Rating: 
Summary: This book should never have been published ...
Review: I had hoped for a great book. Anne Tyler's "Ladder of Years" looked promising. I gullibly believed the numerous optimisitc quotes from "USA Today" and "Newsweek" saying that this book was a "sheer delight." As an English Major finishing up my Senior year -- and required to read this book for one of my last classes -- I was astounded that this book became a "New York Times" bestseller and chosen by "Time" magazine as one of the years ten best books. What is this world coming too? I suppose we're looking for new books to replace the older literary renditions of "the woman's need to make a place of her own" and creating a rebirth in literature for the "tired, worn out and taken-advantage-of woman," such as Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence" and Kate Chopin's "The Awakening." I believe we need to find better literary critics and judges, because this book isn't even remotely close to the quality of the former books. I haven't had the pleasure (or pain) of reading Tyler's previous works, but I have little desire to do so because of the bad taste left in my mouth. I kept wondering if it was just me who thought this book was ridiculous,unrealistic and just plain thoughtless. I was sorely disappointed in this Pulitzer Prize winning author. If you are wanting to read this book, I would HIGHLY recommend that you don't ... it isn't worth your time.
Rating: 
Summary: not as good as her others
Review: I very much enjoyed the characters in this book, as I do in all of Anne Tyler's work, but it lacked something. It was kind of flat and disappointing, especially the end. Had Delia gone to all this trouble for nothing? I almost felt let down, since SAINT MAYBE and THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST were such brilliant masterpieces.
Rating: 
Summary: A GREAT book because you could relate to the characters.
Review: I LOVE nearly all of Ann Tyler's books because of how well readers can relate to the charaters. But this book is definitely one of my favorites. It has such an interesting story line and you keep reading especially because you can't wait to hear the end.
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Summary: Haven't you ever wanted to get away from it all?
Review: Anne Tyler takes the reader on a journey which rarely occurs. But, this is the fun of it. Everyone at one point in his or her life wants to escape, but few ever do it. This is what it would be like. A quick read, however, very meaningful and reflective.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy to read, good story
Review: Very well written, easy to pick up and read. I just wish the ending would have been different.
Rating:
Summary: A mystery...how poor writers get recognition as authors!
Review: Anne Tyler is so much lauded as a wonderful author...well, it just beats me how that has happened. A occasional good turn of a phrase does not make a great author! Ladder of Years...this plot is weak, the characterizations shallow, the ending implausible, the dialogue tedious. I only finished reading it because it was an assignment for our book club. All this business about Tyler writing about a slice of life... it isn't a slice of anybody's life I could imagine. Could Delia really walk back in from her 18-month totally selfish disregard of her family and they would act like she was just returning from a weekend out of town? Only in a novel in which the author is too lazy to do any real writing.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing read!
Review: Since reading Tyler's fabulous SAINT MAYBE, I have started to write her other novels. This is one, while not as brilliant as SAINT MAYBE, is satisfying and quite entertaining. Admittedly the ending leaves much to be desired, but Delia's story is marvelously told, and the characters are all richly drawn out. I just think this is a fabulous book.
Rating: 
Summary: Tyler grit
Review: The ending Anne Tyler gave to "Ladder of Years" is similar to a runaway car crashing to a stop. You don't know what went through the driver's head (Delia) or what she intends to do. Chances are, she doesn't know either. At any rate, the car (Delia's family) got badly banged up and requires extensive work to get it running again. You don't see the surroundings of the crash site, but you can just picture a knocked over signpost or a wrecked storefront (Joel and Noah). The witty Tyler prose is there, but the dingbat heroine is from outer space, and has as much depth as a parking lot puddle. You can do a better job finding lovable qualities in E.T...
Rating:
Summary: Finding your own destiny
Review: The protagonist of Ladder of Years, Delia Grinstead, is not for everyone, as Anne Tyler's books are not for everyone. Ms. Tyler is funny and perceptive, but never makes her characters assume conventional roles and I think this confuses some readers who want clear definitions and pat endings. The answer to "whatever happened to Joel and Noah" is they found their own way. I was surprised that some readers seemed to think it was Delia's responsibility to fill the hole in Joel and Noah's life.I don't know what Delia went on to do after the end of the book, but if she did go back to her husband for good, her chief challenge would be to keep from slipping back into her old invisible role. In her absence, her teenaged kids found they could survive without her, her husband had his own grief/anger process and she got to know her mother-in-law much better than she ever would have by staying in place. And not least of all, of course, she got reacquainted with who she was. Using words like "selfish" to refer to Delia's flight seems unnecessarily cruel, even if technically accurate and smacks a bit of the rhetoric of domestic oppression. How dare a wife and mother of teenagers think she might have a right to a life worth living.
Rating:
Summary: A Compelling Look at Relationships
Review: When I first finished this book, I thought that rather pointless recitation of a about a woman that ties to change her life, and ends up pretty much the same person she was when she abandoned her family. However, upon consideration this is a very superficial, limited view of this novel. The book is about many things: regret over early life choices, children growing to adulthood, complacency in marriage and most of all, and the relationship between fathers and daughters. I found the last the most interesting and compelling presentation of the novel. This book, almost tacitly, explores the relationship of a woman to her father and the grieving process of losing a parent. For example, her husband was the same profession as her father, and took over his business, before his death. The main charter, Dellia, cannot articulate the reason whey she abandoned her family, and among many, one that was proffered, almost tangentially, was because of some unaddressed grief over losing her father. Introducing Nat as a character well into the book, Nat becomes a surrogate father figure. At the end of the book, with her family reunited, and depending upon her to reestablish the familial bonds after a period of alienation, oddly Nat shows up, uninvited, and without a clear purpose. During Nat's visit, he agonized over the way he treated his children, (three daughters, the same as in her family) and his life. At the end of the evening, Delia tucks him into her father's bed (who she would not let anyone use at the beginning of the book), and kissed him on the head, as she did with her Dad. At that time of closure, she also went back to her husband. It was a touching illustration of the complex father-daughter relationship.
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