The Accidental Tourist

I read Ann Tyler for her unrivaled ability to create heartfelt stories illuminated by humor about family in all its broken splendor.

The trepidatious Macon Leary is our accidental tourist, writer of an advice column full of tips for making travel feel like staying home. He’s lost his son; his wife has left him. He’s back living with his two brothers and sister when Edward, his choleric Welsh Corgi, starts biting people. This bit of bad luck pulls him into the orbit of the irritating, opinionated, big-hearted dog trainer, Muriel, and on a journey back to a life worth living… show more.

Any list of books for armchair travelers should begin with this wonderful novel.

Macon writes books for business travelers who want to pretend they never left the safety and security of home. At its heart, this is a love story between fussy, introverted Macon and the world’s chattiest and most chaotic dog trainer, Muriel.

Along the way, we meet Macon’s dysfunctional family—they organize their canned food alphabetically—Muriel’s wounded son, and one of the great animal characters in American fiction. Laughter, tears, and no air rage; what more could you ask from a novel?

It’s Anne Tyler at her quirky, poignant… show more.

This is a very famous book, made into a movie of course, and it is so, so good, even if I’m never sure how to pronounce ‘Macon.’

There is deep wrenching sadness to overcome in a story that is about losing a child, but also includes a wayward terrier called Edward and an unforgettable comedy scene involving a skateboard, a flight of stairs, and some contraption supposed to make laundry easier.

Fussy Macon and his peculiar siblings are wonderfully drawn and absolutely need the quirky Muriel Pritchett to come and disrupt their lives. I’ve left this till the last in… show more.

Anne Tyler’s books are all filled with a deep understanding every life, no matter how small it may appear, has value and meaning. Ms. Tyler has great compassion for all her characters. I have several favorites among her many novels, but chose this one to recommend here because it is a story of love found amid the wreckage circumstances sometimes create for us, and is thus a story of hope.