Lily pouts all day because she is not with her boyfriend, Jump. Alice, at 17 the eldest child of Robin and Mercy, drives her mother, her father, 15-year-old Lily, and seven-year-old David to the campground of Deep Creek Lake, a half-day’s journey from Baltimore. She suddenly feels uncomfortable with James, realizing she does not fit with families like his.Ĭhapter 2 goes back to the summer of 1959 to describe the first and only vacation the Garrett family ever takes. For Serena, the encounter with Nicholas is a stark reminder of the disaffected nature of her family. James expresses amazement that Serena and her cousin know so little about each other. In their brief conversation, they work out exactly how they are related, then quickly depart for their trains. Serena mentions to James that she thinks she sees her cousin Nicholas, the son of her uncle David, but is not certain.

She reflects that, as a child, she always wanted to be part of a gregarious family. Serena and James are coming from a brief visit with his large, welcoming family. Serena, the younger child of Lily, who is Robin and Mercy’s middle child, waits in the Philadelphia station for the train that will return her and her boyfriend, James, to Baltimore. Two Garrett family members have a chance encounter in March 2010, the chronological setting of Chapter 1. This guide refers to the 2022 Knopf hardcover edition. When spouses join the family and grandchildren are born, these unresolved conflicts result in unexpected solutions as various family members try to pursue their dreams yet find themselves inescapably tangled together. Beneath the storybook veneer of the family, however, the Garretts are disparate people, failing to meet one another’s expectations and never finding the compassionate bond of a happy family. In time, they celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They bring three children into the world-like them, blond, blue-eyed, and smart. Hardworking, ambitious plumber Robin Garrett woos beautiful Mercy, winning the girl and soon inheriting her father’s plumbing-supply business. Once again, Tyler focuses on the frayed interpersonal workings of a middle-class Baltimore family over the course of several generations. In many ways, the narrative is a return to the themes of several of her previous, highly regarded works. Anne Tyler, the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer widely considered one of America’s finest authors, released her novel French Braid in 2022.

French braid tyler