Back When We Were Grownups

As always, Anne Tyler delivers an interesting story with wonderful, quirky characters. She shows life as it is lived--full of self-doubt, unintentional side-trips and lots of ups and downs. You leave an Anne Tyler book, though, realizing that ordinary lives can be extraordinary if people live consciously. Don't read it for the plot (though that is great, too)--read it for the characters.

This has been one of my most favorite Audible fictional titles. Who of us hasn't woken up sometime wondering--How did I get here? What am I doing? One decision 20-30-40 years ago from some dumb teenager who didn't have a clue---and here I am. I know some call it mid-life crisis.
This was interesting, thought-provoking, while remaining entertaining and a good read. Perhaps not quite as good as Saint Maybe but a close second.
For those who have started this book keep listening--the old man's comments near the end are worth the whole jouney in themselves!

A non-traditional plot with a complicated family that Tyler somehow made interesting and diverse.

Brown gets nuances in her acting and narration - she puts the irony where it belongs; stands back when she should.

I don't know, but this wouldn't be the title.

Tyler is a master and this book so fresh and unusual - loved it.

This is just a story about a woman having a mid-life crisis. Nothing dramatic ever happens as she works her way through it. Somehow it manages to be entertaining probably because of the colorful charaters.

I wanted badly to be drawn in, but it simply didn't happen. I kept an open mind, and listened even when I began to feel the story was interminable. So, yes, I saw it through to the end, but only because I was hoping for a big realization, or ...something. But despite a twinge of identification with the central character's declaration of having not lived the life she was intended to have lived, I was never engaged, and I could not very much identify with Rebecca . I did not expect an optomistic novel, but I did have expectations of something a bit more insightful, and much less hopeless. I was further put off by the drab characteriztion of all the children and granchildren. None were fully fleshed out, but only provided to the reader as partial justification for Rebecca's discontent.

I couldn't make it through the first chapter. Who wants to listen to someone's inner thoughts about their daily "to do" list? It's bad enough to have your own inner though to-do list... Sorry, Anne Tyler. I was giving you a second try after reading an article that made me think I would really like you as a person. Just not my type of book... and the narrator's voice was so annoying on this book. Like listening to a fussy aunt who is stuck in the 50's, trying to always do what society wants from her, rather than listening to someone's real and interesting inside thoughts.

No

Boredom. Wishing I hadn't used my credit on this book.