The Accidental Tourist

by Anne Tyler
(1985 | 329 p)

Macon Leary is a sad sack of a guy who is obsessed with efficiency and finding the path of least resistance. Up to this point he's lived his life with a minimum of effort, including his 20 years of marriage and his career as a reluctant travel writer. Tragedy shakes Macon to his core when his 14-year-old son is murdered. Macon's wife, unable to cope with both her grief and her husband's seemingly cold demeanor, leaves the marriage. Macon begins to fall apart. Then he meets Muriel, a disheveled, youthful dog trainer. Her exuberance for life is equal parts exhausting and infectious for Macon, his frozen heart begins to thaw.

The story was very predictable but still enjoyable. The strength in the story was in the characters, each an extreme of one personality type or another. Considering that the tragic murder of Macon's son overshadows the whole story I felt that the novel's tone as a romantic comedy was a bit off putting. The characters are so unrealistic as to be funny, which (to me) felt strange next to a very real tragedy like the murder of a child. The novel carried me along, though, despite that mismatched quality, right up to the charming and predictable end.