Just in case you haven’t yet dipped into Tyler’s family landscape, this is a great one to acquaint yourself with. It’s both about her writing, as well as her particular reading of ordinary families and how they align themselves in a world that doesn’t always make sense.
For some, of course, family is an easy fit. For others, it’s as if they landed up with the wrong people. This one confirms that you cannot always choose, but sometimes it works better than if you had.
But is there a choice when it comes to families? I’m not sure Tyler thinks so, although in her quirky way of travelling through these almost unremarkable lives it’s how she hooks you and draws you in because it all seems so familiar. These are the lives many of us lead. And we forget how lucky we are that we’re not worrying about what to eat and where we sleep every night.
But that, says Tyler, is also life. We’re so obsessed with our own little world that to focus on the hardship that’s out there isn’t always an option.
There’s a kind of comfort in the way she writes about her self-made families, and with this one, in particular, there’s an odd twist as if she starts in the middle, goes back to the beginning and only then leaps to the end.
But as she introduces us to the matriarch, Abby Whitshank, someone who would never see herself in those terms and yet gently rules her family, we understand that she keeps the odd bunch together in the way she pays each one attention or not. The men and the boys seem to flourish more in this family, even though Abby is the one who takes the lead.
From marriage that seems heaven-made to one that almost seems imposed, it takes all sorts to make a life and it takes some longer to recognise that than others. It’s also the place you take in a family, the role you play.
It’s about the different generations, the parents and their adult children, and it is about ageing. It’s about that time when you don’t want to let go of things more than simply about ordinary people. It’s when your house represents your memories, where you feel safe and, of course... at home.
Tyler has a wondrous charm, the way she sketches her people, how she dresses them or cuts their hair. It all helps to fill out the characters, to make them real as if you can see them from the outside in.