Anne Tyler, A Patchwork Planet

Cecilia Donohue (Independent Scholar - North America)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1998

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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With her fourteenth novel,

A Patchwork Planet

(1998), Anne Tyler presented her readers with familiar themes and locations while addressing new issues. Based primarily in Baltimore, Maryland, the U.S. city serving as the setting for the majority of her works,

A Patchwork Planet

centers on a male character seeking meaning and connection in life (similar to Macon Leary in 1985’s

The Accidental Tourist

and Ian Bedloe of

Saint Maybe,

Tyler’s 1991’s novel). The plot of

A Patchwork Planet

includes unexpected, arguably irrational actions similar to those of characters from such earlier Tyler works as

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

(1982) and

Ladder of Years

(1995). And the recurring Tyleresque themes of personal reinvention, redemption, and family/community reconciliation loom large in

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2027 words

Citation: Donohue, Cecilia. "A Patchwork Planet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 January 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14841, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Anne Tyler, A Patchwork Planet

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