The Accidental Tourist: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) [Paperback]

Anne Tyler (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 9, 2002 | Series: Ballantine Reader's Circle

“POIGNANT . . . FUNNY . . . THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST IS ONE OF HER BEST. . . . [TYLER] HAS NEVER BEEN STRONGER.”
–The New York Times

Macon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. He is grounded by loneliness and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts when he meets Muriel, a deliciously peculiar dog-obedience trainer who up-ends Macon’s insular world–and thrusts him headlong into a remarkable engagement with life.

“BITTERSWEET . . . EVOCATIVE . . . It’s easy to forget this is the warm lull of fiction; you half-expect to run into her characters at the dry cleaners . . . Tyler [is] a writer of great compassion.”
–The Boston Globe

“Tyler has given us an endlessly diverting book whose strength gathers gradually to become a genuinely thrilling one.”
–Los Angeles Times

“A DELIGHT . . . A GRACEFUL COMIC NOVEL ABOUT GETTING THROUGH LIFE.”
–The Wall Street Journal

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Scarred by grief after their 12-year-old son's senseless murder (he was shot by a holdup man in a Burger Bonanza), Macon and Sarah Leary are losing their marriage too. Macon is unable to cope when she leaves him, so he settles down ``safe among the people he'd started out with,'' moving back home with two divorced brothers and spinster sister Rose. Author of a series of guidebooks called ``Accidental Tourist'' for businessmen who hate to travel, Macon is Tyler's focus here, as she gently chronicles his journey from lonely self-absorption to an ``accidental'' new life with brassy Muriel, a dog trainer from the Meow Bow Animal Hospital, who renews and claims his heart. Not a character, including Macon's dog Edward, is untouched by delightful eccentricity in this charming story, full of surprises and wisdom. All of Tyler's novels are wonderful; thisher tenthis the best yet. BOMC main selection. Janet Wiehe, P.L. of Cincinnati & Hamilton Cty.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

“INDISPUTABLY HER BEST BOOK . . .
It leaves one aching with pleasure and pain.”
–The Washington Post

“Hilarious . . . and touching . . . Anne Tyler is a wise and perceptive writer with a warm understanding of human foibles.”
–St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Comic . . . Sweetly perverse . . . A novel animated by witty invention and lively personalities.”
–Time

“Anne Tyler [is] covering common ground with uncommon insight. . . . Convincingly real.”
–People

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reprint edition (April 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345452003
• ISBN-13: 978-0345452009
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (116 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,431 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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 71 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "He could not think of a single major act he'd managed of his own accord." January 23, 2006

By Mary Whipple HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

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 Read more ›

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book. December 20, 1999

By Nirit

Format:Mass Market Paperback

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).

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tyler Gem July 16, 2002

By BeachReader

Format:Hardcover

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!

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book may have saved my life. July 5, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Mass Market Paperback

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!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You may see some of yourself in this book. May 29, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Mass Market Paperback

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.