Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful and insightful, Nov 14 2002
Anne Tyler is, I think, one of the best American writers working today. She does an amazing job of showing the internal and secret lives of ordinary people (or people who simply appear to be ordinary as they are our neighbors, our friends and our co-workers).
Ian, the hero of Saint Maybe, is one of Tyler's best creations ever. When his older brother dies, the adolescent Ian takes on the care of three children---all of whom are unrelated to him (altho' there is a slightly possibility that the youngest child is his niece). The story follows Ian's attempts to raise the children---but also to find out who he really is.
Tyler's writing is lyrical and the characters are memorable and very real. There is something in Ian's search which has parallels in everyone's search to discover who they are and what they think is important.
I can't recommend this highly enough!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautifully bittersweet tale of a family, April 9 2002
Anne Tyler has written many excellent novels, but I think this is her masterpiece. It's an involving story, played out over many years, with appealing characters who grow and evolve. It also provokes thoughts about so many things: religion, redemption, the randomness of life, but above all, the nature of family. A tragedy shatters the traditional, nuclear, apple-pie-perfect Bedloe family, but the family rebuilds into a nontraditional grouping in which blood matters less than love--and love is not automatic but grows through years of familiarity. And the family-building is driven more by chance than choice--as, the characters learn, most of life is; very little turns out how they had planned, but they make the best of what they're dealt. For Ian, the "Saint Maybe" of the title, the driving force of life is the Church of the Second Chance, which shows him a way to channel his guilt over complicity in the family tragedy into a constructive effort: being the caring guardian of three children. The church could be deemed fundamentalist, but really it's a kinder, gentler fundamentalism: the minister doesn't preach hellfire and damnation to nonbelievers, but rather tells his flock to lead exemplary lives; doesn't rail against gays or feminists, but instead forbids members to consume caffeine or sugar. Tyler's treatment of religion is evenhanded; she presents Ian's piety (and his occasional frustration with all that's expected of him) seriously and respectfully, but also lets other characters voice skepticism. With Tyler's technique of presenting various parts of her story from different characters' viewpoints--something she also did effectively in "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant"--we get a range of opinion on a lot of things in the Bedloes' lives, and we get to hear characters say things they wouldn't if they knew the whole story. The primary characters are well-drawn and memorable, especially Ian, nieces Agatha (a driven, opinionated type) and Daphne (a bohemian and a drifter), sister-in-law Lucy (who changes everyone's life as she struggles to cope with her own), and family friend Rita (who changes Ian's life when he least expects it). Supporting characters leave a lasting impression too--the geeky but gentle and well-meaning Reverend Emmett, the embittered deaf carpenter who employs Ian, the revolving cast of foreign students living down the street. Tyler's sense of time--the mid-'60s to about 1990--is keen as ever, as is her sense of place--Baltimore, naturally. And while many sad things happen in her narrative, so do a lot of happy ones; unlike the too-sweet TV adaptation, the novel is bittersweet, just like life. It doesn't always--or even usually--turn out as we wish; bad things happen to good people; but somehow--with the help of our blood and chosen families, and our belief systems--we go on.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely a Saint!, Feb 5 2002
Poor Ian Bedloe! Filled with grief, encumbered by guilt, looking for forgiveness, and needing love; Ian Bedloe begins a journey hoping to find all of the above. Your heart truly goes out to Ian and his family as they encounter hurdles and hurts as well as trying to deal with each other. The Church of Second Chance offers exactly what Ian is looking for and needs.People might think that this is a book for Christians only, but it is most certainly not. It is a book for humanity. It speaks to how each of need to have a second chance in life to make things right. We all need the opportunity to right a wrong. Anne Tyler speaks to us all through the pages of this book. She really makes an effort to force the reader to look over his/her life and see if there was a second chance that we missed.
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