Back When We Were Grownups

An old story goes of a lady who realized she had changed into someone else.

Thus, Anne Tyler begins to read this captivating new book.

The lady is 53-year-old grandma Rebecca Davitch. Does she pretend to be someone she's not? She starts to wonder. Is this really her life? Is it owned by someone else?

Beck, as the Davitch clan calls her, seems to be gregarious, happy, and a born celebrator. Her profession is, after all, throwing parties, which she fell into even before graduating from college when Joe Davitch saw her during an engagement celebration at the family's dilapidated row home in Baltimore from the eighteenth century, when hosting parties was a main source of income. The fact that she seemed to be having so much fun drew his attention. She was quickly drawn into the circle of this gregarious older guy who was divorcé and had three young daughters. Before she knew it, she was welcoming his entire family as well as their own kid, and they were throwing nonstop parties in the elaborate, tall halls of The Open Arms.

Approximately thirty years later, after her tragic family picnic, Rebecca finds herself confronted with the issue of her true identity. The narrative of this charming, humorous, and profoundly touching book tells the tale of how she responds to it—how she attempts to reclaim the respectable adult she once was, that girlish self.

Like with all of Anne Tyler's books, it is difficult to leave her universe once we are within. However, she so fine-tunes our senses and arouses so many unexplored emotions in Back When We Were Grownups that we leave feeling immeasurably wiser in addition to renewed and joyful.