French Braid: A novel

French Braid by Anne Tyler is an unusual story. The first chapter has Serena and her beau heading back to college after visiting his parents for the first time. They are discussing Serena’s family and how they are not a close-knit unit (she failed to recognize a cousin at the train station). The second chapter goes back in time to 1959 when the Garrett family took their first (and only) vacation. I felt the first chapter was a poor lead into the rest of the book. A prologue set in the present day told from David’s point-of-view would have been a better way to start off French Braid. The rest of the book tells the story of the Garrett family. The characters were not developed. We are told about them, but the are not brought to life. We are not given enough details on any one of the family members. David is the most fleshed out character with Mercy a close second. I did not like Mercy at all. She is a selfish woman who never should have had children. Mercy preferred painting to dealing with her kids. I was shocked (some might consider this a spoiler) when she took the sweet cat and dropped it off at the shelter. She wanted peace restored to her studio (the cat made no noise and did not disturb her). I wish Mercy had taken the cat home to Robin (he would have liked a companion). Robin and Mercy are lucky none of their children were hurt by their lack of attention (especially Lily). They are fortunate that their children turned out to be good parents. The story spans from 1959 through the present day. The story meanders along going from one generation to the next. I felt the pacing was sluggish (snails move faster). I kept hoping something interesting would happen (anything to happen). I did not feel that the story came together as a whole. When I finished French Braid, I was left feeling that I had just wasted three hours of my time. I thought the story was depressing. Near the end, we see how the title ties into the story. It is a strange analogy that I would not see someone from the present day making (maybe in the early 80s when French braids were popular). French Braid was not my kind of book. I failed to get into the story, and I was not a fan of the characters. I had not read a book by Anne Tyler previously which is why I picked up French Braid (I have been trying to expand my horizons). While French Braid was not for me, it will appeal to other readers. I suggest you obtain a sample to see if it is your type of story. French Braid tells us about the Garrett family from Mercy and Robin down through the grandchildren.

I received a free electronic ARC of this novel from Netgalley, Anne Tyler, and Knopf, publishers. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read French Braid of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Anne Tyler is one of those authors I know I must have as soon as the book comes out. From The Clock Winder to this latest release, French Braid, I know it's gonna be a book to read fast, then slowly, savoring the familial similarities and differences, and the intricate dance steps of these lives. French Braid takes place in Baltimore and the family Garrett is a mixed bunch - about the only thing they all have in common is their love for one another. Their ONLY family vacation took place in 1959, and their current lives are varied. Mother Mercy now that the kids are gone, aspires to be an artist, she even rents a garage apartment down the street to work on her art away from home. She is thinking of making a business painting house portraits on commission. Father Robin carries on with Mercy's inherited second-generation family business, a plumbing supply house. In his footsteps is their daughter Alice, assistant manager, and Robin is taking more time off, taking work more casually as Alice learns the ropes and assumes some of the pressures at the store. Their daughter Lily is married, pregnant with another (also married) man's baby, back home and trying to make sense of her world and get her life straightened out before the baby comes. And youngest child, son David, a freshman away at Islington College, is mute when his mother and sisters expect updates on his life, and when he brings home a girl - a woman 11 years his senior with a pre-teen daughter - for Sunday dinner, they are speechless. What has happened to their staid, oh-so-normal life? How adaptable as they going to have to be? Where did all this strife and conflict come from? Where did they go so wrong? How are they going to handle all this? Wait! Do they have to handle all this?

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