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 PrintableVersion Shelf lifeLooking at secular booksGripping storiesSAINT MAYBE BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS Both by Anne TylerWhen collections of Anne Tyler’s novels appeared in the internet bookclub I subscribe to I realised that I needed to get on with it and try her out. She has been seen by some critics (and this is meant disparagingly) as an American Joanna Trollope, having a focus on the minutiae of family life, small-scale crises and intergenerational disputes. Often wanting a break from the minutiae of family life myself, I’d left her 15 novels alone, yet, once in, I was hooked. Saint Maybe focuses on a family which perceives itself as being very happy, but goes through tragedy. Ian, the principal character, is 17 when his brother dies in an accident for which he blames himself. His sense of guilt is assuaged after a visit to ‘The Church of the Second Chance’, a sect which emphasises reparation. The minister says to Ian, ‘[Jesus] helps with what you can’t undo…but only after you’ve tried to undo it’. Ian’s reparation lasts him 18 plus years as he takes on his brother’s children, and transforms his life. This exploration of faith is very much limited to the human plane, with an emphasis on feelings and duties; but it is seen as useful to Ian, bringing him a relief which his parents have no access to. The church subculture is a happy and purposeful one, though with little rational content; I found his struggles and steady progress there credible and engaging. Back when we were grownups is also another novel about change and responsibility, though with a very different protagonist. Rebecca Davitch left her university course, and her fiancˇ to marry a 33-year-old widower with three young girls. She herself was then widowed after only six years. In the book we meet her in her 53rd year looking back and wondering about her old fiancˇ, the path she might have taken and the way she has changed. The search for contentment and self-acceptance in the midst of family and business responsibilities is a satisfying theme, and the reader is given a sense of Rebecca’s growing self-understanding as she comes to value the other-centred person she has become. Both these books contain a rich seam of compassion and a remarkable appreciation of the sacrifices made by seemingly ordinary people. They are not sensational, but are gripping because the characters are so finely drawn. It is true that Anne Tyler writes about minutiae, but her attention to the smallest detail of clothing and food renders character and atmosphere perfectly. Her understated descriptions and dialogue of the mundane can convey humour, pathos or irony superbly and are our entry-point into the emotional world of these very real characters. Anne Tyler seems very interested in the everyday charade which goes on in so many families, the hiding of genuine responses which enables life to continue smoothly. Holding together families is presented as an ethical, as well as an emotional, juggling act. I recognise her world in the lives of my non-Christian relatives and friends, many of whom live ‘good’ lives and struggle to find contentment, oblivious to their real need. As well as entertaining me, these books have provided me with a greater understanding of how the ordinary unbeliever sees the world and faith within it. I’m going to order another one from the library, and commend you to do the same. Sarah Allen© Evangelicals Now - August 2006 |
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