Book Review: Clock dance - A. Tyler

“Of course it seemed strange without Peter, but at least she could stay out as long as she liked without worrying she was neglecting him.” 

I could happily read a shopping list written by Anne Tyler. She has an unique way to put on paper every day life, with the bitter sweetness of it all, in such a deep, engrossing, profound way.
And Clock dance is another magnificent novel about a woman who is finally, in her older age, finding her place in the world, her true self, her belonging. A woman that has dedicated her whole life to others and that for probably the first time thinks about herself and what she wants.
Beautifully written, quite sad but also promising, an excellent read.

Overall rating:  7    Plot: 7   Writing style: 7,5    Cover:  6,5

Title: Clock dance

Author: Anne Tyler
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Pages: 304
Publication year: 2018

The Plot:

Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life: when she was eleven and her mother disappeared, being proposed to at twenty-one, the accident that would make her a widow at forty-one. At each of these moments, Willa ended up on a path laid out for her by others. 
So when she receives a phone call telling her that her son’s ex-girlfriend has been shot and needs her help, she drops everything and flies across the country. The spur-of-the moment decision to look after this woman – and her nine-year-old daughter, and her dog – will lead Willa into uncharted territory. Surrounded by new and surprising neighbours, she is plunged into the rituals that make a community, and takes pleasure in the most unexpected things. 

The Author:
Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Breathing Lessons and many other bestselling novels, including The Accidental Tourist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Saint Maybe, Ladder of Years, A Patchwork Planet, Back When We Were Grownups, The Amateur Marriage, Digging to America and The Beginner's Goodbye. 
In 1994 she was nominated by Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby as 'the greatest novelist writing in English' and in 2012 she received the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence, which recognises a lifetime's achievement in books. In 2015 A Spool of Blue Thread was a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for both the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize. Her latest novel, Vinegar Girl, is a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew.