It would be a little disingenuous for me to say that I’ve no idea why I chose to read Anne Tyler’s “Redhead by the Side of the Road”. I chose it because the front cover boasted Booker long-listing; the back cover made it sound interesting; and it was on the ‘buy-one-get-one-half-price’ table at Waterstones. There. Confession.
Having now finished, it I can’t say it did very much for me. As a novel it seems a little to ‘slight’, and some of the language Tyler uses – occasionally lazy, too ‘relaxed’, sometime just structurally incorrect – can be annoying. Booker? Really?
If I’m honest, I was hoping for something of a discovery; something to drive me to pick up another of her books the next time I’m shopping. But not this time.
Ian Gouge - Writer 