Back When We Were Grownups: Summary and book reviews of Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler, plus links to an excerpt from Back When We Were Grownups and a biography of Anne Tyler.

"Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered that she had turned into the wrong person." So Anne Tyler opens this irresistible new novel. 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 divorcé 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 unawares 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. As always with Anne Tyler’s novels, once we enter her world it is hard to leave. But in Back When We Were Grownups she so sharpens our perceptions and awakens so many untapped feelings that we come away not only refreshed and delighted, but also infinitely wiser.

Media Reviews

Kirkus Reviews Packed with life in all its humdrum complexity--and funny, so funny, the kind that compels reading aloud. A masterful effort from one of our very best.   Book - The Magazine for the Reading Life -- Beth Kephart This is storytelling at its best and most breathtaking. Tyler, an acknowledged master of the form, is living up to her well-earned reputation.   Publishers Weekly The ease of her storytelling here is breathtaking, but almost unnoticeable because, rather like Rebecca, Tyler never calls attention to what she does.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated of 5 by Jenna
Interesting
I enjoyed the book. I read it for a school project, and I am happy that I chose this book. Tyler made the story come to life. I felt that I was right there standing next to her throughout the whole book. I coudn't wait to find out what would...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Anonymous
The first chapter I thought I would never remember who everyone was, there were too many characters all thrown in at once - but after that I like the book but did hope for a happy ending.

Rated of 5 by Once upon a time
This is a wonderful book!!! Like many of Anne Tylers books it is not a piece of literature that requires a happy ending. Instead it is very real and very true to what would be considered "the real world". Truelly beautiful writing. I...   Read More

Rated of 5 by yota
i got the impression that not even once did the book dive in depth in the heroine's phychosynthesis; it rather brought into light the frustration of a middle-aged woman about to reconsider her life without giving the reader the chance either to...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Kat
I just recently became aware of Anne Tyler as an author because of a year long study thesis on her. I've been rigorously reading her books and I must say that this book is my favorite. It truly depicts the talents of Tyler and the depths of the...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Karmina
I personally thought that this book was terrific. It taught me the true value of families, freinds, and everyone around me. It had a great meaning to it and i hope some of you guys get to read it soon. you'll enjoy it!

...2 More Reader Reviews

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Books with similar themes

• Novels
  
• USA 
  
• Contemporary 
  
• Parenting & Families (fiction & non-fiction)
  
• Mid-Life Onwards