Vinegar Girl

Reviews

It's knockabout comedy at its best, genuinely laugh-out-loud funny and, indeed, may be her funniest book to date The worst wedding in history ... vintage Anne Tyler It's every subtle shade of funny, heart-breaking and ultimately life-affirming Funny, thought-provoking, essential Delightful, ingenious and convincing… Anyone who values good writing and the intelligent observation and depiction of how people feel, think and speak will enjoy it too There is much of Tyler's trademark wit and sharp observation here. She shifts effortlessly from humour to pathos and creates emotion without any hint of sentimentality ... Funny and poignant Full of Tyler's signature virtues -- domestic details, familial conflict, emotional ambivalence, a sharp sense of place… Novels such as Anne Tyler’s, which are so precise and current, are like photographs or digital clock faces that tell us where we are and where we are coming from at the same time. Vinegar Girl is an earthy reflection of this fleeting moment, both lively and thoughtful Tyler’s signature skill as a novelist is portraying her characters and her setting with such precise and amusing detail … that pretty soon the reader is drawn in, willy-nilly. We know where this is heading, yet she does a great job putting up the roadblocks and incorporating the surprising curves… Novels such as Anne Tyler’s, which are so precise and current, are like photographs or digital clock faces that tell us where we are and where we are coming from at the same time. ‘Vinegar Girl’ is an earthy reflection of this fleeting moment, both lively and thoughtful. Tyler's deepest purpose is to challenge the premisses of Shakspeare's comedy... Her gentle, funny novel insists that it is possible, in spite of our customarily blind perversities, to find unexpected ways of breaking free from self-destruction This sparky, intelligent spin on Shakespeare's controversial classic demolishes the old saw that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar Expand reviews