Rating: 
Summary: Patchwork is more like Patched Work
Review: While this is not the worst novel of Anne Tyler ("Tin Can Tree"), it is certainly not among her best, or even the majority of good ones. It was written not long after her husband's death, and I believe that her grief shows through in this novel, blotting out the strength of the novel's imaginary world -- always a mistake for a writer. The male character is strangely feminine, not passive but almost a woman in a man-suit, making him seem unbelievable. I never felt attached to the Gaitlins or Sophia, as I loved the characters of Tyler's other novels, including her latest, well-written and memorable novel, "Back When We Were Grownups." Read it if you must, but please do not believe that this is the height of Tyler's capability. She has done and does much, much better.
Rating: 
Summary: Good characters
Review: This is my first Anne Tyler book and I loved it. I was completely taken in by its characters. Barnaby is a man who you come to understand and feel sympathy for even though he is "loser". This is how he is described in the jacket of the book. Definitely, an overachiever he is not, however, he cares for old people and believes in angels. How bad is that. Read this book if you like to feel involved in the lives of characters.
Rating:
Summary: Tyler-ized!
Review: If you like Anne Tyler's work, you will like this one too. She is an author that you either like her quirky characters or you don't -- I like them! I still think that "Ladder of Years" is my favorite.
Rating: 
Summary: On the autumn of life
Review: In the literary world of writers, it's not often the case that one of them devotes all their efforts in that arena to paint a picture of one city, the beloved place - not the city which one is born into, but the city, which one consciously chooses for a lifetime. European cities are so charming, bursting in seams with history, that they can boast of numerous bards, artists, writers, who saw no other inspiration in the world but their city, who tried to express that cozy, familiar feeling towards the inanimate shared by so many people. Needless to say, it's not just the building, streets, or particular location that constitutes the city, but its history and its past and current inhabitants, mostly, who in turn are attracted to the city to have no wish to live anywhere else whatsoever. And hence a self-sustaining equilibrium is evident. Anne Tyler is a writer of Baltimore, in an American state of Maryland. All of her novels bar one are set in this Eastern-American industrial city. Thus far I have read four books by this novelist, and each and every time I just smile, seeing the town in my mind's eye. What's this town, according to Anne? With indeed rare exceptions, the city shares an atmosphere with the smallest villages anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. You can't help but notice that everyone knows each other, that human relationships mutually influence one another, that it's hard to do anything without your neighbors knowing about it right away. For Anne Tyler, it's the human dimension that matters most, she is not interested in abstract ideas per se, rather preferring to inquire on the nature of human relations via very focused and narrow analysis of select families and neighborhoods. It's not to say that her works lack perspective because of the utter nonexistence of abstraction, the grandiloquent approach so commonly devoured in purely masculine fiction. I strongly believe that these two approaches to literature, among others, hybrid combinations - complement one another. To have the broadest possible view, a human being of culture should pursue both, to find the ultimate reader's experience. Anne Tyler's fiction is about the best feminine literature of the XX century. Not because of her gender, but because of her outlook, her attitude, and the system of values eminent in her prose. For me, reading all of her books has been a traveling adventure, where one by one I visited the Venusian galaxies, where everything is perceived differently, understood differently, and where I had a unique opportunity to absorb the feminine, to gain an invaluable insight into the metaphysics of the femme. Such is also "A Patchwork Planet", one of the recent novels by this gifted author. Truth be told, it really does not matter at all whether you read this author's novel written in the seventies, or two decades later, simply because time stopped in Baltimore - or, rather - in Baltimore of Anne Tyler, all important events of life run according to the one and only Baltimore time, with the rest of the world forgotten. This time, Anne offers us a valid analysis of redemption, and the ways the neighborhoods deal with the ones who need it. Anyone who lived in a small town, or in a close-knit neighborhood, will immediately recognize the reputation problem. Once you have a momentary lapse of reason, or do a nasty deed a few times in a row, and get caught, well then, you are in for a long-term trouble of mistrust, for even years of good behavior will not erase the memories of neighbors, co-workers, colleagues and members of the extended small-town family. If there is a new problem of similar nature, hey - you're the first one to be suspected! And so the storyline develops, interwoven with the more profound analysis - or, in light of what I have said above - per exemplum portrayal of the autumn of life, the often grim and miserable fate of the elderly, who are forgotten by their own families, living in solitude, in a prison of their memories, cast to the shorelands of the scarce generosity of their equally lonely neighbors, whose number is smaller and smaller every year, or left to the mercy of commercial companies. It's such a sad book, and I wish those of the younger generations who live in denial, who remove their elderly from their memories, remembering only when they have to, pitifully rationing their cowardly artificially expressed and empty love every blue moon, and even that not being taken for granted. In Anne Tyler's Baltimore, a miracle happens. A small company is instituted, when one day a middle-aged lady realizes that an enormous number of people are the castaways of the modern civilization. Although primarily operating as any other business out there, this small Rent-a-Back company is the only family for the abandoned, for the cranky, for the sweet, for the unhappy, for the despairing, for the senile, for the grandmotherly with no grandchildren to share love with. It's a beautiful book, "A Patchwork Planet" is, and thank you again, Anne, for this invaluable gift.
Rating:
Summary: Divine entertainment; touching, loveable....
Review: Anne Tyler is treasure. Wish she'd write a sequel about
a certain husband-and-wife team who inherit a helping service for the elderly. I think Sophia WAS Barnaby's angel...she was a kind of "touchstone" - he said she made him "completely happy"
at one point. She was kind of an "omen" for better - or perhaps more appropriate - things to come. She renewed his self-esteem. But the ending was perfect. Loved every single moment of this book. Thanks, Anne.
Rating:
Summary: touching book
Review: What is it about Barnaby Gaitlin? He's almost 30 (oh, that dreaded birthday!), lives in a run-down basement, is divorced, with a young daughter who he seldom sees, works at a menial job & generally struggles to survive. This at least is the description of Barnaby's life, if you look at it from a detached, criticizing point of view. He's the ultimate "loser" in a society that measures people through their wealth, beauty, image. Barnaby comes from a rich family, but is a former juvenile delinquent. He's not particulary handsome & he couldn't care less about his image. Still, in a world that would measure people in different ways, he would be considered a wonderful man: through his work he helps those most in need (elderly clients in the company "Rent-a-back") & is a kind, thoughtful, gentle man, but hopelessly insecure & maybe misdirected. Along comes Sophia, a school-marmish sort of woman, who, as is mentioned in the book, "each night scrubs her face, brushes her teeth & climbs- alone- into her four-poster-bed". Barnaby thinks Sophia is his guardian-angel (a tradition in his family) & forms a relationship with her, striving to be as good as she is. What he doesn't realise, until the end, is that Sophia's goodness is only skin-deep, while his own character & potential is more truthful & honest by far. What stays with me after closing the book is first, the whole theme of goodness & the ability to give to others, which is explored beautifully, & second, Anne Tyler's thoughts about old-age & elderly people...very chilling, very true. Those chapters broke my heart but I thought they were true to life.
Rating:
Summary: My First Anne Tyler
Review: Barnaby Gaitlin is the misfit in his family. Money is not important to him, fancy job titles, high society life styles..none of these interests him. Barnaby prefers to work for minimal wage helping folks that really are in need, living on the edge of poverty, never taking full responsiblity for others in his life. Everyone in the Gaitlin family has had an Angel, except Barnaby of course. When Sophia happens into his life, Barnaby is convinced she is that angel and sets out to change his life. Patchwork is written with humour and sensitivity. I look forward to reading many more of Anne Tyler's books.
Rating: 
Summary: Just not a Tyler fan
Review: Barnaby Gaitlin is 30 and is having trouble breaking out of the very tiny and clearly-marked box into which his family (with a bit of help from Barney himself) has placed him - lazy, unmotivated, irresponsible, and an overall unworthy person. He's half-heartedly waiting for his angel, a tradition in the Gaitlin Family, to swoop into his life and make everything perfect. He makes a semi-likeable main character, and it's obvious that Tyler feels warmly towards him. Otherwise, the characterization was a bit lacking, and the book's back-up characters seemed to exist only to be back-ups, rather than full characters in their own right. The exceptions, and definite high points of this read to me, were the seniors that Barnaby helped out during his job with Rent-A-Back. Tyler's descriptions succeeded in bringing them alive and making them real, even moreso than Barney, perhaps. This was my second attempt at an Anne Tyler book (first was "Ladder of Years), and I don't think I'll be trying again very soon.
Rating:
Summary: Superb character development, as always
Review: Once again, Anne Tyler shines as an author. Her mastery of character development is magnificent and quite enviable to her fellow writers. This novel is a bit different from her others, focusing on the life of an unusual man, Barnaby, and his fetish with theiving trivial mementoes of others' lives. With a devient past, Barnaby struggles with disapproving parents and low-expectations. He works a make-shift job and thinks little of it until he begins to realize how very important his small contribution really is. Tyler does an extraordinary job, her characters and their attributes seem to stand upon the page. While not as utterly flawless as THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST, this novel leaves little to be desired.
Rating:
Summary: Not her best
Review: I am always excited when a new Anne Tyler comes out but this is the first one that disappointed me. The story lags and the ending doesn't tie anything up...it just ends. I loved Ladder of Years and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and many others. I'm glad this wasn't my first Tyler book, I might not have read the rest!
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