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Essay / Family Instability in Breathing Lessons, Homesickness... an important stereotype in American culture. The families from Anne Tyler's works represent the exact opposite of this cultural stereotype. None of Tyler's novels contain families with faithful, domestic wives, breadwinner husbands, and 2.3 perfect, well-behaved children. Tyler kills this erroneous stereotype in Breathing Lessons, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and The Accidental Tourist. Anne Tyler grew up with her parents in a series of experimental communes, so she developed a different perception of family life. She observes domestic life from the perspective of an outsider. Minor—and sometimes major—flaws characterize the average family in Tyler's novels, as many families today are imperfect. Because of her community upbringing, she observes family life more honestly than writers who idealize family life. Tyler's novels show that the image most people see when they think of the typical American family shifts from the Cleavers to The Simpsons. Anne Tyler was born in Minnesota in 1941, but much of her childhood was spent moving around. Tyler never spent a minute of her childhood living in the type of suburban home so typical of the 1940s and 1950s. Because large Southern families surrounded her as she grew up, she was somewhat of an outsider in society. Tyler's unorthodox upbringing led her "...to view the normal world with a certain distance and surprise, which can sometimes be useful to a writer" (Crane 2). Tyler realistically portrays family relationships without exaggerating them. ...... middle of paper ......--- .The accidental tourist. New York: Knopf, 1985.-----.Dinner at Homesick Restaurant. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1982. Yardley, Jonathan. “The Family Circles of Anne Tyler.” Washington Post, August 25, 1985 (pp. 311-313). Mathewson, Joseph. "Turning Around Anne Tyler." Horizon, Vol. 28, no. 7, September 1985, (p. 313). Demott, Benjamin. “Funny, wise and true.” New York Times Book Review, March 14, 1982, (p. 432).Updike, John. "Bellow, Vonnegut, Tyler, Le Guin, Cheever." Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism, New York: Knopf 1983, (pp. 434-435). “At a Glance: Dining at Homesick Restaurant.” Available [online], April 23, 1999, http// www.Amazon.com." A Glance: Breathing Lessons." Available [online], April 23, 1999, http// www.Amazon.com. "Crane, Gwen "Anne Tyler Writers CD, (pp).. 1-19).
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