This book was an interesting view of a family throughout time. It starts in 2010 with Serena then jumps to 1959 with the Garrett family's first & only vacations. This is Serena's grandparents, mom, & aunt, & uncle. So now the story is told through different family members in each chapter & is set in a different time period. I did like how the book cam full circle from the beginning to the end with David being the common denominator. This is an interesting book if you like to see inside a family with all of its beautiful ups & major downs. I thought the storytelling was creative but there were some gaps in the time frames that took a minute to catch up to the next time. I would recommend reading this book,

A new book by Anne Tyler always makes me smile. Some could say she's written the same book over again, but having read her for 40 years, I beg to differ in that although each of the families in her Baltimore may share similarities just like flesh and blood neighbors, there are subtle details that make each family unique. So here we have the Garretts who have not only lived in the same house, but have owned the same business for generations. After an introduction set in 2010, each member is put front and center in their own chapter, the history advancing in deliberate measure, until an entire family portrait is created. The overshadowing question of why there is such a disconnect gets its answer, in a hauntingly satisfactory resolution.

French Braid is a literary slice of life story about three generations of a Baltimore family and their interconnected disconnect across decades. The Garrett story opens in 2010 with two cousins passing in a train station, unsure whether they actually know one another despite their blood relation. We're then taken back to the family's first and only vacation at a lake in 1959 where we're introduced to Robin, Mercy, and their three children. We see the family shaped through significant happenings spanning decades as the story shifts from one member's point of view to another, each striving for freedom and obtaining measures of it, while their roots remain tangled.

I enjoyed this story just as I have enjoyed others by Anne Tyler. She has a reliable way of creating such realistic characters one can't help but be enticed to care about them.

A quiet and short yet satisfying family saga to dip into.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story about the Garrett family .. a middle class family of five.
They are from Baltimore and the story starts in 1959 and follows them up until Covid starts.
Tyler writes with such insight and understanding of family relationships, ..secrets, affections, exasperations..
This is only my second Tyler novel..
I plan to read more of her!

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday for the digital copy!

I received an ARC of French Braid in exchange for an honest review. I have read a few other Anne Tyler books and saw that this book had been receiving rave reviews although not very many reviews. I am in the minority of most of the readers of this book. The book was described as a multi-generational story, which it was. However this is a pretty boring family who doesn't really like each other or spending time with each other. Nothing very exciting happens to them. The book starts out in the year 2000 and the first chapter really makes no sense being placed where it is. The next chapter goes to 1959 and covers one week of the family's life while on vacation. Each subsequent chapter is about a different family member and jumps up quite a few years in each chapter. Because of the huge year jumps new family members are born but it is hard to know who is who.

Classic Anne Tyler, this novel is a treat. May she keep writing for years to come. The family story is so engaging.

This fine novel is the first I've read from this accomplished author. I will definitely make many return visits to her other works.

This is the story of the Garrett family, told in a series of anecdotes that span from 1959 to 2020. Robin Garrett marries into a family that owns a hardware store in Baltimore. Mercy, his wife, paints impressionistic pictures of people's homes. They have three children: a responsible daughter with the maturity typical of an oldest child, a zany daughter who could hardly be more different than her sister and a much younger son, who is kind of a loner.

The characters are rather ordinary, but very relatable. The anecdotes are all interesting, taking the reader through important, emotional points in the lives of the characters through the years. The stories ultimately include Robin and Mercy's great-grandchildren.

What is the overall theme? Despite the family members tendencies to find their independence from each other, something holds the family together. This is probably true for many families.

Excellent book. I received an ARC through NetGalley.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of French Braid!

2 stars

I love family dramas! But French Braid was lacking in the drama department. There really wasn't much of a plot or a climax. It was just the simple story of a family through the decades. A seemingly ordinary family, with no true endearing traits or remarkable qualities. No great backstory, no skeletons in the closet, no wrenching heartbreak.

The story starts with Selena, and I really wanted to get back to her at the end, but each family member only has a little section told from their viewpoint. And I did not enjoy Mercy's character at all. She was insufferable, especially after the incident with her landlord's cat. Nope!

This was my first Anne Tyler book and I would read her again because from my understanding, she is the master of writing about families, but this one fell short.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing for gifting me an ARC of French Braid by Anne Tyler. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

Families are often complicated and Anne Tyler has certainly created one here in these pages. Robin & Mercy Garrett are raising their three children in suburban Baltimore in the mid 1950’s. This book takes us across the decades as we watch the Garrett children become young adults, parents and eventually grandparents. French Braid is a quiet novel filled with honesty and recognition. Lives are challenged, relationships frayed and yet glimmers of hope are always present.

I know many readers adore Anne Tyler for her ability to create such authentic characters. This is certainly true in the pages of French Braid. I personally found the story lacking in excitement and was a bit disappointed with the ordinariness, however others might appreciate that sentiment. Life doesn’t necessarily need to be complicated to be compelling. I appreciated how Ms. Tyler incorporated the Coronavirus pandemic into the storyline without that event being sensationalized or too uncomfortable. It was a natural progression in the storyline. I’m sure fans of Anne Tyler will be delighted with this new novel.
This book is available March 22, 2022.

Over 30 years ago I forgot to mail in the monthly card for the Book-of-the-Month club and received the Anne Tyler book "Breathing Lessons" in the mail. It won the Pulitzer Prize, but more importantly, I had just met my favorite author. I was mesmerized by her ability to write about everyday people doing ordinary things and somehow make it a revelation that I could learn from- and often relate to. I pretty much bought every book from Anne Tyler over the years. They made more of a big impression on me when I was much younger and still had a lot of life to live and things to learn. I still enjoy them now, but call them "quiet reads". She has a matter-of-fact way of crafting characters that are believable, and even when behaving badly don't inspire dislike, but just a recognition of, "Okay, so that's the way they are" and accept their faults.

I haven't read one of her books in about ten years, but like a comfortable pair of old slippers experienced the familiar formula that spins Tyler's particular brand of magic. This book follows a married couple of fifty years who have a son, two daughters and grandchildren. It briefly reverts back in time to a singular beach trip when the kids were young, which serves to explains the family dynamic. The main character of matriarch Mercy was pure Anne Tyler. During her 50 year marriage to Robin, she never worked but has a passion for artistic painting. She has a little studio over a neighborhood garage within walking distance of her house which she rents. Now that all the kids are out of the house and she and Robin are empty nesters, Mercy finally employs her plan of basically moving over to living full-time in that studio, without expressly stating that's what she's doing. When Robin's out of the house, she gradually takes short trips over there bringing clothes and other items, just leaving a bit behind in the house. She has business cards made up to drum up future business painting portraits of homes. Mercy has a quirky style of painting where she amplifies a singular item by painting it in minute detail, while the remaining background of the room is left in soft focus. Mercy never really gets much business, but still winds up spending the majority of her residency in this art studio. She seems a bit self-centered and not much of a mother, as suggested in the beach family trip vignette at the beginning of the book. As usual, Tyler conjures up a mix of distinct, vivid characters living out this thing called life. I can see parts of myself in them, which is perhaps why I find comfort and joy reading her books.

Thank you very much to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

This is a multi-generational family story This description of a french braid hair style explains the story: "...hair would still be in ripples... how families work, too. You think you're free of them, but you're never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever."

I’m definitely in the minority with my 2 star rating but this story fell flat for me and I could not connect with any of the characters. DNF at 30%. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review.

Anne Tyler is a treasure! I have read nearly all of her novels, and French Braid, the story of a multi-generational family, is a very good one. Her writing is so good and I recommend this book and all of her books! 5 stars.

“Oh, the lengths this family would go to so as not to spoil the picture of how things were supposed to be!”

FRENCH BRAID is a family saga that spans six decades, but it’s not overdone in any way as some family sagas tend to be. The beautiful writing is sparse; each chapter is written from the perspective of one of the members of the Garrett family, and the entire book comes in at under 250 pages. It’s insightful and funny—an exploration of all of the kindnesses and cruelties of our everyday lives and those with whom we are forever intertwined. This is one of the best books I’ve read this year—I absolutely loved it!

What a wonderful exploration of what it means to belong to a family. For such a short novel it is impressive how Tyler manages to move from one generation to the next to the next and still manages to keep the reader incredibly invested in each character's outcome.

This novel is character driven and hones in on those moments that stand out in memory. Such a collection of wonderful characters! I think my favourite was the mother, Mercy, though. I admired her free spirit but felt such deep sadness for her husband, Robin. That moment when he throws her an anniversary surprise party! So sad!

Overall, I enjoyed this novel It felt comforting and heart-breaking and uplifting and encouraging all in one.

Thank you to NetGalley for proving me with an ARC.

An author that I’ve read in the past and have appreciated her unique families and their stories, and this was no different. This is the Garrett family, a house with two parents and three children, all very different and really living separate lives in the same house. It follows their lives from 1959, and they are very comfortable,appearing happy and content.
But this family really didn’t gel. Their were no arguments that caused an estrangement, and although they got together for the required holiday or birthday, there was something lacking. Toward the end of the book, I realized that they really had nothing in common and actually their lives were very sad. I never considered not finishing the story, but wasn’t drawn in.
Anne Tyler as always developed interesting characters, and the flaws in this family was what kept me reading, to see if they ever grew out of them.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I loved this book, it has been a while since I read an Anne Tyler book and I am so glad that I got this review copy from Knopf Doubleday and NetGalley. This story brings to light so many themes about the connection and power of family relationships, families being like a French braid in that you are woven together and those kinks or connections from the braid don't go away. I love how this theme unfolds through the multi-generational story of the Garretts and how the impact of family ripples over time; the writing is lovely, easy to read but with elegant phrases that I associate with Ms. Tyler.

3 things that I liked (other than I just loved the book!)
1. I love family stories and particularly multigenerational stories. I was somewhat reminded of Jane Smiley's family trilogy (the last hundred years) which I really liked. I value seeing how relationships change, and don't change, how patterns emerge, and how events shape lives and behaviors over time. A good writer fosters the presence of these patterns!
2. I like the time frame covered, a personal thing for me as the book starts in the late 1950s and moves over a time frame that helps me think a bit about my parents' childhood and their relationship. I think the time as a context also adds nicely to the book
3. The very relevant connection into the world right now. I am sure writers struggle with do we write about the pandemic or not... and yet I value books that are capturing this time, our recent history as I find it validates the experience for me, someone is capturing this time and the feelings for future readers. The connection to a family and story already in progress, just as our lives were in progress when this happened, was a great part of the narrative for me.

I recommend this if you liked Smiley's books, are already a fan of Ms. Tyler's and if you liked The Most Fun We Ever Had, another multigenerational book .

This is the story of Mercy and Robin Garrett's marriage - their lives together and apart, their children, and their grandchildren. Mercy is an artist who longs to get back to painting full time and is therefore distracted at home. Her older daughter, Alice, picks up the slack to watch out for younger sister Lily, and little David, their brother.

In one way the marriage is not successful since Mercy wants to take off on her own once the children are out of the house and leave Robin to fend for himself, while she lives alone in her art studio/apartment. However, the children's stories continue as Alice, Lily, and David continue their lives with their marriages, - unconventional ones for Lily and David - and their children. The connections between Mercy and Robin and their offspring remain close, however, like a loosened French braid that keeps its wrinkles and crinkles as a result of being so intertwined.

The characters make this book, as much as the stories of where their lives take them. Highly recommended.

I've pretty much read every Ann Tyler book beginning with The Clock Winder [1972].

This, her latest book, treads on familiar, familial territory. Baltimore, family dysfunction/relationships, quirkiness, cruelties, kindnesses, secrets. From 1959 to the current pandemic. The Garretts: Robin and Mercy--and their three children, and then their families. Although the book advances by decades, it seemed [to me] more rushed towards the last quarter of the book.

I found this book poignant, charming, and delightful. And very real. Masterful depictions of family. An easy read that packed a lot of punch.

Two descriptions I loved:

"...a rickety outside staircase that shivered with every step she took..."
"...Greta slept peacefully, her breathing as soft as flour sifting..."

And the title-- A French braid--referring to a hair style that when undone--"...hair would still be in ripples... how families work, too. You think you're free of them, but you're never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever." A reflection of the Garretts and their generations and stories.

Also loved the cover.

Recommend.

It’s been years since I’ve read an Anne Tyler book, and French Braid made me want to catch up on all that I’ve missed. This is a multigenerational story of an ordinary Baltimore family brought to life through Tyler’s poignant and insightful writing. Each character is flawed but also completely human and relatable; it was impossible as the reader not to feel like a member of the family as we shared all the ups and downs, joys and sorrows of family life over the years together. I couldn’t put this down. Highly recommend!