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Search - Back When We Were Grownups
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Back When We Were Grownups Author: |
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Book Information
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Other Versions of this Book: Hardcover, Audio Cassette (Unabridged), Audio CD (Unabridged), Hardcover
Book Description:
The woman is Rebecca Davitch, a fifty-three-year-old grandmother. Is she an impostor in her own life? she asks herself. Is it indeed her own life? Or is it someone else's?
On the surface, Beck, as she is known to the Davitch clan, is outgoing, joyous, a natural celebrator. Giving parties is, after all, her vocation -- something she slipped into even before finishing college, when Joe Davitch spotted her at an engagement party in his family's crumbling nineteenth-century Baltimore row house, where giving parties was the family business. What caught his fancy was that she seemed to be having such a wonderful time. Soon this large-spirited older man, a divorce with three little girls, swept her into his orbit, and before she knew it she was embracing his extended family plus a child of their own, and hosting endless parties in the ornate, high-ceilinged rooms of The Open Arms.
Now, some thirty years later, after presiding over a disastrous family picnic, Rebecca is caught un-awares by the question of who she really is. How she answers it -- how she tries to recover her girlhood self, that dignified grownup she had once been -- is the story told in this beguiling, funny, and deeply moving novel.
On the surface, Beck, as she is known to the Davitch clan, is outgoing, joyous, a natural celebrator. Giving parties is, after all, her vocation -- something she slipped into even before finishing college, when Joe Davitch spotted her at an engagement party in his family's crumbling nineteenth-century Baltimore row house, where giving parties was the family business. What caught his fancy was that she seemed to be having such a wonderful time. Soon this large-spirited older man, a divorce with three little girls, swept her into his orbit, and before she knew it she was embracing his extended family plus a child of their own, and hosting endless parties in the ornate, high-ceilinged rooms of The Open Arms.
Now, some thirty years later, after presiding over a disastrous family picnic, Rebecca is caught un-awares by the question of who she really is. How she answers it -- how she tries to recover her girlhood self, that dignified grownup she had once been -- is the story told in this beguiling, funny, and deeply moving novel.
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Top Member Book Reviews
Kelly N. (
9 member(s) found this review helpful.
I love to read, but I couldn't get past the first chapter in this book. The storyline was very contrived, it felt like I was reading something written by a 12 year old girl. And as shallow as this may sound, the main characters ridiculous names (NoNo, Patch, Jeep, Biddy, Min Foo, Poppy? Come ON, is this a children's book?!) were what finally made me say "enough" and return this book to the library. Thank goodness it was only borrowed.
Karen H. (
5 member(s) found this review helpful.
On the New York Times Bestseller list. I enjoyed this book very much. It's about a woman in her 50's coming to terms with the fact that over the years, she has lived more and more of her life for others, and has no life of her own. How she discovers this and how she goes about changing the situation is very well written by Anne Tyler.
4 member(s) found this review helpful.
This is one of Tylers better books. The main character is more fully developed as the book unfolds, and it is hard to find a likeable protagonist that is not young, sexy, exciting. Tyler provides a likeable heroine that is middle aged, not particularly beautiful,over weight and wonders what the road not taken would have been like. I think most of her books are good reads but forgetable. This one is the exception.
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
I really enjoyed this book. It was a little slow moving, but a great character study.
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
Thought provoking book regarding blended families and stepmothering. also about the mother/daughter relationship.
Bridget M. (
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
Very interesting characters and family dynamics. This is a nice easy read - I read it on vacation while riding in the car. I was afraid the author was going to take this in a rote direction, but thankfully she veered from that. An enjoyable book about past choices, the road not taken and self identity.
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
I really like Anne Tyler. For me this book was good, not great. I didn't really connect with most of the characters, and the story line felt uneven to me. That said, Tyler is one of the best American writers going, and her writing is always superb, so it's always a pleasure to read her work.
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Since I live in Baltimore, I enjoyed the visualizing the streets and neighborhoods the author describes.
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Eventhough she seems to have a great life, a Woman nearing post-middle age is doubting the choices she made earlier in life and wonders what life she could have had. Good Read.
S A A. (
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Great characters, interesting plotline. Well written.
Please Rate these Book Reviews
Tonya M. (I just couldn't get into this one - beautiful descriptive writing but too slow for me. I gave up part-way through and didn't ever have the desire to finish! This was my first Anne Tyler book so maybe her slower style just wasn't for me.
JODIE W. (Reading Anne Tyler is like drinking a cup of hot tea on a cold wet day. A good "comfort author"
#1 National bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book.
"Maybe there's something glorious to be said, after all, for companionship, common cause, and sanctuary. And what there is to say, Anne Tyler has been saying for decades, with gravity and grace." - NY Times Book Review
Sue C. (I just love Anne Tyler. This is a good one. Just so well crafted.
I like Anne Tyler so much I bought this copy and then realized I'd already read it.
Antoher great book by Anne Tyler. Rebecca Davitch looks back on her life and imagines the different choices she could have made.
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