In French Braid, Anne Tyler chronicles the disentangling of a family, the Garretts. The story begins in the 1950s when the oldest children are teenagers, and the youngest is about 8. As the story progresses, you get the sense that each character is moving quietly but deliberately apart from the others. Although this sounds heart-wrenching, it’s actually a generally peaceful read.

As with most of Anne Tyler’s books, the focus is on observing the small details of humanity within a relatable situation. If you’ve enjoyed her other novels, you’ll like this as well. If you are looking for rip-roaring adventure, this might not be for you.

This story is about the Garrett Family headed by the matriarch and patriarch, Mercy and Robin. It follows the family over the years. The family grows. Mercy and Robin become parents, in law, and grandparents. As the story unfolds, the Garrett family deals with problems that many people encounter in a family. While I wouldn't say, I liked every character. They were interesting. Each character added depth to the story.

I really don't like giving a thumbs down, but this book was a downer. I couldn't get through the first half. The visit and subsequent train trip was tedious and drawn out. It seemed like this couple had nothing in common and frankly I couldn't care less if they went home or not. Do you recognize your cousin was the worst part. If you have a distant cousin, then yes, you can't always recognize them. I guess it just seemed so mundane to me and I felt like he was picking a fight.

It was like someone constantly looking at the word count to make something drag out. The entire first half with the vacation was incredibly boring. Talking endless about recipes and teaching a kid to swim was just too much. I gave up and sadly labeled it a DNF.

Anne Tyler's 24th novel is a lot like her much lauded 20th, A Spool of Blue Thread, and the previous nineteen (most of which I read, including Blue Thread). A Baltimore family -- ordinary in every way, though mildly idiosyncratic and mildly dysfunctional in some ways, which is to say, ordinary in every way. Some comedy, some insight -- character development in lieu of plot, dripping with metaphors and objective correlatives, from the title down right down to the Covid lockdown. Firmly within the Anne Tyler canon.

But something felt right to me, right from the start -- unlike Blue Thread, which contrary to popular opinion felt oddly off key to me. The detachment that diminished every aspect of the Blue Thread family is actually pitch perfect for the Garrett family of this book -- it is in fact the salient characteristic of their family structure, and rather than diminish them, it allows them to come together and be there for each other at exactly the right time -- even when Covid isolates them even more than they normally isolate themselves.

The eight chapters are each told (in the third person) from the point of view of a different family member -- each parent, each of their three children, and three of their grandchildren. After framing the story in the near-present in Chapter 1, the rest of the chapters unfold chronologically, roughly ten years apart, from the family's one and only vacation together in 1959 to the Covid lockdown of the recent past. A very satisfying structure.

Nothing of great import ever really happens -- even a death seems to be a natural part of the fabric of this story, as the patterns of this French braid of a family remain discernible even after it unravels. But I for one felt so many connections to myself and my own family, especially in the wake of Covid when those of us who were fortunate enough to remain healthy (medically and economically) found tranquility in isolation -- socialization is nice, one character says to himself, and you like the people you're with, sure, but isn't it nice to not have to?

But if you're going to like this book as much as I did, you need to have patience. Tyler is not going for the obvious. Why is David so aloof? It was probably just a small thing, one sibling muses. It was probably that big thing that happened before college, his father believes. Then you get David's point of view, which is as surprising in how true to life it feels as it is surprising in the context of a novel, where you expect a big reveal. I didn't have that patience with the Blue Thread family, didn't relate to that family or feel that their story rang true. This family, yes.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC. I received it right on the eve of publication, so I couldn't read it soon enough to post a pre-publication review. Still worth reading!

Wow! What an unexpected delight of a book! This novel was a perfect blend of multigenerational family saga, propulsiveness and lovable, yet flawed characters. I also really enjoyed the layout of the novel, each chapter from a different family member's perspective so that it almost feels like interconnected short stories, but not quite.

You really feel immersed in mundane family drama, understanding and empathizing with each character. The problems are realistic, the decisions are understandable, and you can really feel like you KNOW these characters.

This was my first Anne Tyler, and I am already looking into her backlist!

Thank you to NetGalley and Knoft for the advance copy!

This book is a snapshot of one family. At times it was hard to piece together WHO the characters were and how they were related. Further, it was a bit difficult to really start to care about any of the characters.
OVerall I liked the book, I thought it was interesting to see so many angles of a family, but it was also dull because you never fully got a deep dive into one character. The reader got ONE chapter to know about a character and then the next chapter would be a different character and a different time period.

This book is a nice beach read, but its not anything to write home about.

I enjoyed this book. It was a light read, but a good look into the lives of a realistic family. I liked the way the title was tied in towards the end of the story.

I always feel lucky when. I read an Anne Tyler book; her talent makes you appreciate the way a story can be simply and complex And utterly engrossing without anything salacious. You're simply following...life. The title becomes clear at the end but when it's written it becomes a perfectly wonderful representation of the book of a family, as how they are woven in and out of each other's lives, perception and reality and what it means to be human.

The dynamics of families and the heartbreak that is caused, sometimes without even knowing it, is woven through French Braid. It was a slow build for me but as usual, Tyler makes you care about the characters. Reading about the pandemic near the end of the book brought tears to my eyes; especially because for so many of us, we still have not seen our children or grandchildren because of it.

French Braid somewhat depressed me. None of the characters seem happy or living their best life. Mercy is a horrible mother that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. It is amazing their children made it to adulthood and seem to be good parents themselves. Maybe there is some deeper story that I totally missed but this was a book I was glad to reach the end.

French Braid is the newest family drama written by the always-amazing storyteller Anne Tyler. The Garrett family's tale is told throughout the decades from the 1950s to the ongoing current pandemic. We get to know each member of the family and their quirks as they navigate life with each other. The book really examines how the family is entwined (or not). Read and enjoy!

"French Braid" is a story of dysfunctional people trying their best to be their best. The characters are real and sometimes not attractive. The situations are real and pretty realistic. Maybe because of the truthful nature of the story it's hard to read sometimes, but it felt too close to the reality of most people's lives.

Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors -- I’ve read all of her books!
So I enjoyed her signature style, her cast of quirky characters, and her unique approach to the story of the Garrett family over the years.

It is really a story of families; of how they come together, and then they move apart, almost in waves, over time. But in the end families are often “woven” together, as in a “french braid” fashion, each member intricately intertwined in and around each of the other members, sometimes closely, sometimes loosely.

I enjoyed this meandering story as time passes for the Garrett family and how they manage each of their situations and relationships.

I'd like to thank NetGalley, Anne Tyler, and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

No one reflects the potholes and small successes of American life like Anne Tyler does. With her unfailing eagle eyes and breathtaking responsiveness to the tiniest of mannerisms, language usage, habits, and relationships, Tyler has created a masterpiece comprised of chapters as interlocked short stories, each representing another period in three generations of the Garrett Family of Baltimore. Filled with laugh-out-loud and silent-chuckle humor juxtaposed with surprising but inherent friction between family members, this not-to-be-missed title should be on every reading list and on the top of every TBR pile.

This book traces an ordinary family in Baltimore from the 1950's to the present. It's a quick read; I read it in one day. The ordinariness of the family made for light but fairly undramatic reading. I found it mildly interesting. Only a couple of the characters stood out at all.

there is nothing like Anne Tyler to perk you up. a very interesting family that could only be invented by Tyler. A real teat.

A good reminder of how great a writer Tyler is; it's been far too long since I've read one of her books. I was charmed by this loose collection of vignettes centered on various generations of the Garrett family that casually jumps around in time. Each chapter contains wonderful observations and introspections that are sure to impact readers. I groaned aloud upon discovering that the final chapter's events directly weave in COVID-19, but the inclusion is well done and doesn't feel tacked on like most of the virus's insertions in literature that I've come across so far.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy, all opinions are my own.

This is my first Anne Tyler book and I really enjoyed it. I’m a big fan of family dramas, and this one did not disappoint. One thing I was not happy with (something Mercy did) but I won’t reveal any spoilers. I’m definitely going to be looking for more books by this author!

Writing as Anne Tyler does best, taking the ordinary interactions and relationships within a family and weaving a story. Likening family dynamics to a French braid where each separate strand is twisted and interwoven until one complete braid is visible. Each family, though unique, adds something distinct to the picture of the family as a whole.
Beautifully written and descriptively, Tyler once again tackles the dynamics of relationships.

Our story is about the Garrett family from Baltimore. It takes us from the 1950’s to the current pandemic days. It is basically daily life but somehow feels so much more complex than that. It was relatively short and a quick read, I could have read another hundred pages easily.

If you enjoy character driven, family saga/drama pieces of work you may enjoy this. I for sure did. It’s spans decades and across generations and was a good fit for me. I enjoyed the many layers to the relationships and the characters. I always enjoy books that have multiple siblings, being an only child they fascinate me, fact or fiction. I ended up liking the characters I didn’t expect to, and then not loving some of the ones I did initially. I especially enjoyed how you don’t realize how far down the family tree you are until something is referenced from sometime ago in the book and in the characters past. It was very well written in my opinion. One of our characters paints, having done some painting myself her unique style fascinated me and I couldn’t get enough of those little tidbits. Rounding this up to a 5.

Many thanks to our author and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for providing me with an eARC on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This was published on March 22nd, 2022. I hope if you choose to read it you like it as much as I did.