Customer Reviews

Earthly Possessions

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Several years ago I read my first Anne Tyler book, Ladder of Years, and became a devoted fan of this author's books. Catching up on some earlier titles,I have just finished another one of her books, Earthly Possessions. And once again this author has captivated me and tugged at my heartstrings.

Earthly Possessions focuses on two of Tyler's most endearing characters, Charlotte Emory and Jake. Charlotte is at a bank one day when Jake bungles a robbery. Holding Charlotte as his hostage and with 200 $1 bills in his pocket from the robbery, he steals a car and the two set off to find Jake's pregnant girlfriend somewhere in Florida. What may appear as a horrific kidnapping to others in the bank, provides Charolotte with an exciting adventure, once she knows she won't be harmed in anyway. Unfortunately Charlotte has never set foot outside of her small hometown and was at the bank to withdraw her life savings in order to run away from her husband. As Charlotte and Jake travel South, with the police searching for them, Charlotte reflects on her life and earthly posessions till the ending which is thought provoking and poignant.

The end of the book and some other parts are reminiscent of some cental themes which Tyler seems to explore in many of her books. But the author relying on tried and true themes never seems to matter to me when I read Anne Tyler as once again she introduces me to quirky and memorable characters who stay with me long after I've finished the book

This was the first Anne Tyler book I read, and I liked it so much I have gone on to read them all--some, several times.

Tyler really only has one theme: Families--you can't live with them, and you can't escape them.

This book has that theme, and it treats it humorously and sadly and beautifully.

It starts with a bang--a failed bank robbery and hostage situation. This is an unusual scene for Tyler, but it quickly goes back to her usual territory: the maddening minutiae of everyday life.

As always the characters are quirky and fun.

The chapters alternate between the present and the past, so all the elements of the picture gradually come together.

It isn't really a love story; but none of Tyler's books are love stories--unless you count, being in love with being.

To anyone who hasn't tried Tyler, I would recommend this book. It avoids the schmaltziness of "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" and even "Accidental Tourist."

Of the many Anne Tyler novels I've read, "Earthly Possessions" is very nearly my favorite. (Ask me next week and I'll point to "Accidental Tourist.") A departure from her character-driven multi-generational household dramas, its dark satire and sinister comedy remind me, in a weird way, of the film "Raising Arizona," with which it shares vague and odd similarities in characters and plot.

In fact, there's more plot in the first few pages than in many of Tyler's other novels. With the very first sentence, Charlotte Emory decides that her "marriage wasn't going well and I decided to leave my husband"; by the second page, she goes to the Maryland Safety Savings Bank to withdraw some cash for her escape--and is taken hostage by Jake, a laughably amateurish bank robber. Since she wants to get out of town anyway, her fear is tempered by a sense of come-what-may compliance.

Even as a Patty Hearst-inspired tale of Stockholm syndrome, the narrative should be wholly implausible ("far-fetched," to use one reader's description). But Tyler is spinning less a work of realism than an allegorical tale of one woman's disenchantment with the trap her life has become. The story alternates between her trip south with Jake and a reminiscence of her marriage, in which she fills her role as a reluctantly dutiful homemaker for an ever-increasing gaggle of her preacher-husband's deadbeat family members. Her husband's admission, "I always did want a place for my brothers to come home to," makes her realize that she will always be a part of his comfortable plan, "house, wife, family, church,"--yet he would never play an equal part in her life. Then, at just the moment when she was looking for adventure, Jake, with his childlike neediness and menacing fickleness, makes life interesting. Ironically, though, Charlotte's role in Jake's "plan" soon becomes a not-so-distant echo of her "real" life as a housewife.

Charlotte's acquiescence and subsequent awakening result in some extraordinarily comic moments--yet Tyler's underlying themes are quite serious, and the resulting balance between pathos and comedy lends the work a melancholy gravitas. For such an unrealistic work, "Earthly Possessions" is entirely convincing.

WOW! one of the best books ever written! I have read other anne tyler books and this one is totally my favorite! I would recommend it to anyone that likes a down-to-earth realistic book. It entails few but distinct characters and they all have their strong and weak points. It clearly shows tyler's ability to relate meaningful characters to real-life situations and turmoil!! READ THIS ONE!! YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!

This book does not entirely succeed in its premise, but it is nevertheless a very good work from Anne Tyler. An obese, troubled mother passes her own emotional conflicts to her daughter, Charlotte, a woman who becomes psychologically disconnected from her own existence. Though she wishes to have a rich, happy life where she can stay at home, Charlotte feels, deep down, that she must leave everyone and everything to seek out a place without the pain her mother has caused. In order to do so, she convinces herself that she must lose all of the "earthly possessions" that are "weighing" her down. It is worth reading again.

Then she gets kidnapped by Jake, an inept bank robber with 200 $1 bills in his pocket from the robbery (inept in a way that only an Anne Tyler character could be), and off the two of them go to Florida to hunt up Jake's pregnant girlfriend. Charlotte is having the time of her life. She'd been about to leave her husband of forever-many years, and here she suddenly finds herself off on an adventure she never could have dreamed up in her wildest imaginings. Hard to believe a story that begins with a robbery and a kidnapping could end up as touching and poignant - but it does.

I have read only a few of Tyler's books, but this one is my favourite so far. Like Breathing Lessons, she creates some imaginative characters that are somehow not quite in sync with the rest of the world -- or at least not "my" world. With each chapter flipping back to the past and then to the present, bizarre events happening throughout, by the end of the novel the characters aren't so strange anymore. Our female lead gets taken hostage by a not-so-seasoned bank robber at the same time she has decided to leave her husband. This story tells of their journey away from ties that bind, albeit different trials and tribulations. An easy read but a tale you won't soon forget

In the present, Charlotte is kidnapped, going on a road trip with a kind of pathetic well-intentioned criminal and very little money. She ends up having an almost-friendship with the criminal, who is in a vicious cycle of doing stupid things, having a bad reputation for doing stupid things, and doing more stupid things to try and get away from his reputation. Later we meet another love-hate relationship when the girlfriend gets on the scene. We've all seen couples like this in real life; they argue all the time, but can't really be apart, the longer they're together the more codependent they become. Listening to them gives you a headache, but they can also be amusing. Tyler does a good job at portraying this.

The book also goes into Charlotte's past and this is where I realized she like me in some ways. Aside from a brief stint in apartment living, I am entering my third decade and living in the same house I was raised in, with a husband and a parent. I had always wanted to get out and was afraid that I would never be able to. After being out "in the real world" for awhile, I realized being at home wasn't so bad. In the end of the book I think she comes to the same conclusion that I have: even though I've lived in mostly one place, that doesn't mean that I can't have adventures. And as much as I have sometimes hated not just the house but the neighborhood I live in, I also have an affection for it because it has been such a part of who I am.

This is my fourth Anne Tyler novel, and although I liked it a bit better than The Tin Can Tree, it is still not on par with Breathing Lessons or The Accidental Tourist. I somewhat liked the character of Charlotte, but she wasn't as sympathetic to me as other Tyler heroines. I could, however, relate to her dissatisfaction with life - I just wished she'd do more, be more proactive, and not complain so much. That said, Tyler give a clear glimpse into her family life, which made it possible to comprehend how she'd become the person she was, even if I found her hard to put up with in long doses. I was interested in her marriage and family life. Wat I wasn't interested in was the subplot with Jake, the bank robber. This angle to the novel was so far fetched that it kept me from fully embracing the story. If Jake and his girlfriend were more well rounded characters, I might've cared more about that subplot. In general, I found that the book should've been longer. The fact that the book was so short made it difficult for Tyler to fully explore the differing points of view of the various characters, which she does to full effect in Breathing Lessons. In short, this is a good, not great book. If you've never read Tyler's work before, I wouldn't start with this book - I doubt you'll fully grasp the level of her talent. This book is more for hardcore Tyler fans who, like me, are determined to read all her books, just on principle.

Earthly Possessions is a novel about a middle-aged woman named Charlotte Emory. She has lived in the same dusty, mildewed house her whole life and has never left the premises of the small, barren town she calls home. Her husband is a very controlling and overbearing man, and she thinks he only married her out of ease. She is very bored in her life and marriage and although she thinks about leaving her husband constantly, she can never quite bring herself to take the final step and walk out the door. This is probably because she has always depended on other people to lead her through life and can't imagine what she would do if she had to make decisions on her own for the first time. And then one day she finds encouragement from an unlikely place. While she is pouring a bowl of cereal a gold pendant comes out of the cereal box and lands in her bowl. The pendant is labeled `keep on truckin' and she takes this as a sign that this is the day she needs to leave her husband. Ironically, this same day, she makes a trip to the bank and a young, cocky male who is headed across the country takes her hostage. Charlotte thinks this is just another bad event in the horrible series of her life, but it turns out to be the journey of a lifetime. Jake, the young man who kidnaps Charlotte, is really not a bad person at all, but he has just had a very rough and unlucky life. Charlotte and Jake end up learning a lot from each other and become close on their trip. She finally meets some interesting characters totally different from the people in her hometown who are all the alike. She not only observes new scenery, but also develops a whole new sense of self. She realizes her place in the world, which isn't as bad as she once thought. She decides that maybe her husband really does love her and she finds that even though everyone has their flaws, all you can do is `keep on truckin'.

This is the first book of Anne Tyler's that I have read and I found that is was simple but enjoyable. Not much happened in the book, but the characters were very descriptive and interesting. I especially enjoyed reading about Charlotte's very large mother who brought along her wooden lawn chair wherever she went and embarrassed Charlotte horribly. I also enjoyed reading about her husband's dysfunctional family and all the different tenants that temporarily stayed with Charlotte and her husband. On the whole this was an entertaining book, but I think more time should have been spent on Charlotte and Jake's journey together.