Anne Tyler's life in books
In February 2015, Writers & Company host Eleanor Wachtel had the rare opportunity to chat with Pulitzer Prize–winning American novelist Anne Tyler. Tyler has published 20 novels during her five-decade career, including Morgan's Passing (1980), Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982) and Saint Maybe (1991). She is best known, however, for her 1985 classic The Accidental Tourist, which was later adapted into an Oscar-nominated film.
A constant theme in her writing is the exploration of modern American life. On the surface, family and marriage may seem quotidian, but Tyler's stories peel back the layers to reveal the conflicts, dilemmas and even darkness that long-time relationships can bring out in us. You can listen to the full conversation in the media player below.
Below, Tyler describes several books that have influenced her during her life.
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
"I don't know why exactly it hit me so hard, but I remember the first time I read it. For people who don't know, it's about a little house that lives out in the country and wishes and wishes she could live in the bright lights of city life. Gradually, it happens, and the pages show these pictures with more and more building up, and lights get brighter. All of a sudden she's just huddled, this poor little house in amongst skyscrapers and tenements. It's just miserable. And then somebody comes along and says 'Well, that's my great-great-great-great-grandmother's house.' And they move it out the country, and she starts life over again in the country, where it's peaceful.
"As a child, you know how your mother or father is reading to you, and you are looking non-stop at the picture while the reading is going on. You have a lot of time to sink into a picture. Well, in the picture at the end of the book when she's back in the country, everything's the same — it's a wonderful hill with the woods behind. But there's no little fish pond the way there was the first time around. And I don't know — maybe Virginia Lee Burton forgot there'd been one — but I took that very seriously. I thought, 'You can try really hard to get something back but it'll never be exactly the same.' So you shouldn't wish for things to change, while you're going through them."
The Wide Net And Other Stories by Eudora Welty
"There was a line in it that was so like my life in the south. It made me realize that I could write about my life in the south. The line was '[Edna Earle] could sit all day pondering about how the tail of the 'c' got through the loop of the 'l' in the Coca-Cola sign.'"
The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
"In many ways, it's a very unpleasant book. I've actually had people say 'Why did you recommend this to me?!' But it's very much about family."
The work of Mary Lawson
"She's written three novels, each of them just a wonder, and her books usually treat family like somebody beloved but burdensome, which is an interesting slant."
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
"It's actually post-apocalyptic, which is not something I would usually read. It was just a beautiful book, so in spite of what it was, I loved it."
