The Accidental Tourist

Anne Tyler

6/28/2001

Macon Leary's wife, Sarah, has left him after 21 years of marriage. Their 12-year-old son had died the year before. He tried to talk her out of the separation, tried to explain this often happened to couples after this sort of trauma. She still moves out. Macon wraps himself in his organized, precise life.

Then Macon meets Muriel Pritchett. She bulldozes her way into his life. Where Macon is efficient, Muriel is scattered. He has a plan for everything. She lets life happen to her. He knows boundaries around his life. She wouldn't know a boundary if she fell on top of it. He is prosaic. She is eccentric. So why does he find himself spending more time with her?

Macon writes travel guides for businessmen who are too busy to sightsee. They are directives on how to travel efficiently without disturbing the flow of life. Muriel trains dogs. She runs errands for neighbors in her downtrodden neighborhood. She buys a broken down car and has it fixed up by the teen-aged boy in the neighborhood. In return, he keeps the car two nights a week and Sundays. She deals her way through life. He plods along.

Macon is the accidental tourist, both as the guide writer and in his own life. He has been on the outside. Muriel helps him learn how to live it. Yet he can't forget Sarah or Ethan. He wants his own life back. Or does he?

This is an intriguing book. It's not one where you sit back at the end grinning because of how wonderful it is and how well everything works out. Macon comes to the best decisions for his life. Yet it is a book that continues to pull at your thoughts. Macon's character is so contradictory and real. This is a book I recommend. It's not light and fluffy, but it is not deep and beyond normal mortal thoughts.

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