Book Review: "Searching for Caleb" by Anne Tyler

I adore Anne Tyler's writing. I've read her pretty much ever since I was a teenager starting off with her book Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant when I was sixteen. After that, I read books such as The Accidental Tourist and Earthly Possessions. I have returned to her after two years of not reading her works where the last one I read was her newest out at the time (and possibly my favourite out of all of her books) Redhead by the Side of the Road. Her writing is amazing. I tend to differ with people who call her writing 'sentimental' - like The Observer and its 'critic' did. I think that if you cannot understand the softness of the language and its depths, then you come off as fairly underwhelming as a human being. You lack depth and that is on you. As I'm writing this review even, my current book is Anne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread.

I have to admit that when it comes to an Anne Tyler novel this was not quite what I was expecting. There are a lot of turns, some things you don't fully understand the meaning behind, but that's okay - you're not supposed to just yet. It just all comes on to you so fast you hardly have time to actually notice what you have just read. Yes, the main character is married to a fortune teller which also happens to be his cousin (I think). Duncan Peck is an interesting character and he has this taste for change, which probably makes him marry a fortune teller, regardless of whether she is his cousin or not. Anyways, she cannot seem to remember something that happened in the past in a strange act of irony for a fortune teller, known for telling the future.

The wife's name is Justine and Justine has a weird thing about her grandfather - who I think is the character with the best backstory out of all of them. Daniel, the grandfather, once had a brother who walked out of the family life on the cusp of the first world war and didn't look back. He had nothing in his hands but his fiddle and they have never seen each other since. He wants to find his brother and Justine wants to find him too - but for different reasons that I will not reveal here because it will be a bit of a spoiler.

When you think about the book in terms of a family saga then you can really get into it. It's all about the Peck family (which should confirm to you that Duncan is married to his cousin) and even though Duncan is conventionally the main character, I think that the main character is actually Daniel, the grandfather. Some people believe that because of the redemption and independence arc of the story, that means the main character must be Justine - but that is the greatness of it - everyone is right and wrong at the same time.

We go over almost 75 years of family history as we search for missing pieces so that people can finally get closure. I love these kinds of stories, it is so nice to read this in between abject horror novels.

All in all, I think Anne Tyler's writing is always something beautiful. Her softness is not something to be mocked, but instead something to be studied for depth and the ability to create something astounding, moving and emotional without the need for shocking language, over-the-top style or intense amounts of atmosphere and dialogue. She is truly a very talented woman.