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"How pointless real life was! In novels, events led up to something," thought Ezra, as he scanned his mother's diary. "What would you say can be your patients' most typical disease?" This is what Ezra later asked of his medic sister, Jenny. www.circlejor.com -itis," Jenny replied. Their mother, Pearl, so central to their lives, yet so difficult a project for any of them, dies to be eulogised at her funeral in a manner that was "so vague, so general, so universally applicable, that Cody considered that parlour game where people fill in words at random and giggle hysterically at the story that results." Cody was another of Pearl's three children, the first, in fact, and also the most difficult. It had been, of course, the children, the ones that remained after their mother's death, which were the consequences of the random gap filling that had not even recognised their mother. And then, by the end of Pearl's funeral service, the minister announced the closing hymn, chosen by Pearl herself. "We'll Understand It All By And By." Perhaps she did. Perhaps.
In its quiet, essentially suburban understatement, Anne Tyler's tale of family life in Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant is nothing less than a masterpiece. As ever with Anne Tyler, the household lives in Baltimore, isn't rich, isn't particularly poor and presents little that's even potentially memorable. When Pearl and Beck Tull married, they might have anticipated a shared life of convention, an expectation that might have been on the way to fulfilment when three children arrived and the progress of these father in his sales career seemed assured. But we all take far too much for granted. Beck Tull disappeared, walked out, apparently to pursue his career via a posting that had to take him away from Baltimore. But soon this is an unbiased life. The letters home became infrequent, the $ 50 he apologetically generously enclosed less dependable.
Such events may have proved earth shattering if Pearl Tull was not this effective, if reluctant pragmatist. For the nice of her family, apparently, she made the very best of things, created excuses, refused to simply accept that was a separation, and chose not to offer an opinion to her children. This type of change thus becomes another form of convention. These events are set, of course, in the mid-twentieth century and in america, where such occurrences were not unknown.
And so Pearl was left to improve three kids. She took employment behind a store counter and walked to work to save lots of on fares. Cody, the eldest of the three, had always been difficult. Ezra was meeker, milder, perhaps prone to naivet�, an excellent he never quite managed to grow out of. Jenny was possibly the most capable, and talented, certainly probably the most obviously practical of the three. She was motivated to review, to visit medical school and become a doctor. Which is just what she did. Ezra took on a restaurant, the eating house of the title, though we have been never to conclude that Jenny's later eating disorders are a result of the unconventional nature of the household menu. Cody became a period and motion man, but a very successful one. He always did appear to have a desire to tell other what they should be doing.
In its quiet, essentially suburban understatement, Anne Tyler's tale of family life in Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant is nothing less than a masterpiece. As ever with Anne Tyler, the household lives in Baltimore, isn't rich, isn't particularly poor and presents little that's even potentially memorable. When Pearl and Beck Tull married, they might have anticipated a shared life of convention, an expectation that might have been on the way to fulfilment when three children arrived and the progress of these father in his sales career seemed assured. But we all take far too much for granted. Beck Tull disappeared, walked out, apparently to pursue his career via a posting that had to take him away from Baltimore. But soon this is an unbiased life. The letters home became infrequent, the $ 50 he apologetically generously enclosed less dependable.
Such events may have proved earth shattering if Pearl Tull was not this effective, if reluctant pragmatist. For the nice of her family, apparently, she made the very best of things, created excuses, refused to simply accept that was a separation, and chose not to offer an opinion to her children. This type of change thus becomes another form of convention. These events are set, of course, in the mid-twentieth century and in america, where such occurrences were not unknown.
And so Pearl was left to improve three kids. She took employment behind a store counter and walked to work to save lots of on fares. Cody, the eldest of the three, had always been difficult. Ezra was meeker, milder, perhaps prone to naivet�, an excellent he never quite managed to grow out of. Jenny was possibly the most capable, and talented, certainly probably the most obviously practical of the three. She was motivated to review, to visit medical school and become a doctor. Which is just what she did. Ezra took on a restaurant, the eating house of the title, though we have been never to conclude that Jenny's later eating disorders are a result of the unconventional nature of the household menu. Cody became a period and motion man, but a very successful one. He always did appear to have a desire to tell other what they should be doing.
