Anne Tyler at the height of her skills

A little gem. What else could I call this half length novel? (It’s only about 165 pages) As it says on the tin, the whole story happens within three days in June, the day before the wedding of the protagonist’s daughter, the day of the wedding, and the day after the wedding. Such a simple structure, but such a lot of feeling and history of relationships and personalities packed into this read.

Our protagonist is Gail, who has just been told she will have to leave her job as assistant principal in a school because the new principal will bring a new assistant with her, and also because Gail lacks people skills. (This last is not entirely untrue.) All this happens just the day before her daughter, Debbie’s, wedding. Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives in town, and cannot stay with Debbie as planned, because he brings with him a cat which he has saved, and Kenneth, the bridegroom, is severely allergic to cats. So he comes to Gail’s house instead, without advanced notice.

Gail and Max are divorced, but not really estranged. Max comes across as a lovable man, well meaning, kind, easy going to a point Gail finds too much. But they are loving parents to Debbie, and give each other support when facing the new and clearly more affluent and more stylish in-laws. Anne Tyler writes of the quiet tensions between two people who are amicable enough but of course have a difficult history, of the unspoken rivalries in a wedding between families forced together, of the tensions of transitions in life where 61 year old Gail is concerned, with a daughter being married and herself losing her job. There is also the fact that Gail is not the easiest person to be with. For example, she is naturally a prickly person, and not particularly optimistic; so although she loves Debbie, now Debbie is married, Gail thinks,

“What person in her right mind would want to go back to being a newlywed? There was so much she had yet to adjust to, she and Kenneth both; I was just glad to be past all that” (p113)

But it is also very amusing to follow Gail’s inner thoughts

“Someday I would like to be given credit for all the times I had not said something that I could have said” (p151).

The one thing that struck me as a little strange, was that we are presented with a protagonist who does not seem particularly appealing, in fact, she can be downright off-putting. But she seems to have had no shortage of admirers and boyfriends and lovers, which seems slightly at odds with her rather pernickety personality and rather critical nature. An exacting, upright, rather sewn up (or is it buttoned up) personality does not of course then preclude one from being a lusty, flirty person, but it does sit rather oddly.

That apart, it was such a beautifully crafted piece of writing. It definitely is in the show rather than tell category. It is understated, elegant, and resonant. It is imbued with so much meaning and feeling, but much of this is not spelt out, not articulated, and rendered with light deft touches. A novel which shows Anne Tyler at the height of her skills. Beautiful.

[For another take on this book, see Susan’s review]