SOURCE: Nollen, Elizabeth Mahn. “Fatherhood Lost and Regained in the Novels of Anne Tyler.” In Family Matters in the British and American Novel, edited by Andrea O'Reilly Herrera, Elizabeth Mahn Nollen, and Sheila Reitzel Foor, pp. 217-35. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1997.

In the following essay, Nollen examines three father figures in Tyler's fiction: Jeremy Pauling in Celestial Navigation, Ian Bedloe in Saint Maybe, and Macon Leary in The Accidental Tourist.

Understandably, the most common critical approach to the works of Anne Tyler is to study her depiction of the American family. Doris Betts claims that “Family and its clutter remain her metaphor for life” (31). John Updike notes her “fascination with families” (qtd. in Salwak 115) while Ann Romines details Tyler's use of “the home plot” (qtd. in Salwak 163). Jay Parini praises her ability to “celebrate family life without erasing the pain and boredom that...