French Braid

A Novel

By: Anne Tyler

Narrated by: Kimberly Farr

Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Spool of Blue Thread—a funny, joyful, brilliantly perceptive journey deep into one Baltimore family’s foibles, from a boyfriend with a red Chevy in the 1950s up to a longed-for reunion with a grandchild.

“A quietly subversive novel, tackling fundamental assumptions about womanhood, motherhood and female aging.”—The New York Times Book Review

The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever leave home, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family's orbit, for reasons none of them understand. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts' influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation.

Full of heartbreak and hilarity, French Braid is classic Anne Tyler: a stirring, uncannily insightful novel of tremendous warmth and humor that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives, the impossibility of breaking free from those who love us, and how close—yet how unknowable—every family is to itself.

©2022 Anne Tyler (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE

Named Best Book of the Year by Oprah Daily • NPR • The Times

“French Braid is a moving meditation on the passage of time . . . Five decades into her career, one gets the sense that Tyler is no longer quite so interested in the details. Instead, French Braid offers something subtler and finer, the long view on family . . . For all its charm, French Braid is a quietly subversive novel, tackling fundamental assumptions about womanhood, motherhood and female aging.”—Jennifer Haigh, New York Times Book Review (cover)

“Brilliant . . . Captivating . . . The rich melody of French Braid offers the comfort of a beloved hymn . . . In novel after novel, Tyler catches the mingled strains of affection and exasperation that tie a family together, the love that persists somewhere between laughing and singing.”—Ron Charles, Washington Post

“If Anne Tyler isn’t the best writer in the world, who is?”—BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour

Great Family

Wonderful , classic Anne Tyler. Gives us a a story of generations of a family, good the bad and the ugly ! Thorough enjoyed listening to it !

Was hoping for more.

I felt like the story didn’t go anywhere. Wasn’t a fan of the narrators voice.

Good story!

I wished that Mercy and Robin had been able to communicate better about their split. I felt like the story ended when Mercy died. Overall, I enjoyed it.

Family

This is a book about families, truths, and nostalgia. it is like individual studies of each family member and how they relate to each other, twisted together like a braid.

Anne Tyler is hit or miss for me.

This one, I loved. I'm so glad that I took the chance. The narrator is gifted. It was easy to tell the characters apart.

A taste of everyday family life

I am a huge Anne Taylor fan and enjoyed The French Braid. I particularly liked the family interactions during the story and the humor by the author. I strongly identified with most of the characters, and the telling of the 50th anniversary party.
The narration was spot on!

Family life

Such a moving story of a family with all its foibles. Inter generational love and loss.

Not my favorite Anne Tyler

As a native Baltimorean I am a fan of Tyler’s books. This one, however, was kind of meh for me. The Garrett family was not really likeable or worth caring about. It seemed implausible that the source of their distance and lack of familial bonds was a mystery to each of them - none of these family members seemed to even know each other much less like each other. The opening segue of one cousin sort of recognizing another cousin at a train station struck me as somehow both too obvious and unresolved at the end of the book. I did listen all the way through, hoping for something. I just don’t think it was her best work.

Thanks

For another beautifully written book Anne Tyler never disappoints. Another family story that is quirky and sad, but real.

Initially, not a fan…

I didn’t care for the narrator nor the characters until about midway through the book, but they grew on me by the end. Still, not sure I can recommend it.