OPINION:
CLOCK DANCE
By Anne Tyler
Alfred A, Knopf, $26.95, 304 pages
Anne Tyler’s novels always have a put-upon character, whose generosity everyone else takes for granted, or sometimes actually abuses.
In her latest book, “Clock Dance,” that character is Willa Drake. “She tried her best to be a good mother — which to her meant a predictable mother. She had promised herself that her children would never have to worry what sort of mood she was in; they would never peek into her bedroom in the morning to see how their day was going to go. She was the only woman she knew whose prime objective was to be taken for granted.”
She succeeds. Three episodes from her early life show how she came to form this ambition, and how it plays out. The first is set in 1967, when 11-year-old Willa is caring for her little sister, who is distraught because their (unpredictable) mother has taken off. This is not unprecedented so Willa assures the child that their mom will return. But will she? Willa and her father try to carry on as if it was normal for a mother to take the family car and disappear.
Later Willa is a smart university student introducing her boyfriend, Derek, to her parents. When he announces their engagement, her mother argues that at 21 she is too young to marry. Willa herself wants to delay the wedding, but when Derek stands up to her mother she is dazzled.
We see Willa and Derek again, when she is 41. They’re driving to a party and Willa is talking about the problems of their wayward younger son. She makes little headway, either with that topic or with her cautions about Derek’s driving. Clearly Derek’s agenda dominates.
And so mostly does Peter’s. He is Willa’s second husband, a semi-retired lawyer who has taken them to live in Arizona, where he plays golf. Willa doesn’t have a whole lot to do in Arizona so when she gets a call asking her to go to Baltimore to take care of Cheryl, whose mother, Denise, has been shot in the leg, she agrees to go. Willa was called by Denise’s neighbor who assumed she was Cheryl’s grandmother.
In fact, though it’s now 2017 and Willa is 61, she is nobody’s grandmother, though she would have loved grandchildren. Conversely, Cheryl would have liked a grandmother, so they get along wonderfully. Willa also loves Cheryl’s dog, Airplane, and pretty soon is involved in the lives of Denise and her neighbors Sir Joe, Erland the teenager he takes care of and Ben the local doctor. As for her son, formerly Denise’s boyfriend and still living in Baltimore, not so much.
“Clock Dance” is Anne Tyler’s 20th novel. Many have been prize-winners and best-sellers. Her huge audience loves her tales of families and neighborhoods packed with people of varied ages and types, including those patronized as “quirky.” This is treacherous terrain for a writer to explore. Many who venture into it step into bogs of sentimentality or float off into a Never Land peopled by impossibly good or cute characters. That Anne Tyler has won both literary and popular acclaim testifies to her skill at side-stepping these dangers.
One way she does it is by not appearing to be judgmental. People are as they are, and if they are wacko she doesn’t comment on that — at least not immediately. When Willa asks Denise if Cheryl has grandmothers, she learns that one is sick and the other is unknown since Cheryl’s birth was the result of a couple of Amstel Lights too many.
It’s only several chapters later that this is characterized as “Denise’s lackadaisical attitude — her tendency to shrug off events like Amstel Light pregnancies and truncated college careers.” Similarly, Denise’s neighbor says the shooting was “just random,” and Denise explains to Peter “In this town you can’t expect to identify everyone who fires a gun off.”
Eventually, the shooter is revealed and so is the gun owner, who is unlicensed. They’re both nice guys, but sharp-eyed readers will recall Denise’s nurse telling of her about young men shot in the street reaching the emergency room “already telling you what kind of high-tech name-brand wheelchair they have in mind” because they are so familiar with the consequences of gun injuries.
So, for all the kindliness and affection for her characters and her optimism about their ability to muddle their way on, Anne Tyler paints a rough world. People face real problems. In “Clock Dance” they include shortage of money, remoteness from family, loneliness and the angst of aging.
Anne Tyler is a deft and economical writer. She’s observant, humorous and sympathetic enough to steer her characters into the best ending possible for them to have in the circumstances.
• Claire Hopley is a writer and editor in Amherst, Mass.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.