Clock Dance
£6.60£9.50 (-31%)
A bittersweet novel of family and self-discovery from the bestselling, award-winning author of French Braid
Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life: her mother’s disappearance when she was just a child, being proposed to at an airport at the age of twenty-one, the accident that would leave her a widow in her forties. Each time, Willa ended up on a path laid out for her by others.
So when she receives a phone call from a stranger informing her that her son’s ex-girlfriend has been shot, 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 leads Willa into uncharted territory and the eventual realisation that it’s never too late to choose your own path.
**ANNE TYLER HAS SOLD OVER 8 MILLION BOOKS WORLDWIDE**
‘Anne Tyler takes the ordinary, the small, and makes them sing’ Rachel Joyce
‘She knows all the secrets of the human heart’ Monica Ali
‘A masterly author’ Sebastian Faulks
‘I love Anne Tyler. I’ve read every single book she’s written’ Jacqueline Wilson
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Additional information
| Publisher | 1st edition (11 July 2019), Vintage |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 368 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1784708593 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1784708597 |
| Dimensions | 12.9 x 2.2 x 19.8 cm |
by Sue Wickens
No one does relationships like Ann Tyler and the story is almost irrelevant! However, it’s interesting, although a little disjointed. As always I really enjoyed it.
by B. Bampton
I love Anne Tyler. She takes ordinary people like me, puts them in an unusual situation and then asks herself, “How would they behave?” Her English is superb and I love learning American words.
I think this rambled a bit in the second half and it did remind me very much of Breathing Lessons, which is why I have only given 4 stars but I loved the quick, unexpected ending.
Highly recommended.
by A. Agalbato
My answer to the question posed in my headline comment is “No.” I confess that I love Anne Tyler. The first Tyler novel I read was “Saint Maybe”; I remember picking it up in a bookstore, started to read it, continued reading as I purchased it and during the train ride home. I literally could not put the book down until I had finished it that evening. The next day I began purchasing everything Anne Tyler had written. Surely none would be as good as “Saint Maybe”, I thought. Next came “Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant.” Perversely, I didn’t want it to be as good, I felt protective of “Saint Maybe” and wanted nothing to take its place in my heart. But it was. It was perfect. I continued buying and reading and falling in love. Next I read “A Slipping Down Life” and when I finished that gem, I knew that Anne Tyler was never going to disappoint me. I was right. She never has. “Ladder of Years” thrilled me. Ditto “Patchwork Planet”. Tyler has certainly become my favourite author and I have read all of her novels. I put off reading “Accidental Tourist.” I had seen the film and it had become my favourite film. From the superb cast and direction to the magnificent soundtrack and the best closing shot ever, this was a perfect film and I watched it over and over again. Sure, I thought, the novel won’t be as good. Boy, was I wrong. Not only was it brilliant but it proved the film to be the best film adaptation of a novel I had ever seen. When I read “A Spool of Blue Thread” (once again falling in love), I had read that Tyler would write no more. But she has (heartbreak over) and her latest, “Clock Dance” is another precious jewel. Her faultless sentence construction, her eye and ear for the most ordinary, minute and telling detail, her ability to create the most memorable characters you’ll ever hope to find are vibrantly alive and well in “Clock Dance” and as I arrived at that sad moment of finishing a great novel, all I could think of was that I’d like to move to Dorcas Road in Baltimore, MD. Please, Anne Tyler, keep writing.
by Euphemia Black
I have read all of Anne Tyler’s novels. Her earlier, longer ones are much better than the latest few. She is now just rehashing her usual main character of a middle aged woman who caters for everyone else’s needs except her own. The descriptions of her earlier life and the new neighbourhood (Baltimore as usual) are entertaining and gently humorous, but the two halves do not link up very well – her sister Elaine is thrown in now and again a a reminder. The reader is left to choose their own ending which just trails off unsatisfactorily. In general Tyler’s books for me have a claustrophobic 1950s feel – small town, old-fashioned, gossipy neighbourhood, interfering, fussy women and controlling, obtuse men.
by Firegirl
This book takes a long time to get not very far. Willa is awfully wet. Really almost pathetic. The child of a mild mannered father and a tempestuous mother who leaves the family periodically, Willa’s main ambition is to be passive and reliable and as far opposite of her mother as possible. She marries two strident, controlling, unliveable men. She becomes alienated from her sister and her sons, partially because of their dislike of her second husband.
Having given up college for her first pregnancy, Willa is 61 and purposeless until she gets an S.O.S. to go to help Denise, Willa’s son’s ex girlfriend, and Denise’s amenable daughter Cheryl following an accident. Willa rediscovers her purpose and enjoys this pseudo family life, and starts to see the cracks in her previous lifestyle. She almost fools herself that this can never end, until Denice loses her temper and speaks harshly about Willa’s interference.
Willa flies home the next day, and plans a more assertive future.
I just found this book annoying, although I did finish it. It was just too twee for me.
by Amazon Customer
Typical Anne Tyler, nothing much happens but lots of things happen. The main character seems to be of a generation that is in decline, with old fashioned ideas about women, men and marriage. I wanted to shake her frequently as she lets other people make decisions for and about her all the time. Unless maybe middle class American women still are like this?
A good read though if you are an Anne Tyler fan, but not her best.
by Sabina
When I want to say that this novel is easy to read, I mean it in the sense of Helen Dunmore’s quote about this author’s work, that “Anne Tyler writes with an apparent effortlessness which conceals great art.” We see Willa at three stages in her life, in 1967 as a girl in her family with an unstable mother and a ‘saintly’ dad, ten years later bringing her college boyfriend home, as a married woman twenty years later and finally in 2017, when events lead to some questionings about the choices she has made in her life. With Willa in her early sixties, is there still time for reappraisal and change? I like the way Anne Tyler shows us characters through dialogue, with a light touch, yet with a sense of discovery, sometimes subverting her own characters’ prejudices as time goes on. Nothing sugary about her expositions of the human heart, but she is a warm observer of family life with its conflicts and joys.
by Joyce Rigg
From the moment I read the first page I was thoroughly immersed in the life of Willa. She made me so angry, she made me smile. Most of the time I wanted to slap her, but I loved her and I really didn’t want this book to end. I am distraught that I won’t know what happens next. Much as I would like to say what I hope happens I obviously cannot as it would be a spoiler. However I can strongly recommend it if you enjoy reading about real people that you wish you knew.