Dinner at the homesick restaurant - Page 1-36

Introduction:The story was written by Ann Tyler. Critics generally consider Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Anne Tyler's ninth novel, to be among her best work. It won the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction and was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award and the 1983 Pulitzer Prize. Also a commercial success, it has to date sold more than 60,000 copies in hardcover and more than 655,000 in paperback. Published in 1982, the medium-length fiction spans several decades in the history of the Tull family of Baltimore, Maryland. Often compared to William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying, the narrative begins with 85-year-old Pearl Tull, blind and on her deathbed, attempting to reconcile with her role as a deserted wife and single parent. Will her three grown children—Cody, Jenny, and Ezra—forgive her for sometimes being a physically and verbally abusive mother? Told from alternating points of view, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is ultimately about how growing up in an unconventional, turbulent family affected three children in very different ways.Although many critics considered the novel less optimistic than her other work, it drew much praise for its psychological insight, rich characterization, well-developed plot structure, and impressive handling of multiple points of view. Like many of her other novels—including Earthly Possessions, Searching for Caleb, and The Accidental Tourist—Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is about the burden of a person's past, be it personal, familial, or historicalCritics generally consider Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Anne Tyler's ninth novel, to be among her best work. It won the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction and was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award and the 1983 Pulitzer Prize. Also a commercial success, it has to date sold more than 60,000 copies in hardcover and more than 655,000 in paperback. Published in 1982, the medium-length fiction spans several decades in the history of the Tull family of Baltimore, Maryland. Often compared to William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying, the narrative begins with 85-year-old Pearl Tull, blind and on her deathbed, attempting to reconcile with her role as a deserted wife and single parent. Will her three grown children—Cody, Jenny, and Ezra—forgive her for sometimes being a physically and verbally abusive mother? Told from alternating points of view, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is ultimately about how growing up in an unconventional, turbulent family affected three children in very different ways.Although many critics considered the novel less optimistic than her other work, it drew much praise for its psychological insight, rich characterization, well-developed plot structure, and impressive handling of multiple points of view. Like many of her other novels—including Earthly Possessions, Searching for Caleb, and The Accidental Tourist—Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is about the burden of a person's past, be it personal, familial, or historical.Chapter 1:Chapter One, "Something You Should Know," opens as Pearl Tull lies dying in her Baltimore home. Her son Ezra sits next to her. She recalls her life, not in chronological order, but in the way memory works, she remebered her past. When she met her husband - Beck Tull, she was thirty years old and he was twenty-four. He was working in the Tanner Corporation as a saleman. The company sold its farm and garden equipment all over the eastern seaboard and where he would surely, surely rise, a smart young fellow like him. She met him at the Baptist church, which Pearl was only visiting because her girlfriend Emmaline was a member. After that they had their Baptist wedding and spent their honeymoon moving to Newport News. And they always moved and moved again. for the first six years they had no children and the moves was fairly easy. Then Cody that was her first boy was born. One Sunday night in 1944, Beck said he didn't want to stay married. His company was sending him to Norfolk, but he thought it best if he went alone. At the same time, they were living in Baltimore, in a row house on Calvert Street. The children were fourteen, eleven, and nine. And she told her them that their Dad was away on business. And he had never came back. Fifty dollars a month from him to send to Pearl. And she had to take care their children herself. Return the normal life, she felt bad and she wanted to meet all her children. But she didn't want to go to hospital.Ok, that is the first chapter of the story. How do you feel? I thought that book is easier than my old book. I really want to know what happen will occur in next chapters. I want to know Beck will come back or not when Pearl had a serious sick. And I want to know how Anne Tyler put the book name was Dinner in the homesick restaurant. I will let everybody know about that. I think this book make me excited.