About this title: The life, death, marriage, and family of Pearl Cody Tull, as she recollects it from her perspective as a dying 86-year-old woman. Over the course of these brief and poignant series of episodes, her husband leaves her, the three children grow up and develop their own families and contend with continually defining themselves as a part of this family ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
"This is the 2nd book of Tyler's that I read. She is really good at developing her characters. Pearl's verbal and physical outbursts left a strong impression on each of her 3 children is such different ways-- especially Cody. It's easy to see why Cody, Ezra and Jenny's lives were effected by their mother's anger and outbursts. It was interesting when the father that deserted them so early came back for Pearl's funeral. He didn't seem to have any remorse but for leaving. It infuriating but I was impressed to see that all the kids looked for him after he left the dinner to find him. It was a good read with many layers."
"I'm almost hesitant to call this book a "favorite" simply because I am not sure I ever want to read it again. What it is though is a book that probably (next to The Doomsday Book) had the strongest emotional impact on me ever -- and I wouldn't want to 1) experience that again or, worse, 2) find that it didn't affect me as much. All I know is that I remember the exact moment when, right after I finished it, I was taking a shower in our Falls Church townhouse and crying my eyes out at the thought of the main character never creating the kind of life she should have had. (God, I can't remember a single name of any of the characters.) Anyway, great book, strong impact, not sure if I could read it again but maybe I should someday."
"Would make a great case-study for a family-psych class. Can clearly see enmeshment / disengagement, effects of personalities, parental labeling, and grudges / forgiveness. 3 adult children each have different perspectives of the same childhood experiences. In trying to avoid being like their parents, they either make reactionary mistakes or repeat what they hoped to avoid. Draws the question of how much influence parenting plays on adults' outcome versus consequences of individual life choices. The author did a great job of making each character's perspective understandable (even if actions might have seemed inexcusable)."
"I enjoyed this book about a family that has grown apart. I could particularly relate to Ezra the kindhearted younger son who wanted to his family to come together in harmony. Ezra, like his mother, is what I call a feeder. He's someone who tries to bring people together over food. He takes over the family restaurant to use as means to make guests/wanderers feel at home and to bring people together. What he longs for most though his to bring his emotionally disconnected sister and his wayward brother home to be a family. It is a melancholy story, but one worth reading."
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