Many of the reviews for the hardback of this title suggested that this was Anne Tyler's best novel yet. It is the story of Barnaby Gaitlin, a man who used to have a happy family, but now has an ex-wife, troublesome nine-year-old, an unreliable car, as well as a job doing chores for the elderly. His hopeless charm still attracts the women though... Tyler won the Pulitzer Prize for }Breathing Lessons{, and }The Accidental Tourist{ was made into a major film Barnaby Gailtin has less in life than he once had. His ex-wife Natalie left him and their native Baltimore several years ago, taking their baby daughter Opal with her, and he has acquired an unalterably fixed position as the black sheep of the family in a family where black sheep aren't tolerated.
