After my random run-in with Anne Tyler a few months ago I have been generally interested in reading more of her work so here I am. And it's a book about an old guy? I love books about old guys! Doubly so if it's about an old guy broaching his mortality and his purpose in life! Yay!
Unfortunately... this was mostly just very bland. Kinda like the book equivalent of a plain baked potato, sans butter or salt even. The premise starts off interestingly with Liam losing his job and needing to downsize, he spends one night in his new apartment before waking up in hospital with a bandaged head. Aaand that's about as exciting as it gets. It features a very chaste romance, a supporting cast of either boring or unrealistic women and some very half-hearted ruminations on the importance of memories. There's even a big reveal later on that fizzles more than it explodes.
I wasn't expecting thrills, chills and spills from this book after my experiences with the other Anne Tyler book I read but this is very...twee and unremarkable. It's not offensively bad or anything like that but I was mostly unsure about what the point of all this even was? It's an ordinary book about ordinary people doing ordinary things - I guess I can call it a pallet cleanser for when you want to sorta zone out. I'm not writing off Anne Tyler books completely but this was not a great choice for a follow-up.