How does dinner at the homesick restaurant end

What problems would have been the same if he had stayed? What would have been different? For instance, if Pearl and Beck had separated during a time when divorce was more common and seemed like a more viable option, would things have turned out differently? Do you think Pearl would have remarried? If so, how would that have affected the children? In some ways, Pearl seems rather oyster-like, with her three children acting as the precious pearl she must protect.

Does she succeed in protecting them, or does she fail? Would the family have been able to survive without him? Does Pearl? Despite his ultra-competitive nature and his tendency to be mean to his brother, Cody can be a remarkably sympathetic character at times.

Now that I've read it again, with a much greater appreciation for her range and craft, I can say that yes, this is indeed her masterpiece. She deals with her common theme — family life — but it's done with a deftness, psychological depth and understanding of human behaviour that is artful, mature and beautifully done.

And on a sentence-by-sentence level, her prose is simply gorgeous. I had forgot how negligible the plot really is. One night salesman Beck Tull walks out on his Baltimore family, leaving his wife Pearl to raise their three children alone.

Pearl, who goes to work at a shop to earn money, doesn't say anything about Beck's departure, thinking that the kids won't notice, but of course they do; his absence, and the secrecy around it, affects all their lives — and their subsequent relationships — irrevocably.

Tyler shifts perspectives with enviable ease. The book consists of 10 chapters, and we see things from Pearl's perspective — both as a dying something woman and as a young woman, wife and mother — then we see things from the vantage point of eldest son Cody, who's handsome and clever but with a cruel streak; daughter Jenny, who marries three times and becomes a pediatrician who's more comfortable dealing with her patients than those closest to her; and Ezra, a calm, placid, clear-eyed kid who wants nothing more than for everyone to get along.

Late in the novel, we even get a chapter from the point of view of one of the Tull siblings' children, and it's a fantastic chapter, full of cautionary stories about other dysfunctional families.

There are a few key episodes in the Tull family history, and we see them refracted from different angles throughout the book. What strikes me as profound upon second reading when of course I'm much older is how wise Tyler is about time and memory. The Tull children remember their mother's angry outbursts and severity — one even compares her to a witch — but from Pearl's perspective she was merely a put-upon single mom trying to raise her kids as best as she could.

The resentments among the siblings run deep and evolve over time, especially between manipulative Cody and the guileless Ezra, who was always his mother's favourite. The only element that didn't work for me on this reading was the adult Ezra's desire to gather all his family together for a meal at the restaurant he owns and runs, called the Homesick Restaurant. They never make it through a single meal without someone storming off. There are a few too many such scenes, and by the third or fourth they become predictable.

But the central metaphor — that we all yearn for something that can never be attained or satisfied — is so powerful and universal that I forgive Tyler. I'm very glad I sat down to this Dinner again; it was delicious. View all 23 comments. Sep 29, Antoinette rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , american-literature. I can't believe this is the first book that I've read by Anne Tyler. I really don't know what took me so long, but I am now totally in awe and humbled by her mastery!

This book destroyed me in the best possible way. Anne Tyler has created a family that I will never forget- the Tull family. Were they a perfect family? Gosh, no- but somehow they stuck together.

It was almost as if what they couldn't get right, they had to keep returning to. Anne Tyler has portrayed each one, with their strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately made me care about all of them, including Cody, who was so easy to hate. This book is about family and the memories we keep about our childhood. Why does one choose to remember only the bad, and the other the good? Many important moments take place at the Homesick Restaurant, Ezra's restaurant.

The scenes that take place there are either hilarious or heartbreaking! This book has catapulted to the top of my best reads ever. I loved, loved, loved it!! The book was perfect, but I was not ready to say goodbye to these characters: Thanks to my friends Julie Grippo and Kara, who strongly recommended I read this author and to start with this book!

View all 37 comments. A story about the most vital, yet most mis-understood and least appreciated enterprise in human affairs: parenting. Does it make a difference what we remember? And what do we do if we have children of our own. Well written. View all 66 comments. Sep 28, Rebecca rated it it was amazing Shelves: linked-short-stories , absolute-favorites , reviewed-for-blog. My overall most memorable fiction read of the year. Its chapters are like perfectly crafted short stories focusing on different members of the Tull family.

After Beck Tull leaves with little warning, Pearl must raise Cody, Ezra and Jenny on her own and struggl My overall most memorable fiction read of the year. After Beck Tull leaves with little warning, Pearl must raise Cody, Ezra and Jenny on her own and struggle to keep her anger in check.

Cody is a vicious prankster who always has to get the better of good-natured Ezra; Jenny longs for love but keeps making bad choices. Despite their flaws, I adored these characters and yearned for them to sit down, even just the once, to an uninterrupted family dinner of comfort food.

View all 12 comments. Shelves: favs-recent , , lit-usa , reviewed , family , dark , realistic-fiction. Now this is great literature! What struck a chord for me was how all three children growing up in the same household could all remember their childhood so differently. I thought it hil Now this is great literature! According to Wiki Anne Tyler considers it her best work. When was he going to absolve her? He was middle-aged. He had no business holding her responsible anymore. View all 4 comments.

Dec 27, Xueting rated it really liked it Shelves: unputdownable. I think any aspiring writer myself included should read this book by Anne Tyler. It doesn't have the best "storyline" if there is one really here, it's not always engaging plot wise because her playing with different points of view left me quite disconnected from the characters when they don't appear after a while or suddenly a big chronological time jump happens.

But it kept me reading because of the amazing, mind-blowing writing! Seriously, this are some real messed up characters and family, I think any aspiring writer myself included should read this book by Anne Tyler. Seriously, this are some real messed up characters and family, and there's an emphasis on REAL too.

Anne Tyler adds very distinct voices and personalities to her characters, I could guess how one of them would feel in reaction to something.

And I truly got either very empathetic or very annoyed by the characters, so in other words I had a significant response to each one of them. From interviews, Anne Tyler said she loves Ezra most and loves him to bits, and I can feel it in how she writes his voice. But I actually felt most distant from Ezra, funnily enough, because I could tell he was meant to be the very lovable guy but I couldn't figure out why, there was no clear and convincing example.

Although Cody was way too insecure and arrogant most of the time, I felt very interested in him. I wanted to know more about Jenny too, sadly Anne Tyler didn't seem to devote a lot of time to her story. Some character at the end spoilers!!! I can see how the craziness of the family drama may put people off, it kinda made me take a break at times too, but then I'll jump back in real quick once I get started on it again!

All in all, I wouldn't think this is a book I love lots or one I'd reread from start to finish again, but I give it 4 stars because I would flip through it again to learn from some of its excellent writing - AMAZING dialogue and narrative voice, I can't stress this enough!!!

So in awe! View 2 comments. Jul 03, Margitte rated it liked it Shelves: family-sagas , fiction , reviewed , relationships , read , american-novel. This is my second encounter with Anne Tyler's books and this time is as good as the first one. Pearl Tull raises her three kids after her husband just pack up and go.

It's in the somewhere and there's not much a fuzz when it happens. Pearl stays loyal to the scroundel but also turns out to be an often miss-understood, mean and abusive mother.

Most of the time it is verbal, but the effect on her children is as damaging as their father's abandonment. How they approached life is evident in the This is my second encounter with Anne Tyler's books and this time is as good as the first one. How they approached life is evident in the end when all the characters in this nuclear family comes together to take leave of the very old Pearl Tull at her funeral service. Despite everything she did, she left good people behind.

How did it happen? The story left me emotionally apathetic, untouched, yet, sad. I did not identify with anyone, but that was not the purpose of the book. The readers is suppose to understand the characters, and it happens quite rightly in this story. Anne Tyler builds a strong tale with strong figures filling in around the family theme, and that speaks to me. I love books about families. Romantic love does not play such an important role. The connection to reality is much more important and believable, and in some readers' s choice of preferences, more acceptable.

So yes, the elements in the book worked well together. A good experience. The Tull family appears to have survived their father walking out on them as children but every family member seems to remember the events of their childhood a bit differently.

Was Pearl a loving mother or an abusive shrew? Or was she just doing the best she could in a difficult situation? What experiences we give emphasis to seem to shape who we become a usa-geography-challenge: MARYLAND Once again, Anne Tyler has written a terrific book about broken families and eccentric, wounded people. What experiences we give emphasis to seem to shape who we become as adults. How amusing, yet a bit sad, that they never could finish a meal together at the Homesick Restaurant!

View all 8 comments. Oct 31, Reese rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorite-gr-finds , favorites. I've got a bad case of Prufrockitis. I'm stuck on the "overwhelming question": What am I really willing to pay attention to? As Tyler's work reminds us, what we pay attention to, not only reveals who we are, but also --to a great extent -- shapes who we become.

And yet, despite its importance, this point is not what I want to focus on. That I keep discarding drafts of reviews is appropriate: discarding is what many of the major figures in Tyler's novel do, and we get to see the long-lasting effects on the discarded.

But as important as the themes of this work are, the book's greatness -- and it IS great literature -- comes from the various carefully drawn and evolving characters that Tyler keeps us caring about -- even when their behavior is despicable.

Give me characters that I care about; and unless your book is a trailer after a tornado tossed it, I'll give your work five stars. Pearl Tull, the cloud-wearing sun around whom the other characters orbit -- as close as Mercury, as far away as Neptune, or somewhere between the two -- has a "favorite expression": "'I wouldn't know you if I saw you on the street'" But I know her and just about everyone whose life she has affected.

I came to this novel with memories of a mother whose dreams for her children were not her children's dreams; a father who kept trying and traveling and failing until he died, leaving one sometimes out-of-control parent to do the job of two; three children whose mother's eyes saw one paper, one rock, and one gold crown; a child who was lied to about the departure of his father; a sweet adult son who worked and still devoted himself to serving his sick mother; a family that could not get through a special occasion without someone's selfishness creating a "crisis" and an abrupt end to the celebration.

Tyler has created beautiful stained-glass windows, artfully pieced-together incidents that reveal complex characters; and if we pay attention, even on a cloudy day, "We'll Understand It All By and By" The author of this masterpiece has prepared a satisfying multi-course supper at the Sickhome Restaurant; and unlike the members of the Tull family, her readers want to stay for the whole meal, even "the dessert wine" View all 11 comments. Sep 13, Bookish Ally rated it really liked it.

This was a feel-good book - and in that respect it truly did it's job. I was coming off a book that was very dark and I needed to read something that offered lighter fare.

Revolving around a family, the story shows how different perspectives can be from person to person, even in the same family unit. Interesting and likable characters although you will have your favorites and those you root for along with a storyline but isn't too predictable this is a great book for summer read, or even a boo This was a feel-good book - and in that respect it truly did it's job.

Interesting and likable characters although you will have your favorites and those you root for along with a storyline but isn't too predictable this is a great book for summer read, or even a book club due to its character study.

View all 3 comments. Jun 27, Jenny rated it liked it Shelves: thechildinlit. At first, I didn't care about any of the children in this book, and by the end, I mostly hated them. This book was dull and disappointing, with an ending that made me furious. But this was also one of those books that, after glaring at it for a few day and letting it soak in, I realized it accomplished it's goal. It evoked something in me, at least, in the end. Though the cover and synopsis might lead you to believe otherwise, this is no beach read.

But the fact that I read it over a year ago an At first, I didn't care about any of the children in this book, and by the end, I mostly hated them.

But the fact that I read it over a year ago and still can't stop talking about it should tell you something. View all 7 comments. Jan 07, Lucie Moulton rated it really liked it Shelves: next-in-line , notable-books-from-others , pop-sugar-reading-challenge. Heartbreakingly hilarious. Storytelling at its best!

Nice to finally meet you Anne. I literally wanted this book to keep going for thousands of pages. View all 5 comments. May 01, Phrynne rated it it was ok. Usually I really enjoy Anne Tyler's books but I was not able to really engage with this one. It is a story of a dysfunctional family viewed in separate chapters by different members of the family.

The book starts well with the mother on her death bed recalling her life and I had great hopes for it at that point.

However as we progress through all the very unlikable members of her family I lost sympathy and then interest. At the end I cannot even remember the names of all the main characters. Not a winner for me. View all 6 comments. A deeply moving story of a mess of a family, where everyone is unhappy in their own way but manage to find a silver lining and turn it into a torch of hope. Every memory is a bliss, every scar is made to treasure, every life must come to an end, and there will be a feast for those who remain to cherish your existence.

Jul 26, Laura rated it really liked it. This is Anne Tyler's best work. There are no lovable characters but there is no need for someone to love. The story is enough. It's a fantastic labyrinth of bitterness. Ezra is a softer-hearted boy who takes pleasure in playing music on his wooden recorder, and takes the role of the family healer through his interest in cooking.

As the children age, they attempt to construct a home and family to replace the one that dissatisfies them as children. Ezra gains a surrogate mother in the owner of a neighborhood restaurant, which he then inherits and transforms into the Homesick Restaurant, a place where food is served to comfort and give the diners what they need most, rather than what they ask for.

When Ezra finds a girl named Ruth whose personality is down-to-earth and shares his love of food, Cody swoops in and seduces her away for himself. He persistently avoids contact with Pearl and his siblings, both because of his continuing jealousy of Ezra and his anger about his abusive childhood. Jenny goes to medical school, and marries three different men, the first of whom is very controlling like her mother.

Her second husband abandons her with an infant daughter, and after an emotional breakdown, she moves back to Baltimore to be a pediatrician. She then marries a man with many children of his own. Ezra never recovers from the loss of Ruth, abandoning the pleasure of making music and sinking himself into the development of his restaurant, which struggles in part because of his radical ideas about how it should be run.

He lives with his mother Pearl until her death, caring for her as she loses her sight. We advance well beyond that truism in ''Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. Outsiders stumble on them sometimes, and behave in their innocence as though the lessons couldn't be missed - but oh yes they can. There's a nearly throwaway moment late in this book that exquisitely underlines the point.

A child sees a grim-faced photograph of Jenny Tull at age 13 and insists to her that it's like a ''concentration camp person, a victim,'' and that it can't be her. Look at it! It's somebody else,'' he told Jenny. It's not you. If we pause too long in contemplation of a former self, studying some lesson or other, we run the risk of forgetting how to take our present selves for granted.

And down that road there's a risk of starting to treat life as a mystery instead of the way smart people treat it - as a set of done and undone errands. No way, says Jenny, clearly one of us. WILL so much talk of wisdom hide the truth that ''Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant'' is, from start to finish, superb entertainment?

I hope not. Much as I've admired Mrs. Tyler's earlier books, I've found flaws in a few - something excessively static in the situation developed in ''Morgan's Passing,'' for instance, something arbitrary in the plotting of ''Earthly Possessions.

There are, furthermore, numberless explosions of hilarity, not one of which I discover can be sliced out of its context for quotation - so tightly fashioned is this tale - without giving away, as they say, a narrative climax. There are scenes that strike me as likely to prove unforgettable: Pearl Tull attempting, after years of silence on the matter, to explain to her adamantly inattentive children that their father isn't coming back; Jenny Tull revising and revising, as though aiming at a masterpiece in the mode of the laconic-sublime, a letter accepting a marriage proposal; Cody Tull declaring his suspicion to his wife that his brother is the father of their son; and many more.