Men who leave their families is a common theme in books (and life) but in Anne Tyler’s Ladder of Years, it’s the wife who leaves. Delia Grinstead, housewife, married to Dr. Grinstead and mother of 3 simply walks away from the annual family holiday wearing only her beach clothes but (handily) carrying the family’s holiday money in her bag.
There’s some back story to this sudden departure. Delia’s father was a widowed doctor who hired young Dr Sam Grinstead as a partner. Delia remembers how she and her older sisters, Linda and Eliza sat on the couch as if on display for Sam and how they vied for his attention over dinner. Delia, at 17, didn’t think she ‘stood’ a chance,’ but Sam picked Delia to marry, according to one long time patient, as Linda was “too short and the middle one is too plump.”
Delia’s life, in many ways has been mapped out, but she still has the life many would envy. Sam is a responsible, if not overly attentive husband, and there are no economic hardships. Following her father’s death, Delia, Sam and their children still live in her father’s home (inherited in a 3-way split with her sisters) and she handles all the office work for Sam. One day at the supermarket, Adrian, a good-looking man, who spies his ex-wife shopping, asks Delia to pretend to be his girlfriend. From this moment, it’s as though Delia, a romance novel reader, sees her life through new eyes. Her husband takes her for granted, her teenage children are rude and alienated. She’s flattered by Adrian’s attention, and a budding relationship forms between Delia and her new acquaintance. The fact that Adrian makes his living from a quarterly newsletter focused on time travel doesn’t seem to sink in. When Sam finds out and confronts Delia, she walks out of the family holiday and out of her life.
Delia ends up in Bay Borough, a small town with very limited services and very limited employment opportunities. She takes a room at a boarding house owned by real estate agent Belle, and gets a job with the only lawyer in town. Over the 18 months, Delia makes several friends, Belle of course, who is always stalking the next married man, Vanessa, a single mother, Joel, the high school principal and his son Noah and Joel’s ex wife Ella.
I liked this book even though the characters are all impossibly nice even the grumpy ones. At one point a well-heeled 67 year old man, Nat (Noah’s grandfather) who lives in a retirement home marries Binky a 35 year old who works in the gift shop, and it’s presented as though Nat’s daughters are unreasonable shrews to be alarmed or to think that Binky is after Nat’s $$. C’mon.
Delia, who is suffering from grief at her father’s death, isn’t given to a great deal of inner speculation which seems odd as she is intelligent and thoughtful, but she does mull over her love of romance novels and Sam’s tepid courtship. Neither does she spend much time thinking about her children. But the lack of communication goes both ways. Again I found it odd. Delia has never been alone in her life, and now she is untethered with a few belongings that can fit in a cardboard box. She is remarkably self-contained for someone who has literally never been alone in her life, and for this reader she wasn’t a realistic character. Also Sam remains one dimensional. Delia’s sister Linda thinks that Sam “couldn’t wait” to get his hand on their father’s practice, but it’s a dying practice with Sam making housecalls for hypochondriacs in the middle of the night. There are plenty of hints that it hasn’t been easy for Sam; for example how Delia’s father, supposedly retired, would pick up the phone extension and chime in when patients called Sam in the middle of the night. For this reader, Sam was either unambitious or wanted to stick around for Delia’s sake.
There’s some great irony here–Sam and Joel are both old-maidish, boring men and Delia is either attracted to them or they are attracted to her. Delia and Joel’s ex, Ella have more in common than Delia cares to admit. There’s not much passion here; it’s all a bit quiet and tepid (apart from Belle who is the spiciest character). But that said, I enjoyed the book.
One of the best scenes takes place around a bleak Thanksgiving dinner at Belle’s house when her latest married man dumps her and goes back to his Mrs and their 6 week-old baby. Belle is initially inconsolable, but then she realises that there’s a married man sitting right at her table. It doesn’t matter that Donald is there with his wife. The flattery rolls out as Belle describes Donald as a “gorgeous man” an “important executive” and it only gets worse when Belle encourages Donald to talk about his college sports career:
Everyone was watching Belle. Open-mouthed and breathless, miraculously recovered, Belle stroked her topmost button with a hypnotic, circular motion and kept her damp-lashed eyes focused raptly on Donald’s lips.
I wondered how readers would feel if Sam was the bolter instead of his wife. Delia takes off without as much as a note, and there are very few exchanges with Sam or her children. If Sam left and did the same (without child support) would he have any reader sympathy? In a way the book is about starting over, new beginnings and how we tend to replicate patterns of behaviour. Delia and Nat are prime examples of that ‘go around the board and get it right this time’ thinking. I won’t give spoilers but the ending left many questions as … in a way… is history repeating itself? Ditching and moving on when there are complications and baggage.
You must be logged in to post a comment.