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Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A novel of self-discovery and second chances from the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author—Willa Drake has had three opportunities to start her life over: in 1967, as a schoolgirl whose mother has suddenly disappeared; in 1977, when considering a marriage proposal; and in 1997, as a young widow trying to hold her family together. So she is surprised when in 2017 she is given one last chance to change everything, after receiving a startling phone call from a stranger. Without fully understanding why, she flies across the country to Baltimore to help a young woman she's never met. This impulsive decision, maybe the first one she’s consciously made in her life, will lead Willa into uncharted territory—surrounded by eccentric neighbors who treat each other like family, she finds solace and fulfillment in unexpected places. A bewitching novel of hope and transformation, Clock Dance gives us Anne Tyler at the height of her powers. Read more
Publisher : Vintage
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : July 10, 2018
Language : English
File size : 2.5 MB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Hardcover
Tyler’s characters often appear, at first, that they are shallow and lacking in substance. This is a trademark technique of Tyler. In this heartfelt novel, we meet Willa Drake, an eleven-year-old living in Pennsylvania with her dysfunctional family. She was the “good one,” attempting to mollify her abusive mother, solicitous to her younger sister and obedient to her submissive father. We follow her to the next decade where she decides to marry an aggressive college boyfriend, Derek. She wasn’t sure she wanted to marry him; she had education plans; she had smarts and talent. But he stood up to her parents and so, in a titanic act of defiance, she marries, gets pregnant, and doesn’t finish college. All this time, Willa acquiesces to Derek until her life changes in middle age with a road rage accident. Her two sons, Seth and Ian, are quite different from each other. I expected them to dote on kind Willa, a predictable mother, but Tyler surprised me with their disengagement from her. Spontaneity is not one of Willa’s characteristics. Wllla remarries a supercilious attorney, Peter. I’m not sure what Willa was looking for; she did not need to marry for money. The novel becomes a bit bizarre, but not uncommon for Tyler. She receives a confusing phone call from an oddball neighbor of her son Sean’s ex-girlfriend, Denise, asking for Willa to take care of Cheryl, Denise’s daughter, because Denise has been accidentally shot. Willa, with Peter in tow, flies from Arizona to Baltimore. At sixty-one years old, the reader, no doubt, realizes how lonely and desperate Willa has become. The rest of the novel involves a Dickens-like setting with a lower middle-class group of people. Denise is not easy to like. Willa is rather subservient to this group but Cheryl stands out as a bright, sweet, helpful child. She is the only really lovable character in the novel. She seems to be a young Willa, full of plans and intelligence. It is an odd situation, Willa so obliging to everyone, her words are measured. So, what are we seeing? I found Tyler’s main theme through a secondary character, Mrs. Minton, who explained that one had to find out what is there to live for? Willa’s slow evolution in somewhat painful, and I became angry with her timidity and her treatment by others, but that’s the point, isn’t it? We need to carve out what we need and make it work somehow.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2018 by Mr. August
Format: Kindle
I have enjoyed reading Anne Tyler's books for years. She paints quirky figures and makes them believable and lovable; she makes us care about what happens to them. But I realized as I read this book that her gift is in the details she so meticulously writes. For example -- "ordinarily the sight of the guest-room bed, with its multiple rows of giant pillows and fussy, overstuffed cushions slanted against the headboard, made Willa's toes curl in protest as she imagined how her feet would jam against the headboard..." (Tyler). Another of her gifts is stating a truth in a unique way -- "She had felt that way in her own childhood; she'd felt like a watchful, wary adult housed in a little girl's body. And yet nowadays, paradoxically, it often seemed to her that from behind her adult face a child about eleven years old was still gazing out at the world" (Tyler). If you're an Anne Tyler fan, you won't be disappointed. If you're not, check out this book. I'm still not sure about the man with the gun...
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Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2019 by Katie Sweeting - Remnant author
Format: Paperback
I liked the main character of the book, "Willa" as she travels through her life. The problem I have with the story is that it jumps 20 years between events. Surely she was more interesting than this. There is a lot unsaid in the book and I guess that is what bothers me. Many of the characters that seem interesting never get fleshed out and they end being left out in a couple of pages. It's only in the last few pages that Willa seems to come into her own and she becomes the woman she should have been at 20.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2019 by View from the hills
Format: Kindle
Anne Tyler is a master storyteller probing the lives of the people in dysfunctional families. This is the third novel of hers I’ve read, the others being Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and Breathing Lessons. In this novel we follow the life of Willa Drake. We check in on a few days when she was a child in 1967; again ten years later when she is in college; then 1997 when she is married with children. Those are prologues to the main part of the story in 2017. Through some misunderstandings Willa travels from Tucson to Baltimore to take care of the child of her son’s ex-girlfriend – Denise – when Denise is in the hospital. The child is no relation to Willa. It is a beautiful story of Willa’s growth. Because of her childhood experiences, Willa spends much of her life in the background of others. Sometimes Willa felt she’d spent half her life apologizing for some man’s behavior. More than half her life, actually … forever charging ahead while Willa trailed behind picking up the pieces and excusing and explaining. [Loc 2533] Tyler does a great job of showing how her early years made Willa the woman she became. Denise – the woman she is caring for – at one point discusses with Willa why she isn’t more direct in dealing with her son. “I still don’t get why you can’t ask Sean for a ride” “I was hoping he’d think to offer,” Willa said. “But why just hope? Why pussyfoot around? Why do you go at things so slantwise?” She was right. Willa knew it. … [Loc 2639] One of Anne Tyler’s many strengths is her ability to realistically capture thoughts and actions of a character in a moment in time. In the 1977 chapter Willa is having breakfast with her parents and her boyfriend in a way that we – at least I – can relate to. Quietly buttering her biscuit, she felt important, suddenly. She was the sole reason these three people were sitting here. For once she was the absolute center of her world, and she took her own sweet time over the biscuit, keeping her eyes lowered and spreading the butter exactly to the biscuits edges with slow, even strokes that felt languorous and self-indulgent. [Loc 814] Tyler’s characters are well drawn and three dimensional. It is a delight – even if painful at times – to follow Willa through the years.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2018 by HT
Format: Kindle
I have loved Anne Tyler's books for many years. Her stories take ordinary people and make their ordinary lives so interesting. So no matter if one isn't beautiful or rich or talented, they make choices and decisions that affect themselves and others. Her characters are often faced with an unusual situation and the way they deal with it reveals much about their true character. This book begins in 1967 Will a and her best friend in their very small village in Pennsylvania, trying to sell candy to fund a school drive, the prize being lunch with a favorite teacher. They get a case of uncontrollable giggle and can't complete their sale. They decide to try another time and go to their respective homes. At this point we learn more about Willa's parents and her mother's volatile and capricious moods. Her father is quiet and patient, but is no match for her mother's crazy behavior. This naturally has an impact on Will a and her younger sister. The story then finds Willa in 1977 in a Midwest college with a boyfriend who is also a strong personality. This relationship leads to impact ful decisions. Then we find Willa in 1997 where there is a life changing event. Now the author takes us to 2017 and an event and its subsequent choice which reveals much about Willa and her true heart. I enjoy MS Tyler's take on her characters and how they discover their true selves in unordinary circumstances. She remains an author I admire and enjoy.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2021 by blewis
Format: Kindle
Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life. In 1967, she is a schoolgirl coping with her mother’s sudden disappearance. In 1977, she is a college coed considering a marriage proposal. In 1997, she is a young widow trying to piece her life back together. And in 2017, she yearns to be a grandmother but isn’t sure she ever will be. Then, one day, Willa receives a startling phone call from a stranger. Without fully understanding why, she flies across the country to Baltimore to look after a young woman she’s never met, her nine-year-old daughter, and their dog, Airplane. This impulsive decision will lead Willa into uncharted territory–surrounded by eccentric neighbors who treat each other like family, she finds solace and fulfillment in unexpected places. A bewitching novel of hope and transformation, Clock Dance gives us Anne Tyler at the height of her powers. My Thoughts: In our journey through Clock Dance, we leap ahead to those defining moments in Willa’s life, from preteen years to the current time. What we learn about Willa and what she needed is how hopeful she always felt, while being basically unsatisfied. Her first husband, Derek, seemingly hijacked her life and her decisions, and even in his death, he was thinking only of himself as he made some fatal choices. Motherhood was also a time of meeting the needs of others, while ignoring her own. The realization of what she had given up for family and for husbands would later come to awaken her to those unmet needs and how very important they suddenly were to her. Her second husband could have been someone to fill in those blanks in her life, but again, he was someone who met his own needs first. I liked how Willa finally started making choices based on what she wanted and needed. Would she finally start to feel that fulfillment? Would an unexpected trip to Baltimore to help out her son’s ex-girlfriend offer the opportunity to surround herself with a collection of people who would begin to feel like an extended family? Could she learn that just when she thought she had to pick up her same old life, she could visualize a very different kind of life? One with room for the people and activities she longed to enjoy. 5 stars.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2018 by Laurel-Rain Snow
Format: Kindle
I love Anne Tyler’s writing. She makes the characters come alive on the page. It was easy to identify with Willa and her disappointing family. The neighborhood was filled with a cast of characters that were amazing and real. The problem is it just ends. It’s as though the author just got tired of it. I am not a person who has to have neat tidy endings and sometimes imagining what happens next is exciting, but this ending was so unsatisfactory.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2018 by Judith D. Vann
Format: Kindle
Classic Anne Tyler, throughout the novel, til the ending. It just kind of...stopped. It was obviously leading up to her either returning to her life or making a change, but the final result was so abrupt, it felt like the author just slapped the last paragraph on to end it quickly and be done, as if she had a deadline and had to turn it in. Still, worth reading and as fun to read throughout the rest of the book as her other novels.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2021 by Kindle Valentine