Blythe's Book 15: Noah's Compass

Allow me to paint a picture of my ideal weekend: it involves sitting on an island, my chair facing the sun, a cool breeze keeping the mosquitos at bay, and a good book in my hands. Add to that the company of Nate, our dogs, and several good friends, and I've just described this weekend... the perfect start to spring break. And it ended even better-- finishing said book while curled up on my couch with a blanket in the middle of a Florida thunderstorm. The book wasn't a letdown either, I might add. I always find good book suggestions in O Magazine; say what you will about Oprah (personally, I loooove her) but the woman loves books, and has devoted large portions of her magazine to sharing info on the literary world. Kudos, Oprah.

I've read several of Anne Tyler's novels, and I like her low-key approach to life. Her plotlines are never in-your-face, and her characters are charmingly realistic. In her latest novel, Noah's Compass, sixty-year old Liam is struggling to remember the details of a home invasion he's just experienced-- however, in trying to remember the scene, he's led to reexamine other details of his life, specifically involving his relationships with his three grown daughters and his ex-wife.
Liam is frustratingly absent, for lack of a better word; he's meek, bumbling, and befuddled by what others expect of him. He's an absentminded academic/philosopher surrounded by a bunch of women whom he just cannot fathom. He's perpetually alarmed by their needs and desires, and at a complete loss for how to give. In some ways, this book hits close to home; I think it sheds some light on communication differences, stereotypical as they may seem, between men and women in general. It isn't that Liam doesn't care about the people in his life-- he just becomes overwhelmed by their expectations and seems to find it easier to live up (or rather, down) to what they see him as. As Liam admits, he's never been "entirely present in [his] own life." However,as he struggles to recover his memory, Liam also sees the huge voids in his life that have been caused by his passivity, and he attempts to take hold of his life and find his own way to happiness. This sounds kind of melancholy, but really, the novel wasn't. I think we all have a little of Liam in us-- that part of us that waits to be acted upon, rather than stepping forth confidently, and this book was that gentle reminder many of us need, telling us that the ball is in our court.

Favorites:

Here, I cringed in self-recrimination: "[Barbara]certainly knew he was low-key. So why did she want more than that after they were married? Why did she prod him, and drag him to counseling, and at last, in the end, give up on him? Women had this element of treachery, Liam had discovered. They entered your life under false pretenses and then they changed the rules" (88).

This one made me laugh: "People like Eunice just never had quite figured out how to get along in the world. They might be perfectly intelligent, but they were subject to speckles and flushes; their purses resembled wastepaper baskets; they stepped on their own skirts. Actually, Eunice was the only person he could think of who answered to that description. But still..." (112).

These last few made me think and make resolutions...
"All along, it seemed, he had experienced only the most glancing relationship with his own life. He had dodged the tough issues, avoided the conflicts, gracefully skirted adventure" (241).

"The trouble with discarding bad memories was that evidently the good ones went with them" (275).