Anne Tyler, Ladder of Years

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 1995

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Published in 1995,

Ladder of Years

was the thirteenth of Anne Tyler's novels. Upon its debut, it received critical notices that spanned the spectrum, and this seriocomic novel of the Grinstead family was not fêted with prestigious awards, as Tyler's

The Accidental Tourist

(1985) and

Breathing Lessons

(1988) were. However,

Ladder of Years

remains a popular choice to this day for both academic and library book-group reading lists.

Students of contemporary United States literature debate Tyler's commentary on American family life. Those who read this work in Women in Literature classrooms engage in sometimes heated debate about the protagonist's motivations and actions. Scholarly readers revel in the novel's apparent ties to traditional works of literature, while both serious and casual

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1484 words

Citation: Donohue, Cecilia. "Ladder of Years". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 October 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9093, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Anne Tyler, Ladder of Years

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