French Braid by Anne Tyler

FRENCH BRAID by Anne Tyler evokes a gentle, peaceful feeling for the reader despite some dysfunction in the family portrayed by this award-winning author. The novel spans decades and offers an interwoven chain of stories involving everyday questions: where to live; what to wear; what to serve guests … Each character is both self-absorbed and yet very conscious of his or her own perceptions of the needs of other family members. The matriarch, Mercy, is my favorite. She’s an artist whose paintings are a kind of metaphor for the hyper-focus on one aspect of a situation. Robby, her husband is kind, if socially awkward. Readers meet their three children: Alice (conscientious and bossy), Lilly (a free spirit), and David (quiet and reserved). Eventually, spouses, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren join the multi-generational cast, often reflecting characteristics of elder family members. This is a story told through vignettes which I thoroughly enjoyed and did not want to see end. FRENCH BRAID received a starred review from Booklist (“lushly imagined, psychologically intricate, virtually inhalable novel”).