A Slipping-down Life [Library Binding]

Anne Tyler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 2009

In a small Southern town, teenager Evie Decker becomes obsessed with local rock singer Bertram 'Drumstrings' Casey, and decides to take her life into her own hands. When she carves his name on her forehead, their two lives become unforgettably entwined in this remarkable novel.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“TO READ A NOVEL BY ANNE TYLER IS TO FALL IN LOVE.”
—People

“Anne Tyler is a wise and perceptive writer with a warm understanding of human foible.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“All of Tyler’s novels are wonderful.”
—Newsweek

“One of the most beguiling and mesmerizing writers in America.”
—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Not merely good . . . She is wickedly good!”
—John Updike

“A novelist who knows what a proper story is . . . A very funny writer. . . Not only a good and artful writer, but a wise one as well.”
—Newsweek

“Tyler’s characters have character: quirks, odd angles of vision, colorful mean streaks and harmonic longings.”
—Time

“Her people are triumphantly alive.”
—The New York Times

“Without Anne Tyler, American fiction would be an immeasurably bleaker place.”
—Newsweek

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

"Without Anne Tyler, American fiction would be an immeasurably bleaker place."
NEWSDAY
Evie Decker is a shy, slightly plump teenager, lonely and silent. But her quiet life is shattered when she hears the voice of Drumstrings Casey on the radio and becomes instantly attracted to him. She manages to meet him, bursting out of her lonely shell--and into the attentive gaze of the intangible man who becomes all too real....


From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Library Binding: 186 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439557209
• ISBN-13: 978-1439557204
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,072,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is her 17th novel. Her 11th, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. A member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, she lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Tylers Best but a great book!, April 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Slipping-Down Life (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book when I was a teenager. I have reread it since along with almost everything that Tyler has ever written. It is a good book. It is not a happy book. It is about life, sometimes life is not happy.

I became a Tyler fan as an adult and something reminded me of a book I'd read long ago as a teenager. Could that have been the same book? It was 'A Slipping-Down Life.'

Rereading it as an adult I could feel the emotions of Evie. That is a good book. When you can feel like an obsessed teen making stupid decisions when you are in your thirties, that is writing!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compulsive reading for any teenager., April 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: A Slipping-Down Life (Mass Market Paperback)

I found this book fascinating. Direct and perceptive, it examines the consequences for a lonely, fat teenage girl who slashes the name of a would-be rock star onto her forehead with a pair of nail scissors. What is so interesting is that Evie, the mutilated teenager, never once regrets her action. She only wishes she had taken control of her fate earlier, while Drum, object of her unvoiced obsession and owner of the slipping-down life of the title, lets himself be drawn in by her startling course of action. Every other character in this book, from Evie's sad, widower father to her best (and indeed only) friend Violet, seems drifting and unaware next to efficent, decisive Evie. I can throughly recommend this book to anyone. Not a word is wasted or misplaced by the author and the result is a startlingly vivid novel

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Anne Tyler is always excellent, March 2, 2007

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Slipping-Down Life (Paperback)

Is there a better author alive today? Nope, I still can't think of one. I read this in a single sitting.

I gave the lady a short review last week, and I'm going to do it again now. I started with her first published book and am happily working my way forward through a career that the rest of us can only dream about. Not because of any financial rewards, but just because she knows she gave us this, an amazing body of literature that will always be there.

This book and IF MORNING EVER COMES have a special charm for me because they bring back memories of my own childhood. It's been said she moved her writing out of the South, but I don't think you can take the South out of the writer. I'll find out.

I went to used bookstores, but you can probably go to the local library. Do what I'm doing. Get all her books, start with the oldest, work your way to the newest, and just marvel and enjoy.