''Back When We Were Grownups'' is a 2001 novel written by
Anne Tyler
Anne Tyler (born October 25, 1941) is an American novelist, short story writer, and literary critic. She has published twenty-four novels, including ''Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant'' (1982), ''The Accidental Tourist'' (1985), and '' Breathin ...
in memory of her husband, who died in 1997.
Plot
Tyler's 15th novel, like most of her work, is set in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
. It opens with the sentence, "Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person." The woman in question is Rebecca Davitch, a 53-year-old
widow
A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died.
Terminology
The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word ...
, mother, grandmother, and proprietor of a party and catering business run from her home called Open Arms. Up until age 20 Rebecca's life had been following a fairly predictable straight-line path towards both marriage to her high school sweetheart and a Ph.D. in history. Then Joe Davitch came along and she was “swept off my feet by a fully grown man, someone who...was already ''living'' his life.” Joe was a 33-year-old divorcee with 3 children whom Rebecca met at a friend’s party that happened to be at the Open Arms. One month later, Rebecca had quit college, had married Joe, and—as she quickly discovered—had married the Davitch family, with Joe’s 3 daughters, his mother, his brother Zeb, his huge old Baltimore house (Open Arms) and its business as a venue for celebrations of all sorts—weddings, graduations, christenings, anniversaries, etc. Before too long she also discovers that she has become the de facto manager of the Open Arms and the mother of Joe’s 3 girls and their own new baby daughter. When Joe himself dies after only 6 years of marriage and Joe’s uncle Poppy moves in, she finds herself with even more responsibility. Having cheerfully and exhaustingly raised four daughters, run the “celebrations business,” and helped her daughters through 6 marriages (+ 2 divorces) and 7 grandchildren, Rebecca is now taking a breath to ask, “What happened to the 20-year young woman who was a serious scholar, politically-involved idealist, engaged to be engaged….?”
At an engagement party for one of her stepdaughters, Rebecca finds herself questioning everything about her life, and decides to take steps to resurrect her former self. Her self-improvement project includes a visit to her hometown in Virginia, picking up old hobbies, reading books that she had read in college, and renewing her intellectual interests, without abandoning her many
matriarch
Matriarchy is a social system in which women hold the primary power positions in roles of authority. In a broader sense it can also extend to moral authority, social privilege and control of property.
While those definitions apply in general E ...
al and professional duties. She also eventually gets reacquainted with her old college/high school sweetheart. Will Allenby is a somewhat stodgy and constricted person (much as he was in college, way "back when they were grownups") and is now a divorced physics professor working at the same nearby college that they had both attended. While Rebecca is touched by certain remembrances and traits of Will, her fantasy of re-kindling their old affections is spoiled by his sad, staid and inflexible demeanor. Rebecca eventually realizes that the path that she chose (or chose her) decades ago may have resulted in her "right person" after all.
Reviews
Beth Kephart
Beth Kephart is an American author of non-fiction, poetry and Young adult literature, young adult fiction for adults and teens. Kephart has written and published over ten books and has received several grants and awards for her writing. She was ...
:
"''Back When We Were Grownups'' is Tyler's fifteenth novel, and she is still not scrimping on wackiness and wit, on sentences of shocking originality, on wisdom. ...There's not a flat line in this book, not a single simple character, not a moment that isn't tapped for all its glorious possibilities. There is a party on almost every page, and there is also the party's aftermath. This is storytelling at its best and most breathtaking. Tyler, an acknowledged master of the form, is living up to her well-earned reputation.
"With Davitch, Tyler has created a character who is brave enough to look back on her life and to imagine herself making different kinds of choices. Brave enough to wonder what honesty looks like, whether there is ever really a single distillation of self that is unshakable and true....Anne Tyler has a talent for spinning out characters we care about, characters who go on living long after their stories end.
''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'':
"Tyler...has a gift for creating endearing characters, but readers should find Rebecca particularly appealing, for despite the blows she takes, she bravely keeps on trying. Tyler also has a gift...for unfurling intricate stories effortlessly, as if by whimsy or accident. The ease of her storytelling here is breathtaking, but almost unnoticeable because, rather like Rebecca, Tyler never calls attention to what she does. Late in the novel, Rebecca observes that her younger self had wanted to believe "that there were grander motivations in history than mere family and friends, mere domestic happenstance." Tyler makes it plain: nothing could be more grand."
Tom Shone
Tom Shone is an American film critic and writer. He was the ''Sunday Times'' film critic from 1994 to 1999 and has written for ''Vogue'', ''Slate'', the ''New Yorker'', the ''New York Times'' and ''The Guardian.
He is the author of ''Blockbuster: ...
:
"But then that's the thing about Anne Tyler novels: your certainty about how things are going to turn out in no way interferes with your desire to see them do so. Tyler's plots are the mere stuff of family albums, really—a procession of marriages, births, deaths. And yet her feel for character is so keen that even…readers who….would happily fry the whole notion of “character” for breakfast—are reduced to the role of helpless gossips, swapping avid hunches about the possible fates of the characters. You're involved before you even notice you were paying attention."
[Shone, Tom (May 14, 2001]
“Family Feelings,” ''The New Yorker''
Author's comments on novel and characters
“I plotted ''Back When We Were Grownups'' just after emerging from a year in which there had been several losses and serious illnesses in my family. I wanted my next novel to be full of joy and celebration, which is how I ended up with a main character who earned her living throwing parties. That a sense of loss shows through anyway, at a later point in the book, is proof that the subconscious always tends to triumph in the end.”
[Tyler, Anne (May 2002) "A Reader's Guide" in ''Back When We Were Grownups'', First Trade Paperback Edition, New York: Ballantine Publishing Group] [Tyler’s husband, Taghi Modarressi died of lymphoma in 1997;
[Rivera, John (April 25, 199]
"Dr. Taghi Modarressi, 65, Child Psychiatrist," obituary in The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland. this novel was finally published in 2001.]
“Rebecca is no more astute—or less—than most of us about her reasons for doing things. If people were fully conscious of their motives, novelists wouldn’t have anything to write novels about.”
“I’m very fond of Peter. I like his curiosity and his active mind; I think he’s going to grow up to be a very interesting young man.”
“Someday, Zeb and Rebecca are going to marry. The Davitches will be taken aback at first, but they’ll warm to the idea whole-heartedly as soon as they’ve adjusted.”
Films
Susanna Styron adapted the novel for a
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
''
Hallmark Hall of Fame
''Hallmark Hall of Fame'', originally called ''Hallmark Television Playhouse'', is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City-based greeting card company. The longest-running prime-time series in t ...
'' production that first aired on November 21, 2004. Starring
Blythe Danner
Blythe Katherine Danner (born February 3, 1943) is an American actress. Accolades she has received include two Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Izzy Huffstodt on '' Huff'' (2004–2006), and a ...
,
Peter Fonda
Peter Henry Fonda (February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was an American actor. He was the son of Henry Fonda, younger brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget Fonda. He was a prominent figure in the counterculture of the 1960s. Fond ...
,
Jack Palance
Jack Palance ( ; born Volodymyr Palahniuk ( uk, Володимир Палагню́к); February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006) was an American actor known for playing tough guys and villains. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, all fo ...
(in his final film before his death in 2006),
Faye Dunaway
Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Faye Dunaway, many accolades, including an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden ...
,
Peter Riegert
Peter Riegert (born April 11, 1947) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Donald "Boon" Schoenstein in ''Animal House'' (1978), oil company executive "Mac" MacIntyre in '' Local Hero'' (1983), pickle store owner Sam Posner in '' ...
,
Ione Skye
Ione Skye Lee ( ; Ione Skye Leitch; born September 4, 1970) is a British-born American actress and the daughter of singer Donovan. She made her film debut in the thriller ''River's Edge'' (1986) before gaining mainstream exposure for her starr ...
,
Anjul Nigam
Anjul Nigam (born December 15, 1965) is an Indian-born American actor, producer, and writer.
Early life and education
Nigam was born in Kanpur, India. He is a graduate of Cheshire High School in Cheshire, Connecticut and the New York Universi ...
, and Jonathon Pickett, it was directed by
Ron Underwood
Ronald Brian Underwood (born November 6, 1953) is an American film and television director, known for directing such films as ''Tremors (1990 film), Tremors'' (1990), ''City Slickers'' (1991), ''Heart and Souls'' (1993),'' and Mighty Joe Young ...
. It garnered both
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
and
Golden Globe
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
nominations for Danner.
External links
New York Times reviewInternet Movie Database listing
References
{{Ron Underwood
2001 American novels
Hallmark Hall of Fame episodes
Alfred A. Knopf books
Novels by Anne Tyler
Novels set in Baltimore
American novels adapted into television shows
American novels adapted into films
2004 television films
2004 films
Films directed by Ron Underwood