Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler            Hardback Book: 303 pages               

I loved this book!    I learned about it when reading a magazine that included an interview with Kristen Stewart (of the film series “Twilight” fame).    She mentioned in the article it was her favorite book.   I remembered the title and thought I would check it out.   She was right.   It is a most excellent story.   Near and dear to my heart this story is.   When I read the inside cover to see what the story was about I was hooked.   It is a great telling of the story of the Tull Family.    Dad is a salesman younger than the mother.  Mother is a beauty nearly considered an old maid because she has not accepted any of the many marriage proposals she has received from all of her suitors over the years, till she was swept head over heels by savvy talking, tall handsome Beck Tull, that is.    They have a good life together while it is just the two of them but once the children come, and Beck is on the road all the time, things begin to change.   Beck begins to stay on the road more and more, and his wife Pearl assumes role of both parents though the reader will often question her ethics.    As more distance grows between Beck and Pearl, an animosity grows in her or perhaps was always there just comes to the forefront more and more as time passes.       Little things the kids do begin to grate on her nerves and she lashes out smacking them hard across the face,  screaming at them and threatening to throw them out the window or other bodily harm.   The oldest Cody responds by being belligerent, not doing great in school and running the streets making mischief.   He doesn’t really have friends only the occasional partner in crime.  When Cody was a baby and got really sick once, Pearl got so scared.  She and Cody were home alone, she didn’t know any one (she wasn’t the type to seek out people to become friendly with), Beck was gone and he was her only help as far as she considered it.   She did eventually get Cody’s fever to break and he did get well, but, that close call made her think, what if Cody had died?   Pearl decided then and there, she needed a spare child in case something happened to the first.    She told her husband when he returned from his most recent trip.   “We need to have another child.”   Beck was astonished, “Really?”   He was all for it, as Pearl was never much for romance.  They got on it right away.   Enter child number 2, Ezra.    Where Cody was brash and in your face and fearless, Ezra was meek and mild with a smile that lit up his face that everyone who met him seemed to fall under a spell and always liked and praised him.   This miffed Cody something awful.    Their mother made no secret that Ezra held a special place in her heart.  Cody spent his life doing everything he could to make Ezra’s life horrible, yet, Ezra adored Cody and hero worshipped him.    Some years later along came Jenny who always seemed to fall for the wrong guy.   Her relationships were always flawed though she tried her best.    One day Beck just tells Pearl he is leaving and does so.    Pearl thinks he will return, even though she receives a note from Beck now and then with postmarks from all over the country telling how great he is doing occasionally enclosing a small check to help with expenses for the children.   Pearl doesn’t tell the children right away but just says, “Your father is busy on the road.”    This goes on for quite sometime and while she assumes the children have figured it out, they don’t pay much attention to their father’s absence believing he is working on the road.    There are so many things that happen, the story is so well developed, the characters so real and the situations described with such finesse I had to force myself to put the book down when I had other things I needed to do.   This is such an excellent book, I highly recommend it.     There is so much more I could tell you about this intriguing book, but, I don’t want to give too much away.   I think you will find yourself reacting Charlie Brown’s, “Arggghhhhh!”  out loud a lot while reading this one.   It is gripping.   Well done, Anne Tyler.