Ladder of Years
Anne Tyler
Random House, Inc.
<p>Perhaps no one writing fiction today can so clearly evoke middle-age<br>
angst as Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Tyler. As in 12 earlier Tyler<br>
novels, this work peers intimately into a seemingly ordinary family<br>
life. The family here is the Grinsteads, more particularly restless<br>
40-year-old wife and mom Celia Grinstead. Feeling unappreciated and<br>
unnoticed by her husband, a family doctor who took over Celia's father's<br>
 practice, and increasingly unnecessary in the lives of her nearly grown<br>
 children, Celia wanders off during a family beach vacation and starts a<br>
 new life in a small town. She's sad and uncertain about her break with<br>
her previous life but oddly determined. Poignant, warm, and quirky, this<br>
 novel will be on a lot of spring reading lists.</p>