the accidental tourist anne tyler summary

A single mother who does all sorts of jobs to make ends meet, Muriel trains Macon’s dog after it turns nasty on a few people. Secondly, he encounters Muriel Pritchett. Firstly, he breaks his leg and goes to live with his siblings where he is cared for by his sister Rose, who also plays maid to Macon’s brothers, Porter and Charles. Two things help move Macon’s story forwards. You're a dried up kernel of a man that nothing real penetrates,” she was right but after her departure he drifts into an ever more extreme isolation from the outside world. When Sarah told Macon, “there's something so muffled about the way you experience things. He pops corn in the bedroom and cocoons himself in a set of sewn up bedding. Where previously he had retreated into his work to ward off a sense of danger, left alone he falls into a depression that sees him failing to care for his home or himself. When Sarah admits, “Now that Ethan's dead I sometimes wonder if there's any point to life,' Macon responds, “It never seemed to me there was all that much point to begin with.” With such markedly different coping strategies, the Learys are headed for separation.Įthan gone and Sarah moved out of the family home, Macon’s life of order is plunged into relative chaos.

Where Sarah needs hope and support, Macon retreats into his routines and his pessimistic view of life. Shared grief is a more complex situation. Grief is a very personal thing: there is no right or wrong way to negotiate it. After their son Ethan’s murder, Macon and Sarah grew apart: there were 'months when everything either of them said was wrong.'

An English teacher who expresses herself very differently from her husband, she no longer finds amusement in Macon’s strict routines. His series (entitled The Accidental Tourist) guides these unwilling travellers through the pitfalls of unknown experience and details exactly how they can make any trip a home-away-from-home: 'Other travellers hoped to discover distinctive local wines Macon's readers searched for pasteurized and homogenized milk.'īy comparison, Sarah is – according to Macon – sloppy and disorganised.

Macon writes guidebooks for businessmen who have to travel but prefer not to. Nothing typifies Macon Leary better than his job. Macon enjoys himself in moderation: routine and stability give him a way to negotiate life. After years of marriage, the death of their son in a hold-up a year back has given them each a fresh view on the world. “People could, in fact, be used up - could use each other up, could be of no further help to each other”Macon and Sarah Leary are failing.

The accidental tourist anne tyler summary