
Back When We Were Grownups
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Narrated by:
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Blair Brown
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By:
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Anne Tyler
The woman is Rebecca Davitch, a 53-year-old grandmother. Is she an imposter in her own life? she asks herself. Is it indeed her own life? Or is it someone else's?
On the surface, Beck, as she is known, is outgoing, joyous, a natural celebrator. Giving parties is her vocation - something she slipped into even before finishing college, when Joe Davitch spotted her at an engagement party in his family's crumbling 19th-century Baltimore row house, where giving parties was the family business. What caught his fancy was that she seemed to be having such a wonderful time. Soon this large-spirited older man, a divorcé with three little girls, swept her into his orbit, and before she knew it she was embracing his extended family plus a child of their own.
Now, some 30 years later Rebecca is caught unaware by the question of who she really is. How she answers it - how she tries to recover her girlhood self, that dignified grownup she had once been - is the story told in this beguiling, searching, and deeply moving novel. As always with Anne Tyler's novels, once we enter her world it is hard to leave. But in Back When We Were Grownups she so sharpens our perceptions and awakens so many untapped feelings that we come away not only refreshed, but also infinitely wiser.
©2001 Anne Tyler (P)2001 Random House, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"[Tyler's] feel for character is so keen that even hardened metafictionalists...are reduced to the role of helpless gossips, swapping avid hunches about the possible fates of the characters. You're involved before you even noticed you were paying attention." (The New Yorker)
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Mid-life crisis
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Really good fiction makes one see beyond the plot and allows one to feel the meaning of a universal truth. Everyone needs to understand fiction for themselves, but I know why I like this book so much. The author understands how we get our purpose in life and that (at least for me) that the structure of the world is in place before we enter it and we have to accept that structure.
Our true selves are never known (that's a line form the book). We are thrown into the world and for us to make sense of our understanding about our own understanding we must accept our presence-at-hand and make sense of our worldliness (purpose) by realizing that our purpose comes about by understanding the whole by looking at the pieces we interact with.
Or perhaps I'm just reading something into the story the author never intended. Regardless, the book can be an entertaining listen.
Our true selves are never known
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Wonderful characters
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This was interesting, thought-provoking, while remaining entertaining and a good read. Perhaps not quite as good as Saint Maybe but a close second.
For those who have started this book keep listening--the old man's comments near the end are worth the whole jouney in themselves!
Excellent, Interesting Context
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What did you love best about Back When We Were Grownups?
A non-traditional plot with a complicated family that Tyler somehow made interesting and diverse.What about Blair Brown’s performance did you like?
Brown gets nuances in her acting and narration - she puts the irony where it belongs; stands back when she should.If you could rename Back When We Were Grownups, what would you call it?
I don't know, but this wouldn't be the title.Any additional comments?
Tyler is a master and this book so fresh and unusual - loved it.Unusual story, great read
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Really Great 'Slice of Life' Story
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I was disappointed
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a story about life
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An unfortunate disappointment
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Reader was fantastic, the story itself is lacking
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