"Breathing Lessons" by Anne Tyler

Read: 2/18/09

4/5 stars

Still working on my Pulitzer Project. But I read this not just because it's a Pulitzer winner. I gave it to a friend last Christmas, who said she loved it and read it in two days. She also asked if I chose it because the blurb reminded me of her. I have to say I did.

Breathing Lessons is about a middle aged husband and wife, Ira and Maggie Moran, who go on a road trip to visit a friend's husband's funeral. There is nothing particularly remarkable about Ira and Maggie. They are live in a small town, run a small business, have one grown-up son and a daughter about to go away to college. They do, however, have one estranged daughter-in-law and granddaughter, owing to their son's divorce. On their way to the funeral and back, Maggie keeps trying to convince her husband to visit their granddaughter, whom they have not seen in years. The desire is brought about since Maggie supposedly hears their former daughter-in-law over the radio claiming that she is about to marry for convenience as her first marriage for love did not work out. Eventually, Ira agrees, though in the course of their trip, both husband and wife indulge in their memories and reveal much about themselves and their ordinary lives.

I've read reviews stating that the book was too bland. I might agree. Ira and Maggie are not spectacular. They do not have spectacular problems. They are in their 50s, and they talk about their children with the pride and disappointment of middle-aged parents. And perhaps the only thing half-interesting about their children is that their son got married when he was 18 because he got the girl pregnant. But that, by itself, does not exactly make for a great story.

Moreover, Maggie can be extremely annoying. She has an idealized notion of situations which she seeks to impose on reality. The trouble is, these notions tend to deceive other people or get them in trouble. Her husband, therefore, calls her meddlesome, which she is in her well-meaning way. And because it's well-meaning, it somehow makes her more annoying.

All right then, granted that everything in this book seems ordinary, why the high rating? Because if the mark of good writing is to make the familiar seem unfamiliar or to make the unfamiliar seem familiar, the book succeeds on both counts. We are not exactly like Maggie or Ira; we can complain about Maggie's flaws and say that we are not like her and hate people like her. But their issues are so familiar, perhaps, to married people-empty nest, little annoyances between husband and wife, worry over one's children, etc. However, even if we're familiar with these issues, the way they were written (not moralizing nor preachy) seems to lend a new sensitivity to this reader. I don't want to be Maggie. But somehow, even if we're so different, I can understand what's propelling her. And because Anne Tyler accomplished that, I like this book.