The title of Anne Tyler’s 23rd novel refers to the
protagonist’s willful inability to see reality. He mistakes a fire
hydrant for a person.
A middle-aged bachelor who has a one-man computer repair business,
Micah Mortimer lives for free in the basement of an apartment
building where he is the super. Micah is self-satisfied, even
self-congratulatory, about his circumscribed life. Organizing his
days by routines, thinking himself above messy emotions and
disorder, Micah has no desire to change and no aspirations.
His woman friend's eviction from her apartment, and the son of a
college girlfriend claiming that Micah is his father,
open Micah's eyes to what’s missing in his ordered existence.
Although Redhead by the Side of the Road is shorter and
simpler than some of her novels, Anne Tyler proves once again that
no writer does ordinary people better.
Home
My reviews
My friends'
reviews