a lifestyle blog for book lovers
The Accidental Tourist
If my memory is correct, this book—Tyler’s tenth—was my introduction to her work. I’ve come to learn that the combination of ordinary and absurd on display here is typical of her work. Case in point: her protagonist Macon Leary, a travel writer who despises travel. We meet him as he’s in the midst of a divorce; he and his wife are separating a year after their 12-year-old son died tragically. When he falls and breaks a leg, he and his naughty dog Edward move back into the family home with his adult siblings. When dog trainer Muriel sweeps into the picture, Macon is hopeful she’ll help Edward behave … but she ends up turning Macon’s entire life upside down. And to his great surprise, that turns out not to be entirely unwelcome.
About the Book
Publisher’s description:
“POIGNANT . . . FUNNY . . . THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST IS ONE OF HER BEST. . . . [TYLER] HAS NEVER BEEN STRONGER.”
–The New York Times
Macon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. He is grounded by loneliness and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts when he meets Muriel, a deliciously peculiar dog-obedience trainer who up-ends Macon’s insular world–and thrusts him headlong into a remarkable engagement with life.
“BITTERSWEET . . . EVOCATIVE . . . It’s easy to forget this is the warm lull of fiction; you half-expect to run into her characters at the dry cleaners . . . Tyler [is] a writer of great compassion.”
–The Boston Globe
“Tyler has given us an endlessly diverting book whose strength gathers gradually to become a genuinely thrilling one.”
–Los Angeles Times
“A DELIGHT . . . A GRACEFUL COMIC NOVEL ABOUT GETTING THROUGH LIFE.”
–The Wall Street Journal
