French Braid by Anne Tyler

 

This is a novel about the Garrett family in the 1950's until the present.  Mercy is an artist, married to Robin who lives for tools and projects.  They have three children.  Alice is the oldest and does a lot of the cooking and child care when Mercy is caught up in a project.  Lily is the middle child, cute and always ready to meet another guy.  David is the youngest by quite a bit.  

When the children grow up and leave home, so does Mercy.  She never comes out and tells Robin she is leaving but rents a garage apartment to use as a studio and starts sleeping there more and more.  Alice has married a man as steady as she is.  Lily had a quick first marriage and then met and married a man who the family likes.  David doesn't marry for years and when he does it is to a woman a decade older than him with a child.  

Anne Tyler is known for her writing about family relationships.  Most of her books are centered around Baltimore where she also lives and this one is part of that tradition.  The Garretts learn how to accept family members that are different than what they think is 'normal' and to support each other regardless of choices.  Tyler's novels have won a Pulitzer Prize and been nominated multiple times for both the Booker and the Women's Prize for Fiction.  She is a natural treasure and readers will enjoy her comforting books.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.