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Critics' Opinion:
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First Published:
Jul 2018, 304 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2019, 304 pages
Book Reviewed by:
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A delightful novel of one woman's transformative journey, from the best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer.
Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life. In 1967, she is a schoolgirl coping with her mother's sudden disappearance. In 1977, she is a college coed considering a marriage proposal. In 1997, she is a young widow trying to piece her life back together. And in 2017, she yearns to be a grandmother but isn't sure she ever will be. Then, one day, Willa receives a startling phone call from a stranger. Without fully understanding why, she flies across the country to Baltimore to look after a young woman she's never met, her nine-year-old daughter, and their dog, Airplane. This impulsive decision will lead Willa into uncharted territory--surrounded by eccentric neighbors who treat each other like family, she finds solace and fulfillment in unexpected places. A bewitching novel of hope, self-discovery, and second chances, Clock Dance gives us Anne Tyler at the height of her powers.
2017
The phone call came on a Tuesday afternoon in mid-July. Willa happened to be sorting her headbands. She had laid them out across the bed in clumps of different colors, and now she was pressing them flat with her fingers and aligning them in the compartments of a fabric-covered storage box she'd bought especially for the purpose. Then all at once, ring!
She crossed to the phone and checked the caller ID: a Baltimore area code. Sean had a Baltimore area code. This wasn't Sean's number, though, so of course a little claw of anxiety clutched her chest. She lifted the receiver and said, "Hello?"
"Mrs. MacIntyre?" a woman asked.
Willa had not been Mrs. MacIntyre in over a decade, but she said, "Yes?"
"You don't know me," the woman said. (Not a reassuring beginning.) She had a flat-toned, carrying voice—an overweight voice, Willa thought—and a Baltimore accent that turned "know me" into "Naomi," very nearly. "My name is Callie Montgomery," she said. "I'...
Clock Dance was another winner in a very long list of Anne Tyler novels that I have read. She is right up there at the top of the list of my favorite authors (Jean N). I truly loved this delightful tale and all of the quirky characters in Baltimore (Susan C). A wonderful selection for a book club (Lori H)...continued
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse First Impression Reviewers).
Clock Dance, like many of Anne Tyler's novels, takes place in Baltimore, Maryland. The largest city in the state, Baltimore is home to over 600,000 residents, or 2.8 million people including the entire metro area. Located just 40 miles northeast of Washington, D.C. on the Patapsco River close to where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay, it is the second-largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic region in terms of cargo transported (with Virginia's Port of Norfolk being the largest). The bay opens to the ocean via the 14-mile Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and is a major automobile-shipping hub. It is one of the most naturally-protected harbors in the world; the Delmarva Peninsula shields it from most hurricanes, and the Appalachian Mountains to ...
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