Anne Tyler’s everyday passions

There was nothing remarkable about the Whitshanks. None of them was famous. None of them could claim exceptional intelligence, and in looks they were no more than average….Their family firm was well thought of. But then, so were many others. But like most families, they imagined they were special.

So, you know what you will get in this novel, which Anne Tyler says will be her last, and that is the stories of three generations of the Whitshanks, a straightforward, unexceptional Baltimore family. We have been here before. Tyler takes the minute details of everyday life — food, furniture, work, outings — and makes them remarkable, makes them stand for much larger things — relationships, marriages, disappointments, sickness, struggles, death — because great things take place, as W.H. Auden knew, while we are ‘just walking dully along’.

And yes, this is a dull family, exactly as Tyler has almost defiantly set out above.