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French Braid
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
The major new novel from the beloved prize-winning author - a brilliantly perceptive, painfully true and funny journey deep into one family's foibles, from the 1950s right up to the changed world of today.
When the kids are grown and Mercy Garrett gradually moves herself out of the family home, everyone determines not to notice.
Over at her studio, she wants space and silence. She won't allow any family clutter. Not even their cat, Desmond.
Yet it is a clutter of untidy moments that forms the Garretts' family life over the decades, from giving a child a ride to a painstaking Easter lunch, a fateful train journey to an unexpected homecoming.
And it all begins in 1959, with a family holiday to a cabin by a lake. It's the only one the Garretts will ever take, but its effects will ripple through the generations.
Critic reviews
"If Anne Tyler isn't the best writer in the world, who is?" (BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour)
More from the same
What listeners say about French Braid
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nina S Bailey
- 27-03-22
Wonderful!
Beautiful writing as ever from the queen of characterisation. I especially like the way this spans so many years, which gives it an epic feel.
6 people found this helpful
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- Alex 1973
- 21-05-22
Wow. just wow 😲😳😲😳😲😳😲😳
Enjoyed this book immensely. Well written & performed - gripping but also wonderful to fall asleep to. Had to listen twice as didn't listen properly the first time - so praps not all that gripping!
1 person found this helpful
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- Ms Hilary Thornton
- 20-04-22
Classic Tyler
Difficult to know what to say: if you’re a fan of Anne Tyler you’ll love this. I love Mercy as an older person as she has a clear idea of what she wants from the rest of her life. The narration is perfectly pitched for this type of detailed and slightly rambling story.
1 person found this helpful
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- Mary K
- 19-04-22
A story about everything and nothing
The male voices came up short but didn't detract from the pleasure or entertainment value. I found myself interacting with the story, crossing my fingers at times hoping things would work out, laughing at silly things, nodding my head. I think it'd make a great book club choice with so much substance for discussion on relationships, decisions taken. Each character leaves an impact. A good read all round.
1 person found this helpful
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- Rachel Redford
- 11-04-22
Sixty years of a family plaited together
Sixty years of a family plaited together
I loved this and found it profoundly moving. Anne Tyler born in 1941 is especially qualified to write this poignant chart of the Garett family through six decades from 1959 right up to the Pandemic, revealing how the sprawling legacy of members’ traits and actions ripple through the generations, braided together as in a French braid. (a French plait to me). Thus 7 year-old David, a quirky solitary little boy on the family lake-side holiday at the beginning, ricochets through life and at the end is a fond grandfather, never having recovered from his father’s harsh misjudged attempt to make him swim on that childhood trip.
Tyler’s skill is in making ordinary lives totally involving and so startlingly real in all their complexities that they live on beyond the page. A natural death (I won’t spoil it, there are bound to be many but you’ll know which one) is truly shocking. Listeners will identify with many themes, marriages and situations: Mercy breaks away from her husband when the children have left home, not because she can’t stand him, but because she wants to paint in a studio of her own and be HER. There’s the joys of little children and the visceral sense of loss as they turn into sometimes disappointing adults balanced by the comforts of grand-parenting. She is equally insightful on men as well as women and of course the subtle complex relationships between them .
It takes tremendous skill to create these family networks , to maintain interest and to trigger the listener’s thoughts and empathies by a passing comment or a turn of phrase.. Mercy muses in passing on marriage on how the quality initially found most attractive in a spouse can become the most loathed with time. The many similes are sewn in so subtly they can be missed: fungus on a tree stick out like CDs when you press eject. Yes they do! Robin remembers the ‘mute damp misery’ of his mother abandoned by his father ‘curled like a comma on the sofa’ throughout his childhood, making him the man he grew to be.
So much to enjoy, think about and remember. Beautifully read too.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 26-05-22
Fabulous
A classic Anne Tyler spanning several generations. I loved it! Beautifully narrated and well worth a listen.
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- MISS E WREN
- 19-05-22
Comfort
You just feel at home in the world Anne Tyler creates. Ordinary families, living ordinary lives - you're transported!
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- Ruth
- 07-05-22
disappointing read
narrator was fine, depressing read, didn't warm to any of characters which was unusual
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- Jackie Enright
- 30-04-22
Dull dull and more dull
I was desperately waiting for there to be a storyline. Didn't happen unfortunately. Wouldn't recommend.
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- DartmoorDiva
- 17-04-22
Good, but not her best
Anne Tyler is a wonderful writer and this is apparent throughout this novel. However, rather like the French Braid of the title, the whole book needs re-plaiting, tidying and tightening up. It sprawled and meandered and I found my attention wandering, especially the interminable section covering Robin and Mercy’s later years. I also found the narrator getting very shrill in places which made it hard to listen to.