.
French Braid is my (I think) third book by Anne Tyler. It is her
twentieth (I think) and latest (I think) novel. She is currently (I
know) 83, one year older than I am. This is maybe important because as I
get older I recognize things in the character of the characters in this
book that I think are most likely to be better understood by somebody in
her/his 80's.

The book covers four, maybe five generations. It "starts" in March 2010
with a description of Serena Drew spotting someone in a train station in
Philadelphia who looks familiar.

"It might be my cousin Nicholas," Serena said.

"Maybe he just resembles Nicholas," James said. "Seems to me if it was
really him, you could say for certain."

"Well, it's been awhile since we've seen each other," Serena said. "He's
my mom's brother David's son; they live up here in Philly."

(Aside: I was going to start this review with what I thought was the
opening "scene" in the book, the Garrett family's first family vacation
in 1959. But taking a second look, I was reminded that was how chapter 2
started. There are almost 50 years between Serena's spotting her cousin
and this vacation. So the book starts in the (it turns out almost)
present and then jumps back to the past. And that "mom's brother David's
son" is one of those double possessive phrases that make you realize you
really need to keep track. We haven't even met Lily, Serena's mom, or
Lily's sister, Alice. Or ... Robin and Mercy, Lily, David and Alice's
parents.)

My point is the book, which is only 244 pages long, covers a lot of
ground!

Anne Tyler ends her book with a description of Nicholas and young Ben,
his son, visiting David and his wife Greta. (Nicholas's wife is on the
front lines, overwhelmed in her nursing job and needs to quarantine from
her husband and child.) It is 2020. David is now retired (mostly due to
the pandemic). They are empty nesters and the relationship he develops
with Ben is life reviving,

Here's a very reduced family tree to help you keep track.

Robin Mercy
David Lily Alice
Serena Nicholas
Ben

Ok, let's start again with chapter 2. The main theme of this incredibly
good book is both a very sad one and a very hopeful one. The Garrett
family is dysfunctional, disconnected, yet loving. Robin runs a hardware
store and finally goes on his first vacation with his three kids. David,
the youngest, doesn't interact with other kids and doesn't want to go
into the water. Lily is boy crazy and Alice does the cooking.

Flash forward, we find Mercy more interested in painting than anything
else. She's effectively moved out and lives in a nearby studio, leaving
Robin mostly alone. David is in college and seldom calls or writes.
Alice is a stay at home mom and Lily is on husband #2. She calls and
informs her sister that she's pregnant, by a married guy.

The fellow who rents the studio to Mercy shows up and asks her if she
could help him out and take care of his cat Desmond. Not for long, he
promises. His daughter is having exploratory surgery and he and his wife
are going down to help care for his grandson. She reluctantly agrees.
The "temporary" cat sitting ends up being not so temporary.

Flash forward. It is now 1982. David calls and wants to bring a "friend"
for Easter dinner. Alice and Lily and Mercy, amazed that David out of
the blue called, squabble over where the dinner would be and who would
cook it. When Greta (the friend) and a young girl Emily show up, David
is effusive about Greta. Emily is Greta's child by a previous marriage.
She is quiet, sharp and answers questions from the adults in an
unexpectedly grown up way. After holding a puzzle piece for a long time,
she places it, connecting two long edge strips. Greta is 10 years older
than David and has a bit of a limp. Her name makes David's sisters
wonder if she is "foreign." Will they marry, they wonders.

1990. Robin decides to throw a surprise 50th anniversary party for
Mercy. He tells Lily who tells Alice. Where will it be held? Who will
cook the dinner? Robin has it all under control, he says. He wants to
make sure David will come. He buys a sheet cake, cooks a salmon loaf
(something Mercy cooked for him when they were first married). It ends
up being a bit of a disaster. People leave early and Mercy gets Robin,
who has tried so hard, to promise him he will never plan a surprise
party again. On page 150 "Oh the lengths the family would go to so as
not to spoil the picture of how things were supposed to be."

1997. Candle Lainey, Alice's youngest child, is having her 12th
birthday. Candle now wants to be called Kendall, her real name (she
couldn't pronounce it when she was a baby). She paints with watercolors.
Her mother suggests that Mercy might be able to help her with acrylics.
Visits to the studio are planned. Mercy pretty much lets her learn on
her own. On the first visit Candle / Kendall says of her paintings,
"They're not very good." "Never tell people that," Mercy says. Soon,
Candle prefers to go to the studio rather than paint at home. One day
Mercy invites her to go to New York to visit an art gallery of a friend.
Permission to go is given by her parents. (This is nothing her parents
would have ever thought to do.) She is introduced to the artist as "my
granddaughter Kendall." (No one calls her Kendall, except Mercy.) The art
she is exposed to is abstract and sold for thousands of dollars. Kendall
is made aware of how paintings can be loved that are very different than
anything she had ever imagined. (Spoiler) On the train trip back, when
the conductor announces their stop is coming up, she can't wake Mercy
up. It's is a devastating moment.

2020. As mentioned above, the book ends in this year. We are reminded of
the never ending cyclic nature of life. The title of the book is
explained on page 234.

"What's the name of that braid that starts high up on little girls'
heads?" David asked Greta one night when they were getting ready for
bed.

"High up on their heads?"

"Emily used to have them. They would start with two skeins of hair high
up near the temples, very skinny and tight, and then join in with two
thicker braids lower down."

"Oh, a French braid," Greta said.

"That's it. And then when she undid them, her hair would still be in
ripples, little left over squiggles, for hours and hours afterward."

"Yes ..."

"Well, David said, "that's how families work too. You think you're free
of them, but you're never really free; the ripples are crimped in
forever."

Greta started laughing. "You are finding this out just now?"

He said, "I'm a slow learner I guess."

Ben's visit to David reminded David of things he did as a boy. Ben had
learned from kids he met when he visited how you can press your arm hard
against a fence and then release it and it will rise on its own. The old
game of hop scotch will never die despite all the electronic gadgets we
buy. David's "veterinarians," GI Joe like toys, come back. David's silly
mouse and elephant story. ("I been sick" the mouse said when the huge
elephant told him he was so small.)

While trying to decide whether to put the child size mask Benny sewed in
the box of things to send back David "could still catch a trace of
Benny's little-boy scent ... he could hear his froggy voice:"

Some people started singing it not knowing what it was, And they'll
continue singing it forever just because ...