Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler

This is a short book that comes in at 178 pages and somehow I didn't feel it was long enough to properly get to know the characters. In The Accidental Tourist and A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler describes the tiny details that bring characters to life in such a convincing way that you can practically feel the heat coming off them as you read.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad novel, and for a shorter story it's very good, but the trouble is that the author has set such a high bar for herself that I suddenly expect everything she writes to be a prize winner.

Perhaps my problem is that I couldn't really get to grips with Micah, who is known locally as the 'Tech Hermit', and makes part of his living sorting out people's tech problems while the rest of his time is spent doing the maintenance for his block of flats. He's a bit nerdy, in that he keeps his flat tidy and does his chores on set days (doesn't everyone?), but he wasn't quite quirky enough to seize my imagination and I would have liked to have known more.

Micah's long-term girlfriend Cass is a school teacher who feels their relationship is going nowhere, but hasn't specifically bought the subject up, so Micah is happy to have separate apartments and space to do his own thing. He is quietly getting on with his life when a smartly dressed college boy knocks on his door and says has come to ask if Micah might be his father. The boy then becomes the central theme of the story and you'll have to read the book to find out what happens next.

I probably wouldn't want to spend the recommended price of £15 pounds on this, but it's still worth getting out of the library.

Comments

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