Impersonal Life

Anne Tyler. Ladder Of Years. Knopf, 1995
0679441557 Clean and bright. Former owner's named stamped on front and rear endpapers. From Publishers Weekly At 40, Delia Grinstead seems more likely to have an attack of anxiety, or of whimsy, than to become a runaway wife. Yet, in Tyler's 13th beguiling novel, Delia's impulse to escape her disapproving physician husband and three surly children turns into an adventure that sweeps her from her staid Baltimore orbit into a new existence as Ms. Grinstead, spinster, in the Delaware community of Bay Borough. It's the unexamined life that's Delia's problem, and when she finally strips away layers of hurt, resentment, guilt and anger, she confronts her inner self and begins to deal with the chronic insecurity that has kept her childlike, flighty and dependent. Gradually, she becomes part of her new community, and has the courage to take a job caring for Noah Miller, an appealing 12-year-old whose mother has also run away from home and family. Over the course of a year, Delia discards her timorous personality and gains an understanding of the person she wants to be. One of the satisfactions of this novel is Tyler's evocation of typical family life. While in the past some of her characters have been too eccentric or fey, Delia and her family and friends all have both feet planted in the real world, even if their heads and hearts are sometimes elsewhere. Some readers may have difficulty accepting Delia's ability to absent herself from her children, but Tyler engages our sympathy and growing respect for a character who finally realizes that "the ladder of years" is a time trip to the future. BOMC main selection; major ad/promo; Random House Audio Book. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Perhaps no one writing fiction today can so clearly evoke middle-age angst as Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Tyler. As in 12 earlier Tyler novels, this work peers intimately into a seemingly ordinary family life. The family here is the Grinsteads, more particularly restless 40-year-old wife and mom Celia Grinstead. Feeling unappreciated and unnoticed by her husband, a family doctor who took over Celia's father's practice, and increasingly unnecessary in the lives of her nearly grown children, Celia wanders off during a family beach vacation and starts a new life in a small town. She's sad and uncertain about her break with her previous life but oddly determined. Poignant, warm, and quirky, this novel will be on a lot of spring reading lists. -?Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. From AudioFile Delia Grinstead has decided to start again. Her kids are almost grown, and her husband is happily entrenched in his business. So Delia walks away, unsure of where she'll end up. Poignant, light and engaging, Tyler's remarkable book is about a woman's circular quest for herself. C.J. Critt's expert narration is astounding. Her aloof style heightens the story's drama, giving listeners empathy for Delia's detachment. Critt's vocal characterizations are very convincing; pacing and diction are top quality. Her narration is subtle, yet firm, always giving Tyler's plot and characters the limelight while she herself remains the skillful medium. J.S.G. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Booklist Delia Grinstead, the baby of the family, has lived all her 40 years in the same rambling Baltimore house. She doted on her father, a doctor, then married his serious assistant when she was only 17. A petite, freckled, self-effacing woman, Delia was the perfect mother and wife until her kids reached young adulthood, her husband started to seem like an old man, and she realized that she had become nearly invisible. So she leaves. She simply walks away and ends up in a small town where she creates a quiet new life for herself and discovers just exactly who she is. That's the bare-bones version of this charming, often hilarious, and astute novel. Tyler is in top form here. Her seemingly effortless prose is, like silk, rich in subtle hues and sheeny with dancing light. As Delia's quest for independence and respect unfolds, Tyler offers keen and provocative insights into the cycles of family life, shifting emotional needs, and the process of aging. She also presents us with the sort of quandary other personalities often evoke. We like and sympathize with Delia, but we'd also like to ring her little neck. She's so stoic, so slow, so sexually tentative. Then again, we admire her determination, her generosity, her self-containment, her ability to change and forgive. People are difficult, Tyler tells us, but many are worth the trouble. Donna Seaman Midwest Book Review A forty-year-old woman leaves her marriage and family for a very different life, seeking a solitary existence to reconsider her experiences, only to find her life begins to fill with people and pets. A fine story of mid-life changes and newfound realizations. Book Description This entrancing and deeply searching novel will touch a nerve in every reader. Celia Grinstead, 40-year-old mother of three almost-grown children, on a sudden impulse, walks away from her marriage, hitches a ride into the unknown, and settles in a strange new town. But soon after she begins her impersonal, unencumbered new life, fresh responsibilities inevitably accumulate. From the Publisher Every now and then I'm in the mood for an Anne Tyler novel. Luckily, she is prolific author, so I can usually satiate myself when I need to. Anne Tyler's books are sublime mix of sadness and humor. She writes about everyday problems that everyday people have, and yet there is magic in these stories. She writes about things that many people may fantasize about doing, but would actually never have the nerve to do. For instance, in LADDER OF YEARS, her protagonist simply walks away from her overgrown family one day. She feels that her family doesn't really need her, and so one day while at the beach she goes for a walk and just keeps going. As the story unfolds, you feel sorry for the family somewhat, but you can't help but hope that Delia will make it on her own. She has taken such a bold, brave step, you want to see how far she can go. If you like this book, you'd also like DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT, THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST, and SAINT MAYBE. -- Jennifer Richards Ballantine Books Publicity --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition. Inside Flap Copy This entrancing and deeply searching novel will touch a nerve in every reader. Celia Grinstead, 40-year-old mother of three almost-grown children, on a sudden impulse, walks away from her marriage, hitches a ride into the unknown, and settles in a strange new town. But soon after she begins her impersonal, unencumbered new life, fresh responsibilities inevitably accumulate. About the Author Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941, but grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated at nineteen from Duke University and went to do graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University. Anne Tyler has written thirteen novels. Breathing Lessons was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She and her husband, Taghi Modarressi, live in Baltimore, Maryland. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition..

First Trade, Cloth, Fine

[SW: UNITED STATES FICTION MISSING PERSONS,]

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Le Guin, Ursula K: The Tombs of Atuan (Bk. 2) Bantam September 1975 ISBN: 055308318X
,,The second book in author Le Guin's classic Earthsea series. A young girl, Tenar, lives in training to be a priestess. Her life is restricted, ritualistic, and impersonal. When a young mage, Ged from A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA, arrives in her ordered world, her life changes dramatically.

Condition;Good ,Paperback ,The second book in author Le Guin's classic Earthsea series. A young girl, Tenar, lives in training to be a priestess. Her life is restricted, ritualistic, and impersonal. When a young mage, Ged from A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA, arrives in her ordered world, her life changes dramatically.

[SW: Earthsea Trilogy]

Details

Le Guin, Ursula K. The Tombs of Atuan (Bk. 2) Bantam September 1975 ISBN: 055308318X
,,The second book in author Le Guin's classic Earthsea series. A young girl, Tenar, lives in training to be a priestess. Her life is restricted, ritualistic, and impersonal. When a young mage, Ged from A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA, arrives in her ordered world, her life changes dramatically.

Condition;Good ,Paperback ,The second book in author Le Guin's classic Earthsea series. A young girl, Tenar, lives in training to be a priestess. Her life is restricted, ritualistic, and impersonal. When a young mage, Ged from A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA, arrives in her ordered world, her life changes dramatically.

[SW: Earthsea Trilogy]

Details

Hays, Samuel P. Chicago History of American Civilization 9 The Response to Industrialism 1885-1914, The, Chicago The University of Chicago Press 1977 ; weicher Einband / soft cover; 1. Ed. ISBN: 0226321622
Very Good

Repaired; Light Creasing on Spine, Rear Cover; Front, Rear Covers, Spine Lightly Chipped; Spine Slightly Cocked; Edges Lightly Soiled. BOOK NUMBER: CHAC 9. CONTENTS: The Old and the New; I. Industrialism under Way; II. The Shock of Change; III. Organize or Perish; IV. The Individual in an Impersonal Society; V. The Impact of Urban Life; VI. Protest from the South and West; VII. The Politics of Adjustment; VIII. The Rise to World Power; IX. The Response to Industrialism; Important Dates; Suggested Reading; Index. SYNOPSIS: The years between 1885 and 1914 were the age of the first impact of industrialism on American society. The people of that day first began to realize the profound implications of an industrial era. Out of this nation-wide upheaval rose the institutions of our modern life. Samuel P. Hays vividly presents these changes and the ways in which various segments of American society interpreted them, adjusted to them, and created new ways of living out of them. The author sees the farmer, the businessman, and the worker caught in a vise of impersonal market forces. Rural society was disintegrating with the loss of millions of workers to the cities, leading to the development of a vast urban middle class. As industries grew, trade unions grew. The spoils system, the monopolies and cartels, the excesses of free enterprise, the social, political, and intellectual turbulence of the times - all these brought about the formation of the Populist party, the Progressive party, and the Socialist party. Dealing with a complex period of American history, a time of great paradoxes, Mr. Hays sees an interaction of powerful, complex forces at work - forces created by human beings compelled to modify their entire lives. Samuel P. Hays is Professor and Chairman of the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh. First Edition 15th Printing Trade Paperback 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall; First Edition 15th Printing

[SW: History, Peoples, Places]

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