlicher Präzision. Den schnoddrigen Ton des jungen Barnaby trifft sie ebenso wie das umständliche oder zögerliche Reden seiner "Nachrichtenkorrespondenten aus dem Land des Alters". Manchmal erscheint die Erzählweise show more fast zu zurückhaltend, zu still. Doch - vielleicht - macht gerade das den Reiz des Buches aus. show less
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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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- Original title
- A Patchwork Planet
- Original publication date
- 1998
- People/Characters
- Barnaby Gaitlin; Sophia; Opal; Martine
- Important places
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Maryland, USA
- Dedication
- In loving memory of my husband, Taghi Modarressi
- First words
- I am a man you can trust, is how my customers view me.
- Quotations
- Back in Baltimore's golden age, when the streetcars were still running and downtown was still the place to go and we had four top-notch department stores all on the same one block: Hutzler's, Hochschild's, Stewart's, and Hech... (show all)t's... (Rent-A-Back client)
"A rented room," she mused, "an unskilled job, a bunch of shiftless friends. No goals and no ambitions; still not finished college at the age of thirty."
"Twenty-nine," I corrected her. (The one charge I could argue with.)... (show all)
"Thirty in three weeks," she said.
"Oh."
Oh, what makes some people more virtuous than others? Is it something they know from birth? Don't they ever feel that zingy, thrilling urge to smash the world to bits?
Isn't it possible, maybe, that good people are just lu... (show all)ckier people? Couldn't that be the explanation?
The silence was that sharp-edged kind that follows gunshots or shattering claps of thunder.
All the women around us looked just like her, tailored and crisp, with shoes that you just knew, somehow, had cost a whole lot of money. All the men were homeless. They sat huddled under ragged blankets on top of the grates i... (show all)n the sidewalk, and I couldn't help thinking that I had more in common with them than with my mother.
I have a problem, sometimes, after I come away from a place. I'll start out feeling fine, but just a few minutes later I'll get to reconsidering. I'll regret that I've said something rude, that I've disappointed people or hur... (show all)t their feelings. I'll see that I have messed up yet again, and I'll call myself all manner of names. Freak of the week! Nerd of the herd! And I'll wish I could rearrange my life so I'd never have to deal anymore with another human being.
A few years ago, when they were making a public to-do over laying the last stone at the National Cathedral, I read an interview in the paper with a guy who'd seen the first stone laid, in nineteen-oh-something-or-other... (show all). He said he'd been just a little boy then, and his father took him to the ceremony. That story caught my fancy, for some reason. I pictured a kid in high button shoes and a ribbon-trimmed hat, hanging on to his father's hand in a great cobbled square among crowds of cheering people. Then one by one the people started dimming. They grew pale and then transparent, and finally they disappeared. The father disappeared and the men in bowler hats and the women in long cloaks, until the only one left was the little boy standing all, all alone.
What I'd wanted to know was, couldn't people change? Did they have to settle for just being who they were forever, from cradle to grave? - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Sophia, she read, you never did realize, I am a man you can trust.
- Publisher's editor
- Jones, Judith
- Blurbers
- Shone, Tom; Schine, Cathleen; Eder, Richard
- Original language
- English
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