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Chargement... En suivant les étoiles (1974)par Anne Tyler
1970s (100) Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Jeremy Pauling is an adult male still living with his mother in a Baltimore rowhouse. There are lots of boarders, some older, some younger. His mother lives in the room downstairs. Jeremy is an artist and never leaves the house. Jeremy's mother passes away and a young woman, Mary, moves into the house with her daughter, Darcy. Mary has a tendency to take care of Jeremy, who always seems a little lost in life. They become a couple and have many children. There is really no connection, it seems, between Jeremy and the children or Mary for that matter. It seems that life just happens around Jeremy. The only connection for Jeremy are his art pieces. Sadness. This was a good novel. Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors. She has been writing fiction for over 50 years and I have read every one of her books since "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant"(one of her best). I found this early work of hers(1974) in my box of unread books. As with all Tyler books, the characters were very quirky and are the focus of the story.Tyler's books usually focus more on the characters than on a plot. This book was a hard one for me. Jeremy Pauling is a 38 year old man who suffers from many mental health issues. The key event in the book is the death of his mother with whom he has always lived in her boarding house. The book shows how his life evolves over the next 10 years. He is an artist but because of his mental health issues he is a very difficult character. Eventually he connects with Mary a young boarder(22) with a child who is escaping her marriage. Eventually, they come together and over the course of 10 years have 5 children but are enable to act "normal". You see everything through the eyes of the characters in alternative chapters with shifting time frames. The book was frustrating because Mary and Jeremy would play out an inner turmoil but neither would really communicate honestly with the other. If you enjoy seeing how people with personality issues act and think than you may enjoy this. The writing is excellent and this does show Tyler from her early period. The later Tyler is far superior so unless you have read a lot of Tyler and are a big fan, I would skip this as an introduction to her and start with "Dinner......Homesick Restaurant". aucune critique | ajouter une critique
"Tyler is steadily raising a body of fiction of major dimensions." THE NEW YORK TIMES Thirty-eight-year-old Jeremy Pauling has never left home. He lives on the top floor of a Baltimore row house where he creates collages of little people snipped from wrapping paper. His elderly mother putters in the rooms below, until her death. And it is then that Jeremy is forced to take in Mary Tell and her child as boarders. Mary is unaware of how much courage it takes Jaremy to look her in the eye. For Jeremy, like one of his paper creations, is fragile and easily torn--especially when he's falling in love.... "From the Paperback edition." Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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Jeremy Pauling, the main character of Celestial Navigation, suffers from agoraphobia. He is afraid to leave his house, he trembles and shakes and collapses if he makes it farther than the end of the block. He has lived with his mother all of his life in a home that serves as a boarding house. Her death means changes for Jeremy, and therein lies our story.
He is an artist, and I believe we are meant to think he is special, and this is where Tyler generally excels, but with Jeremy I think she fails. I did not love him. I found him far too self-centered and clueless to the needs or feelings of others.
When his agent, Brian, talks of a boat he has purchased, he says he intends to said her by celestial navigation, and Jeremy is awed. His boarder thinks, “Oh, Jeremy, I wanted to tell him, you too sail by celestial navigation and it is far more celestial than Brian’s.” I knew exactly what Tyler wanted me to think of Jeremy, but, alas, it was not what he came across as through his thoughts or actions.
So, I was disappointed and not cheered up by the quirkiness of this character. I may have exhausted my love for Anne Tyler as I have exhausted her literary canon, but I’m glad to have made her acquaintance and it is with sadness that I say goodbye.
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