A Patchwork Planet by
Anne Tyler

Nominated by:

In this, her fourteenth novel - and one of her most endearing - Anne Tyler tells the story of a lovable loser who's trying to get his life in order. Barnaby Gaitlin has been in trouble ever since adolescence. He had this habit of breaking into other people's houses. It wasn't the big loot he was after, like his teenage cohorts. It was just that he liked to read other people's mail, pore over their family photo albums, and appropriate a few of their precious mementos. But for eleven years now, he's been working steadily for Rent-a-Back, renting his back to old folks and shut-ins who can't move their own porch furniture or bring the christmas tree down from the attic. At last his life seems to be on an even keel. Still, the Gaitlins (of "old" Baltimore) cannot forget the price they paid for buying off Barnaby's former victims. And his ex-wife would just as soon he didn't show up ever to visit their little girl, Opal. Even the nice steady woman (his guardian angel) who seems to have designs on him doesn't fully trust him, when the chips are down, and it looks as though his world may fall apart again. There is no one like Anne Tyler, with her sharp, funny, tender perceptions about how human beings navigate on a puzzling planet, and she keeps us enthralled from start to finish in this delicious new novel
Anne Tyler is known as one of America's most acclaimed novelists, and in 1994 was nominated "greatest living novelist writing in English" by Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby. Her fiction includes the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Breathing Lessons, The Accidental Tourist, wich was made into a major film, and most recently, Ladder of Years. Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis in 1941, but has lived for many years with her family in Baltimore, where her novels are set.

Here's what the members of the Reading Group based at our Raheny branch library think of A Patchwork Planet:

Barnaby, the narrator of this novel set in Baltimore is the proverbial black sheep of the family, a teenage juvenile delinquent. When the novel opens he is nearly thirty and still trying to resolve not only the conflict with his family but the conflict within himself because a part of him longs to conform to family and society norms: to have "a place in the world". His family claims guidance by "angels" - people who come along at just the right moment to point the way forward - and when he meets an older woman, Sophia, he hopes she will be his angel. However, there is also Martine. The choice between these two women will determine the future course of his life. The description of Barnaby's relationship with the elderly people he meets in his "dead-end" job with Rent-a-Back is a sensitive portrayal of the vicissitudes of old age: loneliness, frustration, dismay at the onset of mental and physical deterioration, the pain of dependency, their caustic wit. Barnaby, as well as the old people, gains from their association. The patchwork planet of the title derives from a quilt made by an elderly woman and finished just before she dies. Planet Earth of the quilt turns out to be made of mismatched squares of cloth clumsily stitched together. "Planet Earth in Mrs. Alford's version was makeshift and haphazard". A chilling metaphor. Barnaby's awkward meetings with his young daughter Opal are amusing and sad. His meetings with his parents invariably turn into confrontations with his mother and are a funny and bitter depiction of a complete non-meeting of minds. Through and around these relationships the narrative flows effortlessly and held my attention throughout. The characters, major and minor, are beautifully drawn and completely sympathetic and believable except perhaps for Sophia. (Would anyone in her right mind agree to carry a sealed packet for a complete stranger without checking the contents?) This is a sad, funny, moving story, well and simply written and I enjoyed it very much. Without having read a number of the other nominated books I cannot say whether it is likely to be a prizewinner, but in most company I think it would be a strong contender.
(Member of Raheny Library Group)

The novel is set in Baltimore, and gives a sympathetic account of one Barnaby Gaitlin. The Gaitlins have become wealthy through their management of a charitable trust. They have two sons one of whom follows his father into the business and Barnaby, who is a disappointment to his parents, having been in trouble with the police as a teenager and settling for the wrong type of job as an adult. He has failed as a husband and is discouraged by his divorced wife from visiting his daughter. Barnaby works for 'Rent a Back' helping the old and the sick with heavy household chores. He is good at his job and popular with his regular customers. A new romance in his life looks promising but ends in disappointment when he realises that she doubts his honesty. Tyler has managed in the subtlest way to show where real charity lies and to remind us that what is best for us may be found in the most unlikely places. I found this to be a most enjoyable book, its easy style masking the serious topics of old age and hypocrisy.
(Member of Raheny Library Reading Group)