French Braid by Anne Tyler

From the Washington Post:

Everything about Anne Tyler’s 24th novel, “French Braid,” is immediately recognizable to her fans. The story offers such a complete checklist of the author’s usual motifs and themes that it could serve as the Guidebook to Anne Tyler in the Wild. The insular Baltimore family, the quirky occupations, the special foods — they all move across these pages as predictably as the phases of the moon.

And I enjoyed every page!  The novel spans several generations and many years and is done in a way that is not difficult to follow. Entire decades are skipped but it does not matter.  It's all about family and how families relate to each other, avoid each other, treat each other, reconnect with one another, and try to deal with the individual relationships and issues they have with each other.  

Reading this reminded me that I have several Anne Tyler books to catch up with!

🌟 The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

Such an interesting and different book, and I really enjoyed it. I chose this for my book club, and it got mixed reviews from my friends. It does not read like a "typical" novel; there is not really a plot line.  Many characters have no name, but there really are only 2 or 3 main characters. Alice, who is in the beginning stages of dementia at the start, her daughter and husband are the only real characters. There is no dialog. There are five sections, all coming from a different first person (mostly plural) voice.  The writing is staccato-like, and for me interesting.  The book deals with different themes, and aging and the way society treats the aging and memory-impaired is pretty brutal.  I can't say it is an uplifting book, but realistic it is. And a kind of scathing indictment of the way elderly are treated in this country.