The taxi was already moving off and the boy was just slipping his wallet back into his jeans, but then he looked up and saw Macon. He acted fast; he spun and called out something and the taxi braked. “Merci beaucoup,” Macon panted and the boy, who had a sweet, pure face and shaggy yellow hair, opened the taxi door for him and gently assisted him in. “Oof!” Macon said, seized by a spasm. The boy shut the door and then, to Macon’s surprise, lifted a hand in a formal good-bye. The taxi moved off. Macon told the driver where he was going and sank back into his seat. He patted his inside pocket, checking passport, plane ticket. He unfolded his handkerchief and wiped his forehead.
Evidently his sense of direction had failed him, as usual. The driver was making a U-turn, heading back where Macon had just come from. They passed the boy once again. He had a jaunty, stiff-legged way of walking that seemed familiar.
If Ethan hadn’t died, Macon thought, wouldn’t he have grown into such a person?
He would have turned to give the boy another look, except that he couldn’t manage the movement.
The taxi bounced over the cobblestones. The driver whistled a tune between his teeth. Macon found that bracing himself on one arm protected his back somewhat from the jolts. Every now and then, though, a pothole caught him off guard.
And if dead people aged, wouldn’t it be a comfort? To think of Ethan growing up in heaven—fourteen years old now instead of twelve—eased the grief a little. Oh, it was their immunity to time that made the dead so heartbreaking. (Look at the husband who dies young, the wife aging on without him; how sad to imagine the husband coming back to find her so changed.) Macon gazed out the cab window, considering the notion in his mind. He felt a kind of inner rush, a racing forward. The real adventure, he thought, is the flow of time; it’s as much adventure as anyone could wish. And if he pictured Ethan still part of that flow—in some other place, however unreachable—he believed he might be able to bear it after all.
The taxi passed Macon’s hotel—brown and tidy, strangely home-like. A man was just emerging with a small anxious dog on his arm. And there on the curb stood Muriel, surrounded by suitcases and string-handled shopping bags and cardboard cartons overflowing with red velvet. She was frantically waving down taxis—first one ahead, then Macon’s own. “Arrêtez!” Macon cried to the driver. The taxi lurched to a halt. A sudden flash of sunlight hit the windshield, and spangles flew across the glass. The spangles were old water spots, or maybe the markings of leaves, but for a moment Macon thought they were something else. They were so bright and festive, for a moment he thought they were confetti.
The Accidental Tourist
ANNE TYLER
A Reader’s Guide
A Conversation with Anne Tyler
Q: Can Macon be described as an accidental tourist in his own life? Can we all?
AT: Certainly Macon can, but I wouldn’t say that accidental tourism is a universal condition. Some people seem to have very meticulous itineraries for their lives.
Q: Ethan’s tragic death looms over all of the characters in this novel. Why are so many characters angry at, or at least disapproving of, Macon for his manner of grieving?
AT: Because to someone not very perceptive, Macon’s manner of grieving doesn’t really look like grief.
Q: Is it simply inertia that prevents Macon from dealing with Edward’s misbehavior for so long? Why does he find the process of training Edward to be so difficult and painful?
AT: While I was writing this book, I wondered the same thing. I asked myself, Why do I seem to be going on and on about this ridiculous dog, who has nothing to do with the main plot? Then when Muriel asked Macon, “Do you want a dog who’s angry all the time?” (or words to that effect), I thought, Oh! Of course! That’s exactly what he wants! This dog is angry for him!
Q: Would you agree that Edward’s reactions to Muriel mirror Macon’s to some degree?
AT: Oh, I think Edward is way ahead of Macon in his reactions.
Q: What does Singleton Street represent for Macon?
AT: Otherness. The opposite of his own narrow self.
Q: Macon, like many characters in this novel, feels trapped by other people’s perceptions of him. Does Muriel see Macon as he truly is, or as someone he wants to be?
A Reader’s Guide
AT: Neither, really. She sees the person she herself wants him to be; but since she’s an accepting and non-judgmental type, who he really is turns out to be all right with her.
Q: Macon’s friends and family are mostly disapproving of “that Muriel person.” Is it simply a matter of class prejudice?
AT: Class for the most part; but also personality style. To a family so undemonstrative, Muriel would be a bit daunting.
Q: If not for Muriel’s persistence, would Macon have made a different choice?
AT: Yes, certainly. Muriel is a pretty powerful force.
Q: In The Accidental Tourist, you write of Macon: “He began to think that who you are when you’re with somebody may matter more than whether you love her.” Ultimately, does Macon love Muriel?
AT: I think he really does.
Q: Macon remembers finding a magazine quiz in which Sarah answered that she loved her spouse more than he loved her. How accuratewas her answer? Was Sarah correct in writing that she loved Macon more than he loved her?
AT: Her answer reflected her limited understanding of Macon, I believe, more than the true situation.
Q: Is Macon being honest when he tells Sarah that Muriel’s young son did not draw him to Muriel?
AT: I did mean that to be his honest answer. If anything, her son was a negative quality—at least in the beginning.
Q: This novel explores the vexed nature of romantic relationships. Do the couples that have formed over the course of this novel stand a chance?
AT: Yes, of course they do. These are flawed relationships—as all are—and they require compromise—as all do. But at least one member of each couple has found a way to make those compromises.
Q: The Learys are at once remarkable comic figures and deeply human characters. How difficult is it to achieve this delicate balance and neitherveer into parody nor a humorless character study?
AT: In early drafts, when I didn’t know the Learys all that well, I did veer over one or the other edge from time to time. But the most rewarding experience in writing a novel is the gradually deepening understanding of its characters; and once I knew the Learys better, the balance came naturally.
Q: Is the Leary siblings’ geographic dyslexia treatable?
AT: Speaking from personal experience, I would say absolutely not. It’s biological.
Q: Will Rose and Julian’s relationship survive the transplant to the Leary homestead?
AT: Yes, Julian will become a funny sort of quasi-Leary, purely out of love for Rose, and a helpful liaison to the outside world.
Q: Is there any hope for Porter or Charles?
AT: Well, not much hope they’ll truly change, of course. But they seem contented as they are.
Q: Do you have the narrative fairly well mapped out before you begin writing a novel, or do you find yourself taking detours? For instance, did you know all along how this novel would end?
AT: I map my books out in a very cursory way—say, about a page for each novel—and I always think I know how they’ll end, but I’m almost always wrong. In the case of The Accidental Tourist, I actually began a chapter in which Macon stayed with Sarah. But it didn’t work; something in the characters themselves persuaded me the ending would have to be different.
Q: Do your characters ever surprise you?
AT: All the time.
Q: What do you most enjoy about your life as writer? And least?
AT: The best part about being a writer is the experience of learning, gradually, what it is like to be a person completely different from me. The hard part is that for years on end, I am working in a vacuum. Is this a story anyone will believe? Anyone will care about? I won’t know that until I’m finishe
d.
Q: If you could invite any writer, living or dead, to attend a reading group meeting to discuss their work, who would it be? What would you most like to learn from her or him?
A: I would rather read the writer, not hear him or her talk. I know that from being a writer myself: what I have to say, I have already said through my stories.
Q: What are you reading right now?
AT: Lately, I have fallen in love with Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto. It’s a mesmerizing novel, moving, amusing, and enlightening. And I am telling everyone to watch for Mary Lawson’s Crow Lake, a soon-to-be-published novel about a family of orphans in the northernmost reaches of Canada.
Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion
Would you characterize yourself as an accidental tourist in your own life? Do you know anyone you might consider an accidental tourist?
What kind of traveler are you? Would you find Macon’s guides helpful?
Macon has come up with a technique to avoid contact with others on airplanes. Public transportation can lead to an awkward intimacy with strangers. How do you handle such situations? Does Macon’s approach work for you?
There was no memorial service for Ethan in Baltimore. Whose idea do you think that was? Do you agree with Garner, Macon’s neighbor, who chastises him for not having one?
Macon’s style of mourning offends many people, including his wife. Do their complaints have any merit?
According to Macon, “it was their immunity to time that made the dead so heartbreaking.” Discuss the meaning of this statement.
What is the significance of Macon and Susan’s conversation about Ethan? What do they each gain from it?
Why doesn’t Macon repair his house after it is seriously damaged by water?
The loss of a child can be devastating to a marriage. How do you think a relationship survives such a cataclysmic event?
Macon believes he became a different person for Sarah. How much do we change in the name of love? How much should we change?
Do you think Sarah ever really understood Macon?
Macon realizes that while he and Sarah tried too hard to have a child, once they had Ethan, it made their differences that much more glaring. Do you think they would have remained together if Ethan had lived?
Macon remarks that he just didn’t want to get involved with Muriel and her messy life, but somehow he has. Does this ring true? Did Muriel simply overwhelm him?
Initially, Macon and Alexander are very wary of each other. Discuss the nature of Macon and Alexander’s relationship and what they have to offer each other.
Rose decides to love Julian despite her brothers’ obvious disapproval. What do you think drives her to make such a difficult decision?
Julian describes Rose’s retreat back to the Leary house as though she’d worn herself a groove or something in that house of hers, and she couldn’t help swerving back into it. Do you think Rose has made a mistake?
Do you find yourself as fascinated by the Learys as Julian is? Why or why not?
When Rose declares that she and her siblings are the most conventional people she knows, Macon cannot explain why he disagrees with her. Can you?
Do you think the Learys will ever purchase an answering machine? Do you think Julian might slip one in the house?
Do you or does anyone you know suffer from geographic dyslexia?
Why does Sarah return to Macon? Do you think they could have worked it out or had they used each other up?
Macon does not think he has ever taken steps in his life and acted. Do you think this insight is accurate, or is it a product of the helplessness he feels in the wake of his son’s death?
Do you think Macon has made the right decision in the end? Will the relationship work out?
Do you think any of the couples in this novel stand a chance?
In the end, Macon comforts himself with the thought that perhaps the dead age, and are part of the flow of time. Does this idea comfort you?
If you could learn more about a particular character in this novel, which would it be and why?
Would your group recommend this novel to other reading groups? How does this novel compare to other works the group has read?
About the Author
Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis in 1941 but grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated at nineteen from Duke University and went on to do graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University. Anne Tyler’s eleventh novel, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She lives in Baltimore.
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Breathing Lessons
ANNE TYLER
Her new novel
THE AMATEUR MARRIAGE
A rich and compelling novel, spanning
three generations, about a mismatched
marriage—and its consequences.
Available in bookstores everywhere
PLEASE VISIT www.aaknopf.com
By Anne Tyler
If Morning Ever Comes
The Tin Can Tree
A Slipping-Down Life
The Clock Winder
Celestial Navigation
Searching for Caleb
Earthly Possessions
Morgan’s Passing
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
The Accidental Tourist
Breathing Lessons
Saint Maybe
Ladder of Years
A Patchwork Planet
Back When We Were Grownups
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 1985 by Anne Tyler Modarressi
Reading group guide copyright © 2002 by Anne Tyler Modarressi and The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of
The Random House Publishing Group, a division of
Random House, Inc., New York.
Ballantine and colophon are registered
trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Reader’s Circle and colophon are trademarks
of Random House, Inc.
www.thereaderscircle.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: 2002090731
This edition published by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
First Ballantine Books Edition: May 2002
www.randomhouse.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-41683-4
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Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist
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