Anne Tyler never disappoints. Her keen insights into human nature continue to astonish, delight, entertain, and move me. French Braid is the latest in a long line of Tyler novels I have loved.

Anne Tyler never disappoints. Her ability to write characters that are real and engaging is such a skill that few can do. This is such a wonderful example of her fine work.

For a 256-page book, this one felt much longer. It took me a month to get through and when I put it down I was never drawn to pick it back up.

The story started off strongly with two characters who discover their families of origin were very, very different. One was closed, while the other was open, which was bound to create difficulties in their relationship. But then their story is dropped and we go back to 1959. When the story switched to Mercy, I lost interest. I didn't care for her character, and when she did a heinous thing involving a cat, I cared even less what happened to her. (She didn’t kill the cat or physically abuse him, but it was heartless. If you want details before picking up the book, PM me.)

Not much happens and the story meanders along following a family through the generations, but for me, it was too slow, with no story arc to keep it interesting. No one is a villain, but no one is particularly likable either. A line in the book says that families show little kindnesses toward each other and also little cruelties. Which is true, but I don’t want to read a book about it. I could write a book about my own family that would be more interesting. At least I have a few villains to spice up the story!

Near the end of the book a character muses about French braids: “…that’s how families work, too. You think you’re free of them, but you’re never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever.”
It's a rather silly analogy that I don't think a man would ever make. Or a woman.

I’m a huge Anne Tyler fan. She usually writes with an astute understanding of human nature and can write about the ordinary in an extraordinary way. But this one didn’t touch me, as her earlier books did. Many of my friends here loved it, so don’t take my word for it. It's not a bad book, it simply wasn’t for me.

Ann Tyler told us a few years ago that she was quitting after "A Spool of Blue Thread." Thank God, she lied. "French Braid" is the fourth book since her threat, and we are back on familiar ground observing the lives of a middle class Baltimore family. Tyler's genius familiar ground proves to us, over and over, that there is no such thing as a typical American family. To grossly paraphrase Tolstoy, we are all different in our own ways, and Tyler proves it to us again and again with her cool observations of our lives.

We first meet Robin & Mercy on vacation in 1959 with their 3 children in a typical cabin at a wooded lake resort. As usual, Tyler only sketches in each character to give the reader the chance to fill in the blanks as we observe what seem to be boringly typical interactions between husband-wife, siblings and even with some outsiders. It is in these small interactions that the kernels of the future are planted. One of the author’s gifts to lead us to sift through the minutia of lives and note a single action that can weigh on a child for decades, ultimately forming his reactions to others. She sharply observes that even the smallest events can reverberate through the lives of a family and shape their relationships.

The novel has an epic scope for a family saga. Covering 70 years, it is divided into sections from the point of view of one family member, each spanning about 10 years. Marriage is a long-haul commitment, no matter how dysfunctional the marriage or family is, because it still functions. Childhood lessons, good or bad, return to add their force to the family's tale.

The cover art of a braided rug tucks easily into the title of "French Braid." A family is not like a regularly braid where the hair is divided into equal parts at the beginning, but where the hair is divided into small parts at first. Then, with each twist of the small pieces, more hair from the whole is added until the entirety is wound together into a tight or loose finished braid. I loved all her hints throughout including this clever title.

"That’s how families work…You think you’re free of them, but you’re never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever.” Thank you Netgalley, Knopf and Anne Tyler for this advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

Don't get too attached to Serena who appears in Chapter One. That's the last you see of her until she is briefly mentioned at the end of French Braid. The story centers of her grandparents, Mercy and Robin, and later on, on their three children and several of their grandchildren. But the real heart of the novel is Mercy, a sort of artist. When their nest empties, Mercy surreptitiously moves into her little painter's studio. I say surreptitiously because she never actually tells Robin she has oved out. Her paintings of houses seem unfinished except for one detail that stands out from the rest of it. (No wonder she is not successful, you might conjecture.)

No matter what your experience of your own family is, you will find certain resemblances to people among your own relatives. Often, it seems, the children of one sister are more like those of her sibling, and vice-versa. And traits often skip generations only to appear in future children.

Nothing much really happens, with two exceptions. One is Candle's trip to New York City with her grandmother Mercy to view a gallery opening of Mercy's friend Magda's paintings. In this section, late in the book, Tyler describes those artworks in a way that is reminiscent of one of my favorite jokes, dealing with a painting bought for a million dollars that is all white with a small red dot in the corner. The punchline is in Yiddish. (I'd me happy to share if you ask.)

Nothing much really happens, yet everything happens much the way life does. It goes on and change is gradual until it ends, too soon, and the children and grandchildren cannot identify the people in the photograph album. Memories of childhood come back, though not always accurately.

Then why is this Anne Tyler book worth 4 Stars? Because it is written in her own inimitable way, shining a light on ordinary people who in her fiction are extraordinary.
NetGalley did NOT give me this book as an ARC that I requested. Instead, it was purchased by our library, and I read it from there. In any case, I am reprinting my Goodreads review here.

Wow. Simple. Sad. Beautiful.

What really bonds people together? How does a family fall apart?

I read "The Accidental Tourist" a while back, didn't care for it. But this was fantastic! A simple story about a family that isn't close. Siblings at odds with each other which leads to years of slowly drifting apart. A mother who should never have been a mother, a father who could never ask for what he wanted.

Each little scene builds upon each other and there are heartbreaking moments that brought me to tears. Nothing momentous happens. There are no big moments of drama. Everything is just under the surface, brewing colder and colder.

Story: 4 stars
Character Development: 5 stars
Writing: 5 stars

French Braid is not the first Anne Tyler novel that I have read, but it is the first Tyler novel I did not find at all interesting. French Braid focuses on 3 generations of the Garrett family, a very ordinary American family, living a very ordinary life. There is nothing remarkable about this family, but there is a great deal hidden and never discussed, which I suppose is Tyler's purpose in writing this novel. 70 years of hiding oneself is incredibly sad.

The problem is that even after delving under the layers and learned about this family's foibles, there was little to hold my attention. In general, I enjoy character-driven novels, but in this case French Braid has too little character depth to recommend it. I suspect that Tyler's purpose is to examine an ordinary and quite unremarkable American family, which is perhaps why I found French Braid less compelling. The Garrets are like far too many ordinary everyday families living lives hidden from one another. The usual escape from life that readers desire is not present in this novel. French Braid is the life we all want to escape.

I do appreciate the author and publisher making this ARC available for me to read in exchange for my honest review. And I always appreciate how NetGalley provides such a large number of books from which to choose. Sadly, Amazon is rejecting any review that mentions that the book was an ARC or that it arrived via NetGalley. I am now deleting that detail when posting my reviews.

Anne Tyler’s new novel follows the lives of The Garretts, a relatively unremarkable Baltimore family, through three generations. While I enjoyed the simplicity of Tyler’s writing, and I was excited to read, I cannot say that I enjoyed it or found it very profound. I did appreciate that the story was mostly trauma-free! As this is the first Anne Tyler book I’ve read, I’m a bit disappointed.

Thanks to Net Galley and Knopf for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A deep character-driven story of family. I had hoped for some more in the end, but the entire story leading up was wonderful.

I was disappointed with this Novel. When I finished it I had to start it over to better understand the characters and their relationships.
There were some wonderful Ann Tyler sentences but on the whole I find it hard to recommend it

Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. I really enjoyed this book and will be recommending it to readers. Anne Tyler's story of a family over generations is an great book. It has such well developed characters throughout the boo. Classic Tyler novel - a family rooted in Baltimore with a great plot.

This was an enjoyable read about a somewhat dysfunctional family that somehow manages to function just fine. It begins with a chance encounter of two cousins who barely know each other and then we flash back to the 1950s and a family vacation of the central characters. Throughout the book there are reveals of things each family member keeps secret, yet isn't actually a secret. My only issue was keeping all the family members through the multi-generations straight. Subtle humor and touching moments throughout.

I haven't read an Anne Tyler book in a really long time, but I have read many over the years. I always enjoy her descriptive style that allows events to unfold as they are, with no "decoration" or commentary. This novel is much the same. No driving plot here, but many final detailed and nuanced characters that we get to watch as they evolve over a number of decades. No judgements, just perfectly flawed characters---just like humans. This isn't my favorite Anne Tyler, but it is very satisfying (and a bit sad.---much like life). Recommended if you appreciate an author's ability to create characters you can imagine knowing and easily connect with at a leisurely pace. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a igital ARC for review.

Anne Tyler never disappoints! I really enjoyed this story and felt connected to the characters. The Garrett’s were each their own person and interesting. I enjoyed the way Tyler moved through the years and was glad to finally confirm my suspicions about David.

Anne Tyler has another novel of ordinary family relationships. Actually a diverse group of charaters that extend multi generationally. The story covers the turning points in the characters lives over decades right up to the Covid outbreak.
You will want to know what happens in the lives of the siblings, Alice and Lily, and David.
Read and enjoy these people--their parents, children, and grandchildren.

In her latest book, Anne Tyler again tells a story of family—the good, the bad and the ugly. Tyler consistently delivers well written books. In this one, she examines the hurts that family members inflict upon each other and the long-term effects of those hurts, whether real or imagined.
I never felt an affinity for any of the characters in this book. I know that many adore Tyler’s books, but this one was just OK to me.
My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for an advanced copy of this book.

I adored Tyler's latest book. I've read only one other of hers, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, which I found incredibly absorbing despite some of the outdated content. French Braid is another that covers a family's saga over time. Each chapter is told from a third person perspective following a different character, revealing their thoughts and intentions throughout the course of the chapter. I found this storytelling style lent itself well to the story, and kept me engaged in the storyline. The overarching plot continued to move forward in a linear style, although each of the characters spent time looking back on events that had previously been covered and provided their own insight into how things happened. What a beautiful and robust way of reminding readers of how differently people view situations based on their own unique experiences and traumas.

Anne Tyler knows families: the ebb and flow of relationships across decades, the strengths and foibles of individual members, and the ties connecting them even if they don’t particularly like each other. The chance meeting of two cousins in the Philadelphia train station in 2010 invigorates this smoothly paced, emotionally piercing saga of a Baltimore family over three generations. “Even when the Garretts did get together, it never seemed to take, so to speak,” reflects one granddaughter early on, wondering “what makes a family not work.”

The year 1959 marks the first group vacation for parents Robin and Mercy Garrett and their three children, who spend a week together at a cabin on Deep Creek Lake. Reliable Alice, just seventeen, isn’t thrilled about the trip. Lily, two years younger, has a summer romance with a college guy, which her parents are surprisingly blasé about; and David is a sharp-eyed seven-year-old. Mercy’s attitude toward her children and husband is one of distant fondness. After her children grow up and pursue their own lives, she relocates full-time into her art studio, acknowledging only to herself (not to her adoring husband) that the move isn’t temporary.

The Garretts’ actions range from quirkily amusing (Alice’s talent for cooking meals out of random odds and ends) to scandalous to sad and upsetting. Mercy is ironically named, since readers—animal lovers especially—may feel that she deserves very little of it, given her self-centeredness. It’s also fair to recognize that she fulfills the era’s expectations of marriage and motherhood despite being cut out for neither role. In her wryly observant way, Tyler grants Greta, the older, foreign-born divorcee David marries, to his family’s befuddlement, the wisdom to see her in-laws’ hopes and fears more clearly than anyone. This story shines with grace and compassion as it reflects oft-unspoken truths about human nature.

I was introduced to Anne Tyler with A Spool of Blue Thread, which I loved. French Braid is another story of a family, and it was very sweet. A little too sweet, for my taste. I loved some of the characters, but to me it kind of just drifted on and then ended and didn’t quite land anywhere. But… sweet. And thanks to Net Galley for the ARC.

This was just okay. Honestly, it felt kind of anticlimactic, left me hanging, and felt like the reading of a diary. I could see readers of Sally Rooneys “Beautiful World Where Are You” enjoying this. I didn’t love it, but it was okay.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review