Kirkus Review
How do ""impossible"" couples evolve? In this most recent, luminous novel by Tyler, a ""fairly chilly"" man, muffled in loneliness, learns that a man and a woman can come together ""for reasons the rest of the world would never guess."" One can leave the principality of self to tour another's--to love ""the surprise of her. . .the surprise of himself when he was with her."" Macon Leary, married to Sarah, is an author of travel books for businessmen whose ""concern was how to pretend they had never left home""--who want safe and comforting accommodations and food, who want to travel ""without a jolt."" Macon and Sarah, devastated by the senseless murder of their 12-year-old son in a fast-food shop holdup, are about to part. Sarah will leave this man that she claims remains ""unchanged,"" who refuses to argue with the knowledge that the world is vile. Immobilized by a broken leg (was that accident an unconscious wish?), Macon will settle in with the family he started with--two brothers (one divorced) and sister Rose--in ultimate safety, where like plump, brooding fowl, the four deliberate in soothing converse, rearrange the straws of domesticity, Enter the ""impossible"" Muriel Pritchett, shrill as a macaw, single mother of a pale, wretched young boy, scrabbling for a living at various jobs, and existing messily on a cacophonous Baltimore street. Muriel has arrived at the Leary compound to whip into line Edward, Macon's pugnacious Welsh corgi who's fond of treeing bicyclists and family members. Muriel cows Edward while talking nonstop, and gradually Macon will find himself in ""another country"" of noise and color, where red slippers with feathers are necessary accessories to a woman in the morning. From a perspective where Macon feels he's a ""vast distance from everyone who mattered"" and a marriage where he and his wife seem to have ""used each other up,"" Macon will find in foreignness his own ""soft heart."" Again in Tyler's tender, quiet prose, a delicate sounding of the odd and accidental incursions of the heart. Tone-perfect, and probably her best to date. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Scarred by grief after their 12-year-old son's senseless murder (he was shot by a holdup man in a Burger Bonanza), Macon and Sarah Leary are losing their marriage too. Macon is unable to cope when she leaves him, so he settles down ``safe among the people he'd started out with,'' moving back home with two divorced brothers and spinster sister Rose. Author of a series of guidebooks called ``Accidental Tourist'' for businessmen who hate to travel, Macon is Tyler's focus here, as she gently chronicles his journey from lonely self-absorption to an ``accidental'' new life with brassy Muriel, a dog trainer from the Meow Bow Animal Hospital, who renews and claims his heart. Not a character, including Macon's dog Edward, is untouched by delightful eccentricity in this charming story, full of surprises and wisdom. All of Tyler's novels are wonderful; thisher tenthis the best yet. BOMC main selection. Janet Wiehe, P.L. of Cincinnati & Hamilton Cty. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.