Another excellent book written by Kristin Harmel. I love "The Nightengale" and this book is as good if not better. The three main characters are Ruby, Charlotte and Thomas. Thomas is a pilot and when his plane is shot down he is rescued by Ruby. She hides him from the Germans and helps him find his way back to his base. There is a lot of suspense as Ruby also hides many other pilots. She is also hiding Charlotte, a Jewish child when her parents are captured. Great book.

Willa Drake is a very ordinary woman. She is surrounded by very ordinary people and that is what makes this book so special. Anne Tyler pulls together a cast of characters leading normal lives. The novel follows Willa’s life from age 11 -61 and I was pulling for her all the way. Tyler weaves a satisfying story out of common events.

need to say that Anne Tyler is one of my all time favorite novelists. Nevertheless, this latest book didn’t live up to my (admittedly high) expectations. The story transitions through Willa Drake’s life, childhood, college, young mother and recent widow, and remarried retiree. It is not until Willa impetuously flies to Baltimore to help her son’s ex-girlfriend, the victim of a random shooting, with her child care and home health care, did the book come to life for me. And then the book ended abruptly, just when I was getting really invested in Willa’s evolution, which is only hinted at in the final pages. I wish Tyler had given us more of retiree Willa’s self discovery, but I will take this delicious smaller portion with appreciation.

A beautifully told story of time and relationships: those we have and those we want. Anne Tyler excels at weaving lives together to create simple, yet interesting moments of a woman's life and how she transforms herself into the person she wants to become.

Willa is a very bland, sort of get-along-with-everyone character. She goes from being dominated by her mother, who has some kind of anger management issue, or is possibly bipolar, or something, to being dominated by her both her first and second husbands, both of whom definitely have anger management issues. She's got skills (I was shocked about 2/3 of the way through the book when she mentions that she speaks 5 languages) but recently gave her job teaching ESL to follow her second husband into retirement in Arizona, where she identifies most with the lone saguaro cactus in front of her house.

When she gets a call that her son's ex-girlfriend (who she never met) has been shot and needs help, she gets on a plane and heads to Baltimore to take care of her and her 9-year-old daughter. Some may think it odd to fly 2000 miles across the country to care for a woman you've never met (and her daughter), but Willa has always been open to suggestion, not to mention that she's totally bored. But in Baltimore, she finally finds a purpose, people who need her, and a community. The only question is whether she also finds the strength to break from her former go-along-to-get-along life and stay in the place and with the people who actually make her happy.

A solid addition to Anne Tyler's large body of work. Signature quirky characters are present as well as a good leading female character. Unlike her last book, A Spool of Blue Thread, I found characters to like and root for in this one.

I love Anne Tyler! Although I admit that I haven't loved every one of her books, this one has all the elements I do love. The characters are quirky, but relatable. The plot is a bit unpredictable, yet plausible. The emotions, conversations, reactions are all so believable and engaging that I could not put the book down. If you loved Accidental Tourist or Breathing Lessons or Saint Maybe, this is the book for you.

Clock Dance is a lovely book about a woman who is struggling to cope with the ramifications of her decisions. At the same time, she's trying to reconcile her feelings about her childhood and her parents. Anne Tyler doesn't write high action or thrillers, but she does write about real life, real problems, and real solutions with heart and empathy, but without being overly sentimental or melodramatic. Just lovely!

Anne Tyler is one of the very few authors whose works I actually buy, because I know I’ll want to read them again. Once again, the characters in Clock Dance are familiar, neither stereotyped nor archetypal but like people you know, some of whom you identify with and others who annoy you. Particularly resonant to me is Willa’s recognition that you don’t always have to have a plan, that real pleasure and contentment may come by ways unlooked for and means unseen.

I know that Anne Tyler is greatly respected writer. I have read 2 of her previous books and started another one, so this is not the first time I have read her books. I have the same problem with every book- I just don't care. She doesn't give me characters that make me want to know what happens to them. Sorry, Ms. Tyler.

This is the story of Willa and is told in 1967, 1977, 1997 and 2017. Willa grew up with a volatile mother and a mild laid back father. Willa’s personality mirrored that of her father as she was always placating those around her.

She was an attractive girl and met her husband soon after she started her college career. Derek was older, from a privileged background and accustomed to having whatever he wanted. So when he asked Willa to marry him and move to California with him, she reluctantly accepted. She had to quit college to marry and had two sons after abandoning her educational goals.

Derek, like her mother, had anger issues. So when he became enraged and cut off another driver on the freeway, he ended up dead. The new widow used the death as a reason to return to school and get her degree.

Later she met Peter, a lawyer, and retired from her job as an ESL teacher to move with him to Arizona. By this time her sons were adults and she had little to no contact with them. So she was shocked to receive a phone call from the neighbor of one son Sean’s former girlfriends, Denise. The neighbor assumed that Willa was the grandmother of Denise’s 11 year old daughter, Cheryl. Denise had been shot in a random act on her Baltimore Street. She was in the hospital recuperating and the neighbor could no longer care for Cheryl.

Peter and Willa flew east, moved into Denise’s house and started caring for Cheryl. Both were reluctant to do so but Willa felt that it was the right thing to do. Peter was an overbearing man who treated Willa as an inferior. He also felt that Willa should dedicate herself to his needs alone. Willa soon grew fond of the mother and daughter and their quirky neighbors. The experience made her realize that Denise and Cheryl needed her more than Peter did.

I have read several other Anne Tyler books and enjoyed them more than this book. It was short (just 200pages) and I felt it was more of a short story rather than a novel. The ending was predictable.

Another winner by Anne Tyler who writes characters so real they could be your neighbor or friend. Willa has to learn how to be her own person after the loss of her husband. She ends up helping another family and learns that life can be worth living even after loss .

Clock Dance by Anne Tyler

The latest by Anne Tyler, Clock Dance, is vintage Tyler. The story is about Willa Drake, and starts with her childhood as an 11 – year old, living with a calm and loving father and a volatile mother. The story moves from childhood to college to young married life with Derek and 2 children. When Derek suddenly dies in an accident, the reader believes Willa will begin to live for herself, but the next phase is her second marriage to Peter, a semi-retired executive who plays a lot of golf and is always “checking in with the office”. They live in Arizona, and Willa is happy, but life is a little boring.
One day she receives a phone call from a neighbor of Denise, the ex-girlfriend of Willa’s oldest son. . Denise lives in Baltimore and has been accidentally shot. She is in the hospital and someone needs to come and take care of Cheryl, Denise’s daughter. Although Willa knows Cheryl is not her granddaughter, she can’t help going to the rescue, and Peter decides to go with her.
Willa is pulled into life with Cheryl and Denise, in their rundown neighborhood with their well-meaning but quirky neighbors. Willa loves being needed and really cares for Cheryl, who is a very appealing 9 year old. Peter is anxious to get back to his life, but Willa finds this little family and neighborhood endearing and feels completely at home there.
Tyler’s exploration of complex family bonds and emotions is spot-on and although living with strangers, Willa does some reflecting on her own life and family. Tyler’s strength has always been her characters, and their very human yet fragile connections. Somehow, in Baltimore, her characters always feel right at home.
The reader is disappointed when the book ends; it is easy to get quite attached to Willa.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book about a woman who finally realizes her worth in spite of how her family treat her. I

Insightful and vintage Anne Tyler. No one does "life happens" as well as Ms. Tyler as she brings the principle character from her sleepy, suburban routine with a remote husband to the gritty yet real struggle that faces most people.

Clock Dance is another wonderful book by Anne Tyler. Her main character, Willa, has always done things for others and when she finds herself in an unusual situation far from her home, she realizes she is finally happy.

I love all Anne Tyler books, but this was especially well written and spoke with immediacy. Thoughtful and well-developed characters populate the novel which is more about the people than the plot. Highly recommended!

Anne Tyler never disappoints! Sure to be a best seller and a popular summer title. Tyler's characters are so developed they seem like familiar friends.

I've enjoyed so many Anne Tyler books over the years, and this is no exception. It reminds me most of Ladder of Years, another evocatively titled story of what might be called an "untethering experience." I liked the snapshot technique of the first few chapters, where we get a feel for MC Willa, and the experiences and personalities that have shaped her and led her to the actual beginning of "the story" (which for me felt like it really started around 47% on my Kindle). She's a funny mix of sensitive, empathetic and passive, which leads her to a series of self-submerging situations. The metaphor of life as a a "clock dance," which is only mentioned a couple of times, is apt, poignant and deftly handled, and perhaps as I hear time's winged chariot drawing near, affecting and relatable. I'm still trying to figure out the significance of the saguaros, though. Is it their stately stature? Their simultaneously off-putting and attractive appearance? Their exotic appeal to an easterner? Their minimal needs and self-sufficiency? Is there some contrast between a "Willow" (Willa) which needs lots of water to survive, and the camel-like cactus? Anyway, they are fun to ponder, and like so many elements of Anne's art, add depth, richness and enjoyment to the reading experience.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and publisher Alfred A. Knopf for the advance copy!

Willa is at loose ends in Arizona, with a husband who doesn't really understand her and two sons who are distant geographically and emotionally. She identifies with the prickly saguaro cactus. When she gets a phone call from a woman she never met, claiming to be a former girlfriend of her son, desperately in need of help following an accident, she answers the call and flies to Baltimore. Without even realizing it at first, she becomes a member of the neighborhood family, forming relationships with the quirky folks she comes to know. As usual, Tyler describes people we would like to know because she likes them so much.

This book was Anne Tyler at her best. We move through the main character's life, childhood and two marriages, hoping that some point she will find herself. We long for this to happen, and Tyler takes us there in due time, as the past is revealed to us little by little. And the ending is ultimately satisfying. A great read, have already begun recommending to my patrons and reading group.