Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler - Review

I've read a couple of other books by Anne Tyler and liked them, so when I saw this in a charity shop I bought it for just a couple of quid. It hasn't been on my shelves for very long before I got round to it. I say shelves, what I really mean is the five piles of books under my mirror in my bedroom. I ought to stop buying books but..... that won't happen. 

I love Anne Tyler because her books are short but perfectly formed. They're really understated, I think. She usually has a current time narrative which is very contained to within an area or a time frame, and then she keeps going back in time to explain how the main character to got to this point in their life. This book is no different. 

Charlotte is in her forties, I would say, and she is in the queue at the bank one day. She is planning to leave her husband, Saul, so she is collecting all her savings in order to be able to leave. But there's a fracas and a man is trying to hold up the bank and he ends up taking Charlotte hostage. He gets some money but not loads. He has a gun and he forces Charlotte to the bus station, where they get on a bus and then hotwire a car to head south to Florida. They don't have a lot of cash between them. And although Charlotte is a bit frightened, she's not frightened for her life. She realises Jake is just a bit of a chancer and besides, this is kind of getting her out of the monotony of her life. 

She still lives in the house she grew up in. She was the only child of older parents and she wasn't exactly a welcome addition to their lives. Her mother very often didn't leave the house. Her father was a photographer who had a studio in the house so all kinds of people used to drop by. Charlotte was a neglected and odd child. Some of her neighbours were the Emorys. They had four sons and the wife, Alberta, used to be friends with Charlotte's mother. However she then took off with her father in law, and one by one the sons dropped off. 

Saul joined the military but when Charlotte is around twenty or something he comes back. They start a relationship but then Saul becomes a preacher and Charlotte has a baby. By the time she has finally made up her mind to leave him, all his brothers and some other waifs and strays are living in Charlotte's house, and she just feels like life is whirling past her. 

It's a fab book and I really recommend it. I'm giving it five out of five.