My Goodreads and Amazon review of French Braid by Anne Tyler (Rated 4) – Form Follows Function. French Braid, the title of Anne Tyler’s latest novel, refers to the structure of the book as well as the nature of families. A French braid is constructed by plaiting a handful of tresses and working your way along the scalp, adding others to create one multi-level integrated structure. The more you add, the sturdier the braid, with thicker hairs holding thinner ones in place. Such is the nature of four generations of the Garrett family, their forebears, and those who will follow. They don’t always agree with, understand, or even like, one another, but they are nonetheless interwoven. This theme is perhaps best illustrated in the recurring scenes of children bringing their “intended” spouses home to meet their parents and siblings. Approval is not required but the ritual must be observed. It is in capturing the small details of family life — both intimacies and irritations — that Tyler excels. The Garretts are essentially well meaning, if occasionally clueless, people. In other words, they’re your average American family. Readers will warm to them, some individuals more than others, and not always the ones you initially expect to take a shine to. My only criticism is that it is sometimes hard to keep the cousins straight; some are mere wisps and their nature, like fly-away hairs, don’t add to the braid. As a novelist myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I wish Tyler had given these secondary characters more substance or snipped them out altogether. Wisps aside, French Braid is a small but satisfying novel with deep and enduring truths about the strands that inevitably draw families together.
Plaited people in plaited chapters
Why writers read: “If I could always read I should never feel the want of company.” – Lord Byron
