French Braid

I love Anne Tyler’s characters and stories about human relationships. Though her books have gotten shorter as Tyler has aged, that doesn’t mean she has less to say. She spoke volumes in this 256-page novel, and the conciseness beautifully supports the theme of omissions in family discussions.

Robin and Mercy Garrett, protagonists of French Braid, married in 1940. The story follows them, not necessarily in chronological order, to their fiftieth wedding anniversary and beyond, including a story segment set during the 2020 pandemic. We meet the next generations of their family in life situations that are relatable and thought-provoking.

Both obvious and subtle family secrets and divisions were resounding themes. There were numerous show more questions for the reader to consider as the characters revealed their thoughts and life decisions. Was it unusual that Mercy or any woman of her generation separated from her husband without notifying the family? Should we be surprised when one of the grandchildren is unsure whether she’s spotting her cousin at a train station? Would all of us recognize a relative if we unexpectedly ran into one? Do we assume that families invite siblings and other close relatives to a wedding? Would your aunts know that you are gay if you haven’t told them? Can a descendent have his ancestor’s mannerisms if they never met? How well do families communicate? What information and perceptions survive the generations?

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This is the first Tyler book that really resonated for me. I think it’s 100% because I read her other book before I had lived enough life. She captures the quiet nuances of marriage and the the fraught relationships between children and their parents with such a gentle hand. I couldn’t appreciate that before. If contemplative books bore you, skip this one. Truly nothing happens and there’s no big reveal, but the quiet moments of connection make it worthwhile. I’m still thinking about the ways we all see the same situation differently and the misunderstanding or resentments that can grow from that.

After opening and abandoning several books, I settled into French Braid by Anne Tyler for my next December TBR shelf read. It was just what I needed: an ordinary family and yet magnificently messed up. It was cozy and calming and comic and interesting and surprising all at once.

We are formed–or deformed– by our families. The Garrett family is no different. They are such a fractured family that in the opening scene, a woman isn’t sure if a man she sees is her cousin. It had been years since they had last seen each other at their grandfather’s funeral. Serena’s boyfriend has a close family, but she realizes that hers “never seemed to take” when they did gather at weddings or funerals.

Then, Tyler takes us back to 1959 and the show more one and only Garrett family vacation to a cabin at lake, introducing us to parents Robin and Mercy and their three children, teenagers Alice and Lily, and the youngest, David. It isn’t really a family vacation, the kind where everyone enjoys time together. Lily finds a boy and disappears all day. David is afraid of the water and feels judged by his father. Mercy paints, unconcerned that Lily is hanging with an older boy. Robin is unconcerned by Lily’s broken heart. And we understand the basic disconnection of these people.

These people never talk about their problems with each other. They just drift apart into their own lives. When Mercy moves out, little by little, into an art studio apartment, her separation from her husband is never recognized. Her own children don’t even think of it as a separation.

Tyler’s understated style is not for everyone. There are no horrendous events or compulsive story arcs. Just life, like yours and mine, and a shared recognition. And perhaps, some healing knowing all families leave their indelible marks. show less

The French Braid
Reading another Anne Tyler novel is like beginning another season of PBS's All Creatures Great and Small, (which happened last night) . It's a welcoming acknowledgment that you're settling into something touching, knowing and insightful. This novel, like so many of hers, takes place in Baltimore and centers around a single family. Really most of Tyler's writing can be summed up with this passage:
"Oh, a French braid,” Greta said. “That’s it. And then when she undid them, her hair would still be in ripples, little leftover squiggles, for hours and hours afterward.” “Yes…” “Well,” David said, “that’s how families work, too. You think you’re free of them, but you’re never really free; the ripples show more are crimped in forever.”
The Garrett family, Robin and Mercy, have three children and live comfortable lives in Baltimore. Tyler provides glimpses of the various stages, sometimes jumping years ahead. At a train station two cousins run into each other, a family trip to Deep Creek, a child's unexpected pregnancy, a grandmother and granddaughter trip to NYC. Sometimes I wish there were more to learn about these people, but Tyler selects the vignettes that perfectly helps the reader see the strands of a family, both flawed and memorable. Her writing is straightforward and peppered with wonderful observations. What can I say; it always a pleasure to return to her world.

Lines:

“Oh, I know how uppity you Baltimoreans are,” James said. “I know how you guys sort people out by what high school they attended. And then marry someone from your high school in the end.”

Alice often liked to imagine that a book was being written about her life. A narrator with an authoritative male voice was describing her every act.

Because if you’re going to do someone a favor, her father used to tell her, you might as well do it graciously.

She knew her family made fun of him. Or found him amusing, at least. She knew he came across as stuffy and too earnest, prone to telling the entire plots of movies and to making a low, place-holding humming noise any time he paused to search for words; and he was going to have one of those tacked-on-looking bellies if he didn’t cut back on those biscuits.

“I just want to warn you,” she’d said, “that the quality you marry a person for will end up being what you hate them for, most often.”

Oh, the lengths this family would go to so as not to spoil the picture of how things were supposed to be!

So maybe parenthood was meant to be educational, Robin thought—a lesson for the parents on totally other styles of being.

She figured that when she turned thirteen, she’d campaign for a whole row of piercings running up the outer rim of each ear. Then she’d fit a tiny hoop into each and every one, so that the edges of her ears would resemble the spine of a spiral notebook.

It was decided that Benny would sleep in Nicholas’s old room, which still had glow-in-the-dark constellations plastered to the ceiling, and Nicholas in Emily’s room.

“So, this is how it works,” she said. “This is what families do for each other—hide a few uncomfortable truths, allow a few self-deceptions. Little kindnesses.”

He could still catch a trace of Benny’s little-boy scent, salty but sweet, like clean sweat. show less

This is so distinctly and entirely a novel by Anne Tyler that the addition of the author's name to the cover is superfluous. Set in Baltimore, this is the story of an ordinary family over decades, told through what are almost interconnected stories. Each chapter is beautifully written and holds such empathy for each character, even as they fail to see the needs of the family members around them or simply long to be somewhere else. From a week-long summer vacation near a lake to a family reunion at an Easter dinner to an anniversary party, this is the kind of quiet novel that Tyler is deservedly known for and was a pleasure to read. I have the habit of forgetting about how much I love her writing for long stretches and then I pick up show more another one of her novels and I remember what a great and under-celebrated novelist she is. show less

French Braid, Anne Tyler, author; Kimberly Farr, narrator
No other author that I know can tell a story in quite the same way as Anne Tyler. Her novels come alive as they reveal the reality of our own lives. She can take a mundane moment and make it magical, meaningful and prescient. Although at first, the novel moves slowly, it gains pace as the characters pass through what may seem like the most prosaic moments of life, and yet, those very same moments become predictive of their future. We witness a family work, play, love, make choices, and sometimes march in place, but mostly, we see them grow and adapt to the different situations that face them, just like ordinary people do in their ordinary lives, because they have to do that, show more don’t they?
French Braid follows the lives of three generations of the Garrett family, simple people living ordinary lives. Each character has its own unique personality, and eventually, they all blend together to highlight all of the personalities we might ever encounter. The reader actually watches each of them flourish or fail, in their own way, and in their own time, but each soon finds the happiness they search for and deserve. All of the warts and foibles of life are portrayed as birth, death, aging, freedom, independence, individual rights, love, relationships, jealousies, lifestyles, loyalty and more are probed by the author, so quietly, that the reader is not aware of it until suddenly, there is a moment of revelation. Life happens to them, as it does to us, often without us noticing, and often without our input. We have to deal with unplanned moments and moments that are planned that do not go as expected. These characters are immersed in that cauldron with their own individual experiences. Each character’s behavior will make the reader pause and think, would I have done that? Was that appropriate? Is that acceptable? Ordinary questions become profound and through each succeeding generation the same questions are often explored, so delicately, that we are hardly aware of all the character traits the author exposes. There is no fanfare at all. The ideas simply come to life. It is a subtle exploration and exposure of family and relationships in all their incarnations. As the characters age, they have different needs and the moments of grief and joy that come into their lives, are the same as those that come into ours.
From about 1940, with the marriage of Mercy and Robin, a time when women were really only housewives, to 2020, when women are so much more independent and free to move around to reach their potential, the reader witnesses this family emerge and grow in many different directions. As we follow their progression, their different kinds of love and their trials, as they try to accept each other as spaces grow between them, as they naturally distance themselves from each other, and yet return to each other as time demands, we witness, through them, our own lives and the passage of time. We watch values and mores change as the years go by, and we, as they, alter our own relationships and needs to adjust to the new demands placed on us. Still, we may sometimes stop and wonder if the changes are all as positive as the author seems to imply.
The author is so perceptive. Is the Garret family like your own? Do you have siblings that have moved away and gone in different directions? Have you had the courage to make changes in your life that make you happier or are you stuck in the same humdrum state because you are afraid to move forward? Do you have relationships with people based on responsibility, habit, or true need and desire? Does every spouse hunger for more and experience disappointment that cannot be discussed? How many spouses plot secretly to make changes in their lives? Is every sibling jealous? Is there always a favorite child, even unknowingly?
The one question I was left with was this: Could Mercy have really gotten away with the changes she made in her own life, without making a ripple in the stream, or would there have been rifts in the family with each member taking sides? Are we really that understanding of each other’s needs to forgive such transgressions, or if not transgressions, deviations from the norm, because Anne Tyler “does normal” expertly! Even the subtle use of Robin as both a girl’s and boy’s name, the interjection of Eddie and Claude’s relationship, so casually at the very end, simply happens and ushers in the present as opposed to the past. She even often injects a quiet kind of humor into the pages. The wit will make your lips curl up, but will not make you laugh out loud. Instead, as it is in your own life, you will just enjoy the moment.
As Mercy searches for the soul of the house in her paintings, the author has the characters search for their own souls as they go through the growing pains of each day of their ordinary lives. Tyler has softly led us through decades to witness the changes that have taken place in our world, and it is a journey that is really enjoyable. Even the title is significant, for she has taken the hair style of the child, Emily, the daughter of an immigrant from Scandinavia, an older woman, a scandalous divorcee, who married son David, and has placed her in a position of importance, making them all more significant, simply with the title.
There is no foul language, no erotic sex to titillate the reader; there are no unnecessary words at all. It is simply a wonderful story, as most of her stories are, because she tells her stories as if they are occurring right in front of us, before our very eyes, or right in our very own lives. show less

French Braid by Anne Tyler is a very highly recommended portrait of a family. No one authentically portrays families in their frailties and strengths like Tyler. This exceptional novel provides uncomfortable truths, allows a few self-deceptions, little kindnesses, and little cruelties while depicting a Baltimore family.

French Braid follows the Garrett family over the course of sixty years. In the opening set in 2010, Serena and her boyfriend are in a Philadelphia train station when Serena thinks a man in the crowd is her cousin Nicholas. She hasn't seen him for years and can't really identify him. Her boyfriend thinks that there is some hidden secret about the distance between her extended family members. After this opening scene, the show more novel drops back in time to provide a portrait of the family over several decades.

In 1959, Robin and Mercy Garrett and their three children, oldest daughter Alice, her younger sister fifteen-year-old Lucy, and seven-year-old David, take their first and last family vacation. It becomes obvious why they have never taken a vacation. Robin is uncomfortable without a routine and worries about costs. Mercy simply wants to wander off alone and paint. Alice is the dependable one. Lucy is absent running around with an older boy she met. And quiet David is content playing with his plastic GIs he calls veterinarians. This vacation captures the essence of the family that will be confirmed over the years.

The narrative then unfolds over the years through the perspective of individual family members, capturing their lives and the distance between them. David remains distanced from his family, only occasionally joining family events, which are few and far between. This is where Tyler's unsurpassed skill and artistry is shown in her ability to create and develop realistic, sympathetic characters. The portrayal of each character is insightful as specific details are revealed and clarified over the years.

Tyler has been one of my favorite writers for years and French Braid perfectly showcases why. The quality of her writing is always perfect, finely crafted and exemplary. She always depicts her characters, who are average people, with such sympathy, warmth, insight and clarity. There is kindness as well as cruelty in their intermingled lives. Nothing huge or shocking happens in the plot, but much as in most ordinary people, there are small incidents and events that can add up. Characters do make some major choices, but it is presented as an event, not a crisis, and it is telling how the characters react to these crucial choices. Everyone should read this novel. French Braid is one of the best novels of the year.

The title comes from a discussion between David and his wife where he explains that families are like French braids. When you undo them, the hair is still in ripples, little leftover squiggles, for hours and hours afterward. David said, “that’s how families work, too. You think you’re free of them, but you’re never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever.”

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the publisher/author via Edelweiss.
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