Customer Reviews

Accidental Tourist

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1985, this thoughtful character novel focuses on Macon Leary, a travel writer who hates to travel, a man who has gone through life observing what is happening, but who has never been truly engaged. Compulsively tidy, Macon has always believed that it is possible to order one's life so effectively that the untidiness, or chaos, that throws life into confusion can be avoided. And then his beloved 12-year-old son is cold-bloodedly murdered in the senseless robbery of a burger joint while he is away at camp for the first time.

It gives away nothing of the plot to say that this event totally undoes Macon and his wife, and their polite and predictable marriage goes into a tailspin. When the novel opens, Macon and Sarah have decided to separate, with Sarah getting her own apartment (where she can be as messy as she wants) and Macon remaining in the house with his son Ethan's undisciplined dog Edward. In fact, Macon has moved back with his sister and brothers in the family house, to recuperate from his physical wounds--an accident in which he breaks his leg-- and from his emotional wounds.

Then into his life comes Muriel, a divorcee with an over-protected, allergic, and hypersensitive son. She is a dog trainer, a flake, the only person willing to undertake the task of civilizing the aggressive, sometimes vicious "pet" that lives with Macon. As Macon tries to deal with his life, his loss of Sarah (who is dating), his son's dog (which attacks anything that moves), and his commitment to producing yet another travel book, his life becomes more complicated, and the depth of his relationship with Sarah, relative to the shared loss they have faced, becomes an issue which must be revisited if he is ever to engage with life and explore the possibilities of a new life which Muriel offers.

Filled with wonderful descriptions of life, both within Macon's family and in Europe, where he travels for research, the novel provides the reader with a full, realistic picture of marriage between people whose relationship has been, in part, the result of their commitment to their son. Poignant and emotional, but avoiding melodrama, the novel explores the meaning of life and love, the extent to which a marriage may limit or stimulate the growth of the people involved, and the ways in which a marriage must adapt to the new needs of the participants if it is to endure through time. n Mary Whipple

I love this book! I've read it dozens of times. At first glance, it's fetching and readable, but look beyond the surface - some passages are near masterpieces. Look for Macon fixing the sink with Alexander, and Macon shopping for clothes with Alexander. This book also gives a believable and touching description of a person changing. Just follow Macon's thoughts and see how they change with time. I think this is Tyler's best (and I've read them all).

This is not an action-packed novel and it does not get off to a galloping start. But trust me, it does get better. About a third of the way through the book, you discover you really are interested in the characters and what is happening in their lives. You begin to develop hope and optimism for the relationships they pursue. That's when the story runs away with you. By the time you finish the novel, you feel inspired by the various kinds of love and ties that bind each relationship. Keep it on the shelf when you're through with it--you may want to read it again.

I had seen the movie "The Accidental Tourist" so many times that I never realized that I had not read the book! What a treat to find a Tyler book that I had not read.

As usual, Tyler pulls us into the world of her characters and makes us part of their lives. How she does this, time after time, astounds me. The characters who populate her books are eccentric but nevertheless are endearing--and are always original.

Here we have Macon Leary (which could have been spelled leery) a travel writer who really hates to leave home. He writes books for people who are just like him, who really just want all the comforts of their familiar home no matter where they are. They have no interest in exploring or seeing the sights of a new place.

Macon is a man who is uncomfortable with his life, his surroundings, his work, his associates, and even his dog, Edward. Social interaction is not his forte, nor his family's, most of whom are as socially inept as he is. He dislikes any kind of change, is compulsive, and is stodgily set in his ways. The systems he devises to make life easier are hilarious, such as agitating his clothes underfoot while he takes a shower!

But his usually sedate life takes many twists and turns in the course of this novel, during the year or two after his son's brutal murder. He is forced to examine his marriage and his relationship with the eccentric Muriel, the likes of whom he has never encountered--she is impulsive, messy, pushy, and talks his ear off.

Muriel presents Macon with a very different way of living and he needs to decide if he can handle this. Tyler presents his struggle in the most charming way and makes these characters so real to the reader.

Another Tyler gem!

It opened my eyes to interpersonal mess-ups in a new way and helped me understand the crucial difference between romance and love. It's also one of the few books I've ever read from cover to cover, without even skipping sentences. (Usually I skip whole chapters if nothing seems to be happening.) The funny thing is, it's not exactly action-packed, it just gives you a good look "under the hood" of this world. To me, the rave reviews are deserved and I want to add my own five stars. To the author: thank you for surviving whatever you had to go through to understand human nature so well!

I reread THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST as part of a writing exercise, and guess what? It was better the second time around.
The novel begins with Macon Leary and his wife Sarah in a car returning from a vacation that was supposed to help them deal with the murder of their son, Ethan. Macon doesn't want to talk about it because that would force him to deal with his feelings. Sarah asks for a divorce.
The other main character in the novel shows up when Edward, Ethan's dog, begins to act up, assaulting Macon's boss, Julian. He calls in a dog trainer and this is where the novel really begins to heat up. She recognizes Macon as a possible catch and she's not the type of person to be denied. If you've seen the movie, she's nothing like Geena Davis. She's more of a trailer-park type who loves thrift stores. She has fly-away hair that refuses to take a comb. When Sarah decides she wants Macon back, the conflict becomes one of who will he choose, Sarah or the bohemian Muriel? Muriel shows her pluck when she follows Macon to Paris where he's working on an update of a guidebook for businessmen, hence the title, the ACCIDENTAL TOURIST. Macon hates Paris; he pretty much hates every place that isn't Baltimore. He thinks the people are rude and ethnocentric, but every single Parisian he encounters when in Muriel's company is a saint. She helps him see the City of Light through her eyes. She even finds a thrift shop in Paris.
I was most impressed by the job Tyler did with her minor characters. Edward the dog holds the novel together. Without him, Macon would never have met Muriel. Every time the novel needs an addition boost, Edward provides it. Then there's Rose, Macon's spinster sister, whose marriage to Julian creates an additional complication for Macon. She's a female version of Macon who shares Macon's "geographic dyslexia" and wonders back to the home place shortly after her marriage.
This novel is a real hoot and if you haven't read it because you've seen the movie, you're really missing out. As usual the book is much better than the movie.

Macon Leary writes city guides for business travelers who hate to travel. His books feature the "American" restaurants in cities like Paris. And Macon is sure to check the flush of the toilets in hotel rooms. "Bring a novel to read on the plane," he advises his readers, "to protect yourself against chatty strangers".

His own life is organized by all the little systems he devises to minimize the drudgery of everyday existence. It gets worse when his marriage disintegrates after the senseless death of Ethan, his twelve year old son who was executed during a holdup at a fast food joint. Macon showers while agitating his dirty laundry underfoot, he sleeps between two sheets which have been sewn together so he never has to make the bed, and he feeds Edward, Ethan's dog, in the basement of his Baltimore-area home by dumping kibble down the coal chute.

Macon meets Muriel, an awkward, pushy, self-reliant young woman, when Edward is turned away from the kennel because he's taken to biting. Macon leaves the dog at Muriel's clinic and, upon his return, she announces that Edward likes her and that she can train him to not bite. Muriel uses her role as Edward's tutor to worm her way into Macon's boring, reclusive life and, as he soon finds out, she has a few scars of her own that need healing. Muriel turns out to be the best thing that has happened to Macon, and vice versa, but you want to kick Macon for not seeing it right away, when his estranged wife tries to get back into his life.

I've always enjoyed books about family and everyday life. I feel books that can convey a sense of reality to a reader hold far more importance and reach a depth that any other book could ever wish for. Enter "The Accidental Tourist" by Anne Tyler.

I read this book during a dry spell in life when I was fed up with life and finding my life too ordered and predictable. I know you may be thinking "well, what's wrong with that". I felt a need for something more. That's when I met Macon Leary. Macon is a travel writer who pens book for the accidental tourist. An accidental tourist could best be defined as a travel minimalist. They exclude almost every chance at fun and try to make sure their comfort zone goes with them on a trip. He or she orders his or her life and never takes a chance for fear of it being far too risky. Beginning to sound familiar???

With his life and marriage reaching the end, due mainly to the death of his young son, Macon meets Muriel Pritchett. She is his opposite in every way, but for some reason he can't stop the attraction. I won't give much more away but know that this is ultimately a love story. But, it is not the typical fall head over heels kind. It shows Macon making real choices in a real world based on very certain and uncertain consequences. At the end you may say what a fool or you may stand and applaud. I won't let out which way I went.

I'm sure you will enjoy this journey by a master story teller like Anne Tyler. The novel combines humor, family, life, death, love and choice in a way like no other. I hope you enjoy!!

"The Accidental Tourist" by Anne Tyler is a book that describes deep pain and half-hearted love in the main character, Macon Leary. Macon and his wife, Sarah, have lost their 12-year-old son Ethan, who was killed by a gunman in a restaurant robbery. Sarah leaves Macon because his grief is "muffled." (He says he iis "enduring.") Macon goes to live with his sister, Rose, and brothers Porter and Charles when he breaks his leg setting up one of many systems he has adopted in his home to make life easier, less burdensome. (He washes his clothes by stepping all over them in the shower every night, rather than do laundry. He makes "body bags" out of sheets so he doesn't have to go through all the labor of changing the sheets on the bed.) He finds while living with Rose and "the boys" that his dog, Edward, has become mean, biting him, growling and charging visitors, but he can't bear to give the dog up or put him to sleep because the dog was Ethan's. So, he hires Muriel Pritchett to help him train Edward.

Macon's occupation gives the book its title. He is a travel writer for business travelers, and he tells them how to travel without feeling like they're away from home. The series is titled "The Accidental Tourist." Macon lives his life this way as well; his son's loss has scarred him deeply and he tries to remain withdrawn and untouched by other things in life. Muriel pursues him and he falls into a relationship with her and her son, Alexander, even though she is less educated, dresses flamboyantly, makes grammatical errors he finds annoying. He notices his family's eccentricities and religiously obrserved routines, but he's not sure he desires to be free of them. But he also cannot commit to Muriel. The relationship, his living there, his concern for Alexander are reluctant ... accidental.

Underneath everything is his grief over the loss of his son and his inability to move himself along or direct himself.

Everything here seems sad and lonely. Rose's romance with Macon's publisher can't withstand the pull of her routines at home. Macon's brothers are both divorced. Muriel's mother is critical and demeaning. Alexander is frail and lonely, teased and marginalized by the children at school. Macon misses his son.

I was sad when this ended, because I had grown to love the characters, even though they are strange, irritating and imperfect. I don't want to give away too much, but I will say that the ending is gratifying, without being trite or cliché. The grief never ebbs, but there are other trajectories in Macon's life (and the lives of those around him) that carry them to other satisfying destinations.

Having just finished reading it for the fourth time this week, I feel privileged to share my thoughts about the writing and the characters. In the film version of The Accidental Tourist, Tyler's descriptions and characteristics of the Leary family members and most of the other main characters seem custom created to be played by the actors featured. In both book and film, don't expect a thriller with complex plots and twists, but do expect a read you won't forget, some laughing with yourself, and possibly, a further understanding of human nature.

Fresh, crisp prose races through the pages of Anne Tyler's novels. Appreciating any writer and their work on an individual and unbiased merit is tough, when natural instinct makes comparisions with the authors you love. In most instances, this habit is blatantly unfair to the work at hand, but Anne Tyler's style is equal to that of Pat Conroy, and higher praise is not possible in my opinion. While her characters may vary from charming and bright to lethargic and eccentric, they share several memorable traits.

Tyler not only introduces and bonds you to her characters, she exposes their strengths and weaknesses with indelible humor. Macon Leary, fresh from the tragedy of losing his son finds his wife, Sarah, leaving him, citing that he doesn't care or allow himself to feel anything. While accusing and condemning Macon, she reveals her lack of understanding and withdrawal from the world. With Sarah essentially out of his life, except for occasional thoughts of her, Macon returns home to the house he grew up in with his siblings, and to older versions of his two brothers, Porter and Charles, and sister Rose. All three are amusing to know. Even while they are minor characters, their personalities and lives are open and easy to find kinship with, in one way or other, for most.

Tyler further represses the Leary's with the family bottle cap manufacturing business. Droll and lifeless, the company and its product mirrors the entire family. Macon escapes the factory by chance when the editor of a small business publishing firm happens across an article he's written in a small paper. Becoming the Accidental Tourist, Macon loathes travelling, and reduces his necessary trips into as compact and detached publications as he can manage. Macon's listless and introspective existence is about to change though, and therein lies the tale.

Anne Tyler's writing sparkles, and your mind will too, if you try The Accidental Tourist.