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Review: The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

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"Yes, that is my son," the man says, identifying the body in the intensive care unit. Grief threatens to break his face into pieces, and then something closes shut inside of him. He has always had a very controlled nature, fearful of emotion and revelation, but now a true ice age begins, and after a year his wife tells him she wants a divorce. It is because he cannot seem to feel anything.

"The Accidental Tourist" begins on that note of emotional sterility, and the whole movie is a journey toward a smile at the end.

The man's name is Macon Leary ( William Hurt ), and he writes travel books for people who detest traveling. He advises his readers on how to avoid human contact, where to find "American food" abroad and how to convince themselves they haven't left home. His own life is the same sort of journey, and maybe it began in childhood. His sister and two brothers still live together in the house where they were born, and any life outside of their routine would be unthinkable.

Macon's wife ( Kathleen Turner ) moves out, leaving him with the dog, Edward, who does like to travel and is deeply disturbed by the curious life his masters have provided for him. He barks at ghosts and snaps at strangers. It is time for Macon to make another one of his overseas research trips, so he takes the dog to be boarded at a kennel, and that's where he meets Muriel Pritchett ( Geena Davis ). Muriel has Macon's number from the moment he walks through the door. She can see he's a basket case, but she thinks she can help. She also thinks her young son needs a father.

Macon isn't so sure. He doesn't use the number she gives him. But later, when the dog trips him and he breaks his leg, he takes Edward back to the kennel, and this time he submits to a little obedience training of his own. He agrees to acknowledge that Muriel exists, and before long they are sort of living together (lust still exists in his body, but it lurks so far from the center of his feelings that sex hardly seems to cheer him up).

The peculiarity about these central passages in the film is that they are quite cheerful and sometimes even very funny, even though Macon himself is mired in a deep depression. Davis, as Muriel, brings an unforced wackiness to her role in scenes like the one where she belts out a song while she's doing the dishes. But she is not as simple as she sometimes seems, and when Macon gets carried away with a little sentimental generalizing about the future, she warns him, "Don't make promises to my son that you are not prepared to keep." There is also great good humor in the characters in Macon's family: brothers Porter ( David Ogden Stiers ) and Charles ( Ed Begley Jr.) and sister Rose ( Amy Wright ), a matriarch who feeds the family, presides over their incomprehensible card games and supervises such traditional activities as alphabetizing the groceries on the kitchen shelves. One evening Macon takes his publisher, Julien ( Bill Pullman ), home to dinner and Julien is struck with a thunderbolt of love for Rose. He eventually marries her, but a few weeks later Julien tells Macon that Rose has moved back home with the boys; she was concerned that they had abandoned regular meals and were eating only gorp.

This emergency triggers the movie's emotional turning point, which is subtle but unmistakable. Nobody knows Rose as well as Macon does, and so he gives Julien some very particular advice: "Call her up and tell her your business is going to pieces. Ask if she could just come in and get things organized. Get things under control. Put it that way.

Use those words. Get things under control, tell her." In context, this speech is hilarious. It is also the first time in the film that Macon has been able to extend himself to help anybody, and it starts him on the road to emotional growth. Clinging to the sterility and loneliness that has been his protection, he doesn't realize at first that he has turned the corner. He still doubts that he needs Muriel, and when she buys herself a ticket and follows him to Paris, he refuses to have anything to do with her. When his wife also turns up in Paris, there is a moment when he thinks they may be able to patch things together again, and then finally Macon arrives at the sort of moment he has been avoiding all of his life: He has to make a choice. But by then the choice is obvious; he has already made it, by peeking so briefly out of his shell.

The screenplay for "The Accidental Tourist," by Kasdan and Frank Galati , is able to reproduce a lot of the tone and dialogue of the Anne Tyler novel without ever simply being a movie version of a book. The textures are too specific and the humor is too quirky and well-timed to be borrowed. The filmmakers have reinvented the same story in their own terms. The movie is a reunion for Kasdan, Hurt and Turner, who all three launched their careers with " Body Heat " (1981). Kasdan used Hurt again in " The Big Chill " (1983) and understands how to employ Hurt's gift for somehow being likable at the same time he seems to be withdrawn.

What Hurt achieves here seems almost impossible: He is depressed, low-key and intensely private through most of the movie, and yet somehow he wins our sympathy. What Kasdan achieves is just as tricky; I've never seen a movie so sad in which there was so much genuine laughter. "The Accidental Tourist" is one of the best films of the year.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The Accidental Tourist (1989)

121 minutes

Kathleen Turner as Sarah

William Hurt as MacOn

Ed Begley Jr. as Charles

David Ogden Stiers as Porter

Geena Davis as Muriel

Amy Wright as Rose

Bill Pullman as Julian

Robert Gorman as Alexander

Bradley Mott as Mr. Loomis

Screenplay by

• Frank Galati
• John Williams

Photographed by

• John Bailey

Produced by

• Charles Okun
• Michael Grillo
• Carol Littleton

Based On The Novel by

Directed by.

• Lawrence Kasdan

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The Accidental Tourist

56 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-20

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

Anne Tyler’s The Accidental Tourist is a literary fiction novel that follows the character-driven story of Macon Leary, who must navigate life following the death of his son and the dissolution of his marriage. The Accidental Tourist was originally published in 1985 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The Accidental Tourist is Anne Tyler’s 10th novel and one of her most recognized works. This study guide follows the paperback Berkley edition released in 1986.

Plot Summary

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Macon Leary is a writer based out of Baltimore who creates travel guides for people who must travel on business but do not want to be bothered with discomfort or unexpected experiences. Macon is an expert at finding the most comfortable and convenient solutions to average problems. While driving back from a beach vacation, Macon’s wife, Sarah , informs him that she wants a divorce. It’s been a year since their son, Ethan, was unexpectedly killed, and the two have grieved in very different ways. After Sarah moves out, Macon restructures their house, creating a multitude of systems and contraptions to maximize comfort and convenience. When it comes time for Macon to go on his next trip for work, he goes to board the family dog, Edward . He learns Edward is blacklisted from the vet for biting a worker last time he was boarded. Desperate, Macon finds another vet, where he meets Muriel Pritchett. Muriel is talkative and great with dogs. She agrees to let Macon board Edward and proposes that she give Edward obedience lessons. Macon declines and goes on his trip. When he returns, he commits to more systems to run the house. As these systems break down, Macon has an accident, resulting in a broken leg.

Macon moves in with his siblings, Rose , Charles, and Porter, while his leg heals. The Leary siblings are as peculiar as Macon with their habits, rituals, and organizational tendencies. They don’t answer the phone, eat baked potatoes often, and play the same made-up card game they’ve played since they were children. Macon’s siblings complain about Edward’s behavior, but Macon struggles to do anything about it because Edward belonged to Ethan. Finally, after being bit on the hand, Macon reaches out to Muriel, who has persistently tried to get Macon to hire her ever since they met. Muriel is great with Edward and helps Macon teach Edward things like sitting, staying, and walking on a leash. Edward struggles to learn to lie down, so Macon calls the vet. The clerk informs Macon that Muriel is out that day because her son is sick. The next time Macon sees Muriel, he asks how her son is, and she loses her temper because he wasn’t supposed to know about her son yet. Macon fires Muriel in the same scene because she harshly punishes Edward. As Macon’s leg heals, he struggles to overcome his grief from Ethan’s death and his separation from Sarah. When Sarah invites Macon to dinner, he proposes they have another baby to resolve their marital issues, but Sarah instead tells Macon she wants a divorce and cites his seemingly callous reaction after Ethan’s death and lack of comfort to her as her reason.

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After Macon gets his cast off, he flies to New York for work. He visits a skyscraper restaurant, where he has a panic attack after realizing he’s distanced himself from everyone he’s ever cared about. He calls home to ask for help despite his siblings being states away and learns that Edward is misbehaving and has cornered Charles in the pantry. Macon has no one else to call to help Charles and take Edward, so he calls Muriel and asks for her help. Not only does Muriel agree to rescue Charles, but she also comforts Macon and talks him down from his panic. When Macon returns from New York, he allows Muriel to begin training Edward again, and the two begin to spend a lot more time together. Muriel tells Macon all about her life and her son, Alexander. She invites Macon to come to dinner at her house, but Macon is afraid to do so, thinking it will feel like he’s finding substitutes for Sarah and Ethan.

When Macon goes to deliver a letter to Muriel to explain why he won’t have dinner with her, she surprises him with her tenderness, and Macon opens up about his grief regarding Ethan and the way he’s distanced himself from everyone. Muriel invites Macon to sleep in her bed, and he allows her to lead him to her room and tuck him in. Macon begins to spend much more time with Muriel and Alexander, eating dinner with them, helping Alexander with his homework, and joining them at Muriel’s parents’ house for Christmas. Macon’s relationship with Muriel heals him and helps him become less distant from the people around him. He moves in with her and gets to know the people of her street better than he ever knew his own neighbors. He forms a special bond with Alexander, teaching him to fix household items and taking him shopping for clothes.

Eventually, Muriel’s tendencies begin to wear Macon down. He is bothered by her misuse of words, her persistence, her insecurities, and her chaos. Muriel tries to convince Macon to take her to France, but Macon tells her no. Muriel presents Macon a calendar for the current year to show him she’s picked out a wedding day for them. Macon tells her he’s not interested in marrying again because he thinks only perfect couples get married, which leads to an argument and more tension between the couple as time passes.

After encountering Sarah at a wedding, Macon finds Sarah reaching out to him more and more during a trip to Canada. Sarah calls him in every city, at first asking if she can move back into their house because her lease is ending, then just wanting to talk about the weather. She hints that she wants to get back together with Macon and tells him she wishes she were with him in Canada. When Macon lands back in Baltimore, he drives home to Sarah instead of driving to Muriel’s house. They rekindle their relationship, much to Muriel’s heartbreak. Macon and Sarah begin to put their lives back together, buying new furniture and reassembling the house after it was damaged in a snowstorm during Macon’s absence. When Sarah is not around, Macon finds himself longing to talk to someone. He calls Muriel to ask about Alexander’s allergy shots, and Muriel scolds him for having the audacity to contact her about Alexander after abandoning them.

When Macon leaves for France, Muriel shows up on his same flight, having booked the same hotel. Muriel insists that Macon needs her, and Macon feels Muriel will be extremely unprepared to travel in Paris. Macon does his best to avoid Muriel, and she gets along fine without him. He eventually agrees to have dinner with her at a Burger King in Paris, where Muriel fills Macon in about the people on her street. She asks him to come to bed with her, but Macon declines. After several days in Paris, Macon starts day trips to other cities. When he goes to invite Muriel to join him, he throws his back out and becomes incapacitated. He calls his publisher to inform him of the delay, and word gets back to Sarah, who shows up in Paris to take care of Macon. She informs Macon that she saw Muriel, and he tells her that she followed him to France on her own accord. Sarah becomes excited about having a second honeymoon with Macon while they’re in France. One night, she asks Macon why he didn’t do anything to stop Muriel from getting on the plane with him. Macon doesn’t have an answer and realizes he’s never made any major life decisions on his own. Everything that has happened to him has resulted from passively accepting things. He stays up all night thinking and eventually decides to return to Muriel, realizing she is better for him.

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New york times best sellers, pulitzer prize fiction awardees &..., valentine's day reads: the theme of love.

The Accidental Tourist

by Anne Tyler

The accidental tourist themes.

Before The Accidental Tourist has even begun, Macon and Sarah Leary have lost their son in a tragic and senseless way. This loss has directly led to their own relationship also disintegrating. Throughout the book, we see how the couple separately deals with their grief. For Macon, it is a particularly difficult struggle. Instead of trying to confront his pain head-on, he suppresses it with his many strange "systems" of organization that he implements, reflecting this resistance to fully dealing with his own emotions. Among all of the Leary siblings, there is this common reluctance to acknowledge the reality of death and loss. Macon is frustrated by the way no one has uttered Ethan 's name since he was killed; it is not until his niece Susan speaks about Ethan that it occurs to Macon that others also mourn his son.

As the book progresses, Macon somewhat comes to terms with Ethan's death, realizing that the only way to truly heal from grief is not to forget Ethan but rather to imagine him as still alive through memory, co-existing in a parallel realm. Yet Macon's ultimate choice at the end of the book—to leave Sarah for Muriel Pritchett —also demonstrates that part of him wants to start anew and cast his old life with Ethan and Sarah into the past, in order to protect himself from more potential loss and have some sense of control over his destiny.

Love and the loss of it haunt the entirety of The Accidental Tourist . The story shows Macon grappling to discover the true meaning of love. It is clear that he loves Sarah and his son Ethan, but he has lost both of them. As a result, Macon struggles with motivation to live, feeling that, through loss, love has been taken from him. Yet Macon gradually comes to recognize that connections with others—whether it be with his deceased son or his estranged ex-wife—endure, despite separation. This is one of the central currents of the novel.

Macon is faced with distinguishing between comfort and true love. When he first parts from Sarah, he misses her deeply and can't imagine life with any other woman; Sarah is the one who "gets" him and his eccentricities. When Muriel crosses his path, he initially resists opening up to her, but when he finally does, he is magnetized into her very different and colorful world. He falls in love with Muriel for totally different reasons than his attraction to Sarah; her contrasting nature helps Macon to come further out of his shell and embrace the messiness of life that he has long feared. For him, this is a new view of love that is something beyond his comfortable routine. His ultimate choice to be with Muriel over Sarah, despite his persevering feelings for his first wife, is a decision to embrace the sort of love that challenges him and helps him to become a better person.

Macon has a strong tendency to isolate himself, whether it be physically or emotionally. After Ethan dies, he locks himself even more deeply in his own emotions, refusing to share his thoughts and pains with his wife Sarah, leading to their separation. Macon often reflects on how he has difficulty communicating with others and has isolated himself in a sort of shell that prevents genuine contact with the outside world. Yet this is his comfort zone, and he has a hard time leaving it. Ironically, Macon writes tour guides for a living, but even when he ventures off to exotic foreign cities, he remains in his own bubble, staying in hotel rooms until he can fly back home again to familiar surroundings. He even hides behind a large book on every plane and train ride in order to avoid any social interaction. Starting a relationship with Muriel is one way Macon starts to come out of his isolation to embrace a different type of life.

One common characteristic of the Leary family is the need for control. Macon, for instance, uses a highly controlled routine to feel safe in the world. After a tumultuous childhood, where their unstable mother Alicia was frequently moving the children around, the Leary siblings have learned to cope through implementing strict and often strange modes of organization. This is exemplified after Macon's separation, when he invents bizarre ways of dealing with chores, such as creating a "body bag" so he does not have to wash his linens. His sister Rose is also fond of tightly organizing the household regimen, demonstrated in the way she alphabetically arranges the groceries.

Yet even with all the effort to control, Macon is still left helpless when it comes to his unruly pet dog, Edward . Of course, Edward is merely a mirror for the emotional chaos that Macon suppresses through his carefully planned "systems." The process of training Edward runs parallel to Macon beginning to allow his own inner fears to be tamed, coming out of his self-imposed alienation to date Muriel. He starts to realize that despite his desire for stability, life will never be controllable or predictable: even after the tragedy of losing his son, he still must open up and take risks in life.

Eccentricity

Many of Anne Tyler 's characters in The Accidental Tourist are highly eccentric. This is ironic, considering that Macon and Sarah crave to live some elusive "normal" life after the death of their son. They begin to tire of the eccentricities of one another. Sarah, especially, has grown weary of the Leary family's peculiar habits and rituals, such as the endless rules to their after-dinner card games. Both Sarah and Macon discover, however, that "normal" does not really exist. Macon dates Muriel, who has a slew of her own strange qualities. Sarah dates a man whose eccentricities bother her, to the point that she cuts off the relationship.

Macon, who is a quietly observant character, often notes the strange people who populate his neighborhood or the foreign places he visits. His awareness of the little quirks of others brings him a sort of comfort and deeper understanding of humanity, even while he keeps his distance. For instance, the highly frightened old woman he meets on one plane ride helps him to feel more stable and normal.

Modern marriage

The marriage of Macon and Sarah—along with its dissolution—is a central component of the novel. In older times, marriage was seen as an unbreakable vow, where the couple is supposed to work out differences for the sake of the union. In more modern times, divorce has become extremely common, with slight disagreements becoming fodder to permanently part ways. This is at play in Macon's relationship, where the death of a child draws the two apart instead of bringing them closer. In this time period (the 1980s), it has become more acceptable to take space apart in order to figure out which each partner truly wants. Even when Macon is with Muriel, he declines her marriage proposal, remarking that the formality of marriage is overrated. In one way, we can see Macon's point of view, yet in another, it is clear that Macon's argument is less a philosophical one than it is a reflection of his fear of commitment.

Good and evil

Even in the seemingly tranquil suburban setting that Anne Tyler's characters occupy, the battle between good and evil appears as a prominent theme in the story. Macon and Sarah's son, Ethan, has been killed randomly and brutally while at a fast-food restaurant. This senseless death shatters his parents' lives, waking them up to the fact that evil is not an abstract concept but rather something that can deeply touch anyone at any time. After Ethan's murder, Sarah in particular struggles with living in what she now considers to be a dark and evil world.

Despite the obvious evilness that lurks in society, Macon comes to see that there is also much good, such as in the benevolent encounters he has with strangers while traveling. In this way, the novel underscores the idea that good and evil begin in the small and trivial interactions of daily life and that each person has the choice of which side they wish to perpetuate.

The Accidental Tourist Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Accidental Tourist is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Standing water in the road is compared to a wide lake.

A wide lake, it seemed, in the center of the highway crashed against the underside of the car and slammed it to the right.

How does Macon meet Muriel?

Macon meets Muriel when he hires her to train his dog.

How is Macon described in Chapter 1?

From the text:

He was a tall, pale, gray-eyed man, with straight fair hair cut close to his head, and his skin was that thin kind that easily burns.

Study Guide for The Accidental Tourist

The Accidental Tourist study guide contains a biography of Anne Tyler, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Accidental Tourist
• The Accidental Tourist Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Accidental Tourist

The Accidental Tourist essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler.

• The Accidental Acceptance: Family and Modernity in 'The Accidental Tourist' and 'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant'

Lesson Plan for The Accidental Tourist

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Accidental Tourist
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Accidental Tourist Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Accidental Tourist

• Introduction
• Plot summary

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My Favorite Novel for a Shot of Inspiration

My job sends me to a lot of comic book conventions, so I’ve spent many hours in a 10×10 booth chatting with science fiction, fantasy, and horror enthusiasts. Whenever someone raises the subject of “favorite author,” my Comic-Con friends are usually surprised by my answer: Anne Tyler, author of so-called “family novels” and “marriage novels” like DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT, BREATHING LESSONS , and A SPOOL OF BLUE THREAD . She’s my go-to writer any time I need a shot of inspiration; I’ll just open any of her books and start reading, and within 30 minutes I am fully recharged. There’s something about her style and voice that I find irresistible.

My favorite Anne Tyler novel is THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST—the story of Macon Leary, a travel writer who hates to travel. After Macon’s son dies in a violent tragedy, he and his wife are consumed with grief and end up separating. Forced to start anew in midlife, Macon becomes depressed, ends up breaking his leg, and falls into a new relationship with a kooky dog trainer.

If the novel I’ve just described sounds rather bleak, let me assure you that it’s just the opposite—joyful, exhilarating, and brimming with comic invention. In fact, what I love most about THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST (and a lot of other Anne Tyler novels) is the way its characters are always thinking creatively, always designing new ways to save time, save money, and amuse themselves. Macon writes a series of travel guides for businessmen who don’t like to travel. His siblings play a card game called Vaccination, which “they’d invented as children…[and it] had grown so convoluted over the years that no one else had the patience to learn it.” The kooky dog trainer, Muriel, runs a concierge service called “George” that also offers chauffeuring, poison-proofing, and bomb detection.

When THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST was first published in 1985, these characters were described by many as “quirky misfits,” but I think they were simply ahead of their time. If the novel were set in 2017, there’s no doubt Muriel would be working in our new sharing/service economy; she’d be renting her spare bedroom on Airbnb, driving for Uber, and raising money for her creative projects on Kickstarter.

In one of my favorite scenes, Macon’s sister Rose pioneers a new way to roast a Thanksgiving turkey. She’s heard about slow-cooked beef and decides to take the same approach to poultry, heating the turkey overnight at the low temperature of 140 degrees. By dinner the turkey is a ruined, dried-out mess (and probably poisonous)…but here again, I’d argue that Rose was simply 30 years ahead of her time. Google “slow-cooked turkey” today and you’ll find dozens of websites showing you how to do it properly!

There’s so much joyful invention and imagination in THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST, I never get tired of (re)reading it. It’s also one of the most hopeful novels I’ve ever read. Some people are lucky enough to rediscover happiness after a terrible tragedy, and THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST shows how one reluctant traveler does just that.

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The Books: “The Accidental Tourist” (Anne Tyler)

I have so many personal associations with this book that I’m not even sure how to write about it – as a book, I mean. It’s really what brought my first boyfriend and me together … 5 million years ago. I still have the copy he gave to me in that long-ago summer with a note from him in the front. He was older than I was – not by much – 6 or 7 years – but I was 20 years old, so that’s a HUGE age difference. Now it wouldn’t be anything. Hell, 20 years is no longer a big age difference – but back then it was. I was in college, he was in law school, totally different times in our lives. We had known each other for years – I had met him when I was 16. See? I have to talk about all of this before I talk about the book itself. To me, he was a glamorous older guy – my good friend – but not someone I would have thought of romantically. Mainly I felt he was out of my league. You know, I was 20 years old. A late bloomer. A virgin. I had had a boyfriend in college, sort of – but nothing serious or lasting. The guy who would be my first serious boyfriend seemed way more grown-up than me, and always was dating some hot intimidating WOMAN, so I never “crushed” on him because – what would the point of THAT be? But we were good friends, and one summer we started hanging out a lot. Having a blast. (He was such a fun person.) He happened to be reading The Accidental Tourist at the time. I was working 2 or 3 jobs, and he would show up at my place of work, just to say Hi. He would bring me ice coffee. We spent entire days at the beach. We had adventures in a small outboard motor, tooling around Newport, pulling up to docks alongside gigantic YACHTS – and going into whatever bar was there and having a Bloody Mary. I had a cocktail dress in my bag, so we would stroll up the dock, in our flip-flops and shorts, towards some glamorous restaurant, slip into the bathrooms, change into our dress-up duds, and meet at the bar. Then we would go back to the restrooms, change back into our flip-flops and shorts and go back into our outboard motor, and put-put over to the NEXT bar to do it again. Bar-hopping via outboard motor. I was so naive that I had no idea I was being courted. Antonio (that was his name) told me later that it was reading The Accidental Tourist , with its two misfit lead characters, that made him take another look at me, and start to fall in love with me. Much later, I would see that as an insult. Oh, so, I’m a MISFIT, THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE SAYING?? But at the time, it was that book that brought us together. He begged me to read it. He gave me a copy with a blunt note in the front … something that made me think (FINALLY): “Huh…… is something going on here???” Well, there was, and I read the book, and loved it, and Antonio eventually made his move, and whatever, we were together for four years. Ancient freakin’ history. The interesting thing is: Antonio was very much like an Anne Tyler character. He had his “way” of doing things and anything that deviated was a deviation – not just a different way of doing things. He considered his way the default. I am, to put it mildly, not that way at ALL. Who cares if you cut the bell pepper longwise or crosswise? I honestly would need a bone marrow transplant in order to give a shit about stuff like that. I think Antonio saw himself in that book – and saw that maybe it would be okay if he let himself fall in love with the freckled crazy girl in glasses who had messy handwriting and was kind of clumsy. I mean, I think that’s how he saw me! He loved me, don’t get me wrong – and we actually still love each other – he’s one of my favorite people ever, always will be … but he had to convince himself that a “deviation” from his norm would be okay, that I would be safe, he would be okay with me. He had never dated anyone like me. His girlfriends were either breezy sophisticated types wearing colored heels and sundresses or hard-bodied tomboy types who liked to ski and windsurf and bungee jump. Uhm, yeah, so, I was neither. I liked to read Anne of Green Gables and I liked to write in my diary, and I enjoyed going skinny dipping in the ocean after my shift at the pizza joint. I was loyal to my family on an almost tribal level. Still am. I was an actress. I had a depressive streak. I had great friends. This whole thing was a “deviation” for Antonio and it stressed him out. I am still convinced that we were not meant to be together – and I’m shocked it lasted as long as it did – my not giving a crap about which way to cut the peppers became a metaphor for our differences. NOW I would have no problem handling the situation and telling someone to chill out, don’t tell me how to cut a pepper, I’m a grown woman, there’s not only one way to do things. But then I couldn’t defend myself. It was a mess. BUT. In that first summer, it was all tremendously exciting!! Still one of the best summers I’ve ever had.

Anne Tyler is the storyteller of people with Asperger’s, basically. All of her characters are fussy, a bit antisocial, and have OCD-level organizational skills. I’ve read some of her other books, but never really got into them because The Accidental Tourist was such an important book to me – my experience with Anne Tyler kind of began and ended there. I know she’s a big deal, one of the most successful American writers writing today … and she’s marvelous, she really is – The Accidental Tourist is a terrific book. Heartbreaking. The film made of the book was not too bad, either! I feel like the film really got what it was about those two people that made them fit so perfectly together, eventually. It’s an odd pairing and on the face of it makes NO sense.

Macon Leary is a lonely man, who has split from his wife in the wake of their son’s murder. All of the underlying problems in their marriage (he is a systematic OCD kind of guy – she is impulsive) come screaming to the forefront once their son is gone (he was murdered in a Burger Bonanaza during a field trip at summer camp). Macon Leary lives alone, and we get scenes of him washing dishes – in his own particular way (he has a “way” for everything) – and he keeps imagining that his ex-wife is watching him at all times, kind of smirking at his fussiness, and shaking her head in contempt. Macon kind of fell into travel writing – the details are lost to me – but he got some assignment to write a travel piece, and the way he wrote it was so funny that the editor asked him to do a series. Basically, he writes about travel for reluctant fearful travelers. Macon Leary does not enjoy travel. He finds it unbearable. For such a rigid guy, all of that change – and having to figure things out in a foreign land – are unbearably stressful – and he writes his travel pieces in that tone. It’s all about comfort. Where is the McDonalds in Amsterdam? You can get Sweet ‘n Low in Beijing, you just have to ask. Make sure you stay here at this hotel, because it looks most like a Holiday Inn in Iowa. You know: looking for signs of home even in another country. His travel pieces hit a nerve, and so he has written a series of books for “The Accidental Tourist”. He writes for people who want to pretend they have never left home.

Macon can’t stand the travel, but he loves the writing part of it. Not a happy man. Full of regrets and fear. He comes from a family of fussbudgets – his sister alphabetizes her spice rack, it is desperately important – and marriage doesn’t seem to really be “for” these people. Macon’s marriage was an anomaly. So now that he is back to single status, he goes over to his siblings’ house and they play cards, and it’s like they’re back in childhood now – only they are all middle-aged.

It’s kind of disturbing.

In the middle of all of this, Macon brings his dog to an obedience school – where he meets Muriel, a dog expert. She’s got frizzy hair. She’s rather kooky. And she doesn’t have many boundaries. Like, she calls Macon at home. Macon is so rigid that anything deviating from his small path of normal feels like a threat, or unbearably painful. After all, he couldn’t protect his son from going on a simple outing to a burger joint. The world is a tremendously dangerous and unpredictable place. Better to just hunker down, walk in a straight line, and don’t disturb anyone. Muriel doesn’t play by those rules. She wants to talk about his dog.

And you know, the details are lost to me … but slowly, inevitably, Macon starts to fall in love with Muriel. But because he’s Macon – because he’s an Anne Tyler character – love actually feels like stress , rather than love. That was not something I personally related to as a 20 year old girl … but boy is it something I relate to now. Love feels like stress … I know it’s not … but this is not a rational thing we’re talking about here. We’re talking about matters of the heart. If you’re a rigid person, stuck in your ways (and I am) – then anything that comes along and pushes you, or messes up your schedule … feels wrong . It takes Macon forever to realize that Muriel is not wrong , and that stress is actually love .

Tyler is a wonderful writer (as you’ll see in the excerpt below) – and quite funny. She has great compassion for her Asperger’s-syndrome characters – she’s probably got a lot of those qualities herself, she writes about it so well.

I’ve only read the book once, way back then, during that sunny endless summer when I fell in love for the first time. It seems caught in that moment in time, for me. I have no desire to re-read it – and actually considered skipping it for my Daily Book Excerpt – because it’s so potent and such a carrier of memories. But I’ve got my own OCD going on, and what I call adult-onset Asperger’s, and I felt I couldn’t skip the book, even with all the associations, so here it is.

Here’s an excerpt. Macon is having dinner with his siblings.

When his brothers came home from work, the house took on a relaxed, relieved atmosphere. Rose drew the living room curtains and lit a few soft lamps. Charles and Porter changed into sweaters. Macon started mixing his special salad dressing. He believed that if you pulverized the spices first with a marble mortar and pestle, it made all the difference. The others agreed that no one else’s dressing tasted as good as Macon’s. “Since you’ve been gone,” Charles told him, “we’ve had to buy that bottled stuff from the grocery store.” He made it sound as if Macon had been gone a few weeks or so – as if his entire marriage had been just a brief trip elsewhere.

For supper they had Rose’s pot roast, a salad with Macon’s dressing, and baked potatoes. Baked potatoes had always been their favorite food. They had learned to fix them as children, and even after they were big enough to cook a balanced meal they used to exist solely on baked potatoes whenever Alicia left them to their own devices. There was something about the smell of a roasting Idaho that was so cozy, and also, well, conservative , was the way Macon put it to himself. He thought back on years and years of winter evenings, the kitchen windows black outside, the corners furry with gathering darkness, the four of them seated at the chipped enamel table meticulously filling scooped-out potato skins with butter. You let the butter melt in the skins while you mashed and seasoned the floury insides; the skins were saved till last. It was almost a ritual. He recalled that once, during one of their mother’s longer absences, her friend Eliza had served them what she called potato boats – restuffed, not a bit like the genuine article. The children, with pinched, fastidious expressions, had emptied the stuffing and proceeded as usual with the skins, pretending to overlook her mistake. The skins should be crisp. They should not be salted. The pepper should be freshly ground. Paprika was acceptable, but only if it was American. Hungarian paprika had too distinctive a taste. Personally, Macon could do without paprika altogether.

While they ate, Porter discussed what to do with his children. Tomorrow was his weekly visitation night, when he would drive over to Washington, where his children lived with their mother. “The thing of it is,” he said, “eating out in restaurants is so artificial. It doesn’t seem like real food. And anyway, they all three have different tastes. They always argue over where to go. Someone’s on a diet, someone’s turned vegetarian, someone can’t stand food that crunches. And I end up shouting, ‘Oh, for God’s sake, we’re going to Such-and-Such and that’s that!’ So we go and everybody sulks throughout the meal.”

“Maybe you should just not visit,” Charles said reasonably. (He had never had children of his own.)

“Well, of course I want to visit, Charles. I just wish we had some different program. You know what would be ideal? If we could all do something with tools together. I mean like the old days before the divorce, when Danny helped me drain the hot water heater or Susan sat on a board I was sawing. If I could just drop by their house, say, and June and her husband could go to a movie or something, then the kids and I would clean the gutters, weatherstrip the windows, wrap the hot water pipes … Well, that husband of hers is no use at all, you can bet he lets his hot water pipes sit around naked. I’d bring my own tools, even. We’d have a fine time! Susan could fix us cocoa. Then at the end of the evening I’d pack up my tools and off I’d go, leaving the house in perfect repair. Why, June ought to jump at the chance.”

“Then why not suggest it,” Macon said.

“Nah. She’d never go for it. She’s so impractical. I said to her last week, I said, ‘You know that front porch step is loose? Springing up from its nails every time you walk on it wrong.’ She said, ‘Oh, Lord, yes, it’s been that way,’ as if Providence had decreed it. As if nothing could be done about it. They’ve got leaves in the gutter from way last winter but leaves are natural after all; why go against nature. She’s so impractical.”

Porter himself was the most practical man Macon had ever known. He was the only Leary who understood money. His talent with money was what kept the family firm solvent – if just barely. It wasn’t a very wealthy business. Grandfather Leary had founded it in the early part of the century as a tinware factory, and turned to bottle caps in 1915. The Bottle Cap King, he called himself, and was called in his obituary, but in fact most bottle caps were manufactured by Crown Cork and always had been; Grandfather Leary ran a distant second or third. His only son, the Bottle Cap Prince, had barely assumed his place in the firm before quitting to volunteer for World War II – a far more damaging enthusiasm, it turned out, than any of Alicia’s. After he was killed the business limped along, never quite succeeding and never quite failing, till Porter bounced in straight from college and took over the money end. Money to Porter was something almost chemical – a volatile substance that reacted in various interesting ways when combined with other substances. He wasn’t what you’d call mercenary; he didn’t want the money for its own sake but for its intriguing possibilities, and in fact when his wife divorced him he handed over most of his property without a word of complaint.

It was Porter who ran the company, pumping in money and ideas. Charles, more mechanical, dealt with the production end. Macon had done a little of everything when he worked there, and had wasted away with boredom doing it, for there wasn’t really enough to keep a third man busy. It was only for symmetry’s sake that Porter kept urging him to return. “Tell you what, Macon,” he said now, “why not hitch a ride down with us tomorrow and look over your old stomping ground?”

“No, thanks,” Macon told him.

“Plenty of room for your crutches in back.”

“Maybe some other time.”

They followed Rose around while she washed the dishes. She didn’t like them to help because she had her own method, she said. She moved soundlessly through the old-fashioned kitchen, replacing dishes in the high wooden cabinets. Charles took the dog out; Macon couldn’t manage his crutches in the spongy backyard. And Porter pulled the kitchen shades, meanwhile lecturing Rose on how the white surfaces reflected the warmth back into the room now that the nights were cooler. Rose said, “Yes, Porter, I know all that,” and lifted the salad bowl to the light and examined it a moment before she put it away.

They watched the news, dutifully, and then they went out to the sun porch and sat at their grandparents’ card table. They played something called Vaccination – a card game they’d invented as children, which had grown so convoluted over the years that no one else had the patience to learn it. In fact, more than one outsider had accused them of altering the rules to suit the circumstances. “Now, just a minute,” Sarah had said, back when she’d still had hopes of figuring it out. “I thought you said aces were high.”

“They are.”

“So that means –”

“But not when they’re drawn from the deck.”

“Aha! Then why was the one that Rose drew counted high?”

“Well, she did draw it after a deuce, Sarah.”

“Aces drawn after a deuce are high?”

“No, aces drawn after a number that’s been drawn two times in a row just before that.”

Sarah had folded her fan of cards and laid them face down – the last of the wives to give up.

Macon was in quarantine and had to donate all his cards to Rose. Rose moved her chair over next to his and played off his points while he sat back, scratching the cat behind her ears. Opposite him, in the tiny dark windowpane, he saw their reflections – hollow-eyed and severely cheek-boned, more interesting versions of themselves.

The telephone in the living room gave a nipped squeak and then a full ring. Nobody seemed to notice. Rose laid a king on Porter’s queen and Porter said, “Stinker.” The telephone rang again and then again. In the middle of the fourth ring, it fell silent. “Hypodermic,” Rose told Porter, and she topped the king with an ace.

“You’re a real stinker, Rose.”

In the portrait on the end wall, the Leary children gazed out with their veiled eyes. It occurred to Macon that they were sitting in much the same positions here this evening: Charles and Porter on either side of him, Rose perched in the foreground. Was there any real change? He felt a jolt of something very close to panic. Here he still was! The same as ever! What have I gone and done? he wondered, and he swallowed thickly and looked at his own empty hands.

12 Responses to The Books: “The Accidental Tourist” (Anne Tyler)

The Books: “The Accidental Tourist” (Anne Tyler)

Next book on my adult fiction bookshelf for the Daily Book Excerpt: The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler I have so many personal associations with this book that I’m not even sure how to write about it – as a…

When you said he played cards with his siblings I though of how cozy and fun that would be. I pictured how loud and funny my siblings and I get when we’re together especially when there’s competiton involved! Nope. That excerpt was just sad and dreary. I guess have a hard time relating to characters with no capcity for passion.

Oh but they do have capacity for passion!! (Eventually). They’re just scared of it! Macon is, anyway. He was burnt so badly the last time he “came out to play” that he has reverted to childhood and caution. Watching him open his heart up again to this frizzy-haired dog-walker is one of the delights of this book!

I do think it’s funny how Sarah just puts down her cards eventually, giving up. “Nope. I can’t understand this game. You people are freaks. I’m out.”

Well, if there’s an “eventually” then it would be worth reading! ;) That bit with the card game was funny, like a very complicated inside joke between friends, some things just can’t be explained.

I’ve been sitting here (while working) and racking my brain trying to think if I know anyone like Macon. Wound-tight, vulnerable on the inside, OCD protective voodoo on the outside, so very sensitive. I can’t think of one. I’m generally quiet, but very blunt and impulsive when I do speak – I think I must scare people like that away before I get to know them!

Rose – Yes, there’s a huge payoff in the book because Macon seems so closed and so grief-struck by what happened to his son – you can’t imagine him ever letting love in again.

I’ve got my own OCD type behavior (which can cause me great anxiety) – and also i can be really rigid – but at the same time, I’m not afraid of a mess. It’s an odd combination and years of therapy has not helped me figure it out. HA. I do know that dating someone who was rigid and had to have things a certain way things was a living f***ing hell for me.

I need someone a bit more laidback about mess, or someone who – like Rose in the excerpt – knows that she needs to do the dishes on her own, because she has a system she likes.

I don’t think you’re odd (interesting, sure), almost everyone has little OCD rituals built into their lives. I think of your index card project as trying to maintain some control during a time when nothing else seemed controlable.(I’m probably projecting a little) I have a husband and kids who are on a mission from God to destroy my house, therefore my desk at work is so perfectly organized I can tell if anything at all has been touched. It’s easy to imagine it taking over everything. I used to be a compulsive counter (stairs, books, tiles, etc…) when I was a kid. I’ve mostly broke the habit, when I’m very anxious I catch myself doing it. The things we do to cope facinate me.

I’m pretty sensitive to criticism, so I try not to impose my craziness on anyone else. (your desk is welcome to look like hell, just don’t cry to me when you can’t find anything!)

I only dated one control freak (the rule imposing type), I was 16, he was in college. He did a lot of damage. These days anyone telling me how to cut green peppers would be laughed out of the kitchen at knifepoint, but at 16…sweet, stupid 16.

I guess OCD can be either protective (as in Macon’s case and my own) or be used as a weapon (from the mildly critical to the abusive). Lots to think about.

laughed out of the kitchen at knifepoint

HAHAHAHA That is an awesome image!!!

yes, I have those areas where things MUST be “just so” – and then there are some things I don’t care about. My desk, like yours, is also VERY organized – and I am constnatly re-organizing my bookshelves – because I can’t stand to have one book out of place – but my closet and my shoes? They’re all every which way and I don’t care. I find what I need, I’m cool with that.

I used to do a counting thing, too. I also had a touching thing – having to touch the wall a certain amount of times before leaving the house or all hell would break loose apparently … I actaully still do that sometimes, it’s mainly unconscious, though. Nothing that rules my life, or makes me unable to leave my apartment.

It is now on my “books to look for” list in my calendar.

I read The Shipping News last weekend on your recommendation and loved it. It’s hard to explain how much you love those people and that cold, fish scented place by the end of the book! It really made me feel grateful for the ordinary (sometimes boring) parts of my life, for the rhythm of it all. And now I have a crazy need to learn how to tie proper knots too!

Oh i’m so so glad you read it! Wonderful book! I loved the whole knot theme, too – what a great thruline for the whole thing.

I love love love love love this review. I too had a seminal Anne Taylor experience although mine was with Ladder of Years. I read a few of her books afterwards and mostly what I remember beyond Ladder and Tourist is that in every book at least one character hated (a.) carrying groceries in plastic bags because of how the bags cut into their hands and (b.) newspaper print on their fingers. Wonderful review!

The Books: “Possessing the Secret of Joy” (Alice Walker)

Next book on my adult fiction bookshelf for the Daily Book Excerpt: Possessing the Secret of Joy, by Alice Walker I read this wrenching book in a couple of days in a cold winter when I was living in Chicago….

Courtney – thank you!!

Yes, the fussiness of her characters is so specific, isn’t it?? I can’t stand newsprint on my fingers either – I feel like I COULD be a compulsive hand-washer if I didn’t watch my step!

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The Accidental Tourist Trivia Quiz

"and most importantly, never take along anything on your journey so valuable or dear that its loss would devastate you." travel advice or life philosophy for macon leary, the damaged protagonist of "the accidental tourist", it is arguably both..

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Review/Film; Going Nowhere, Slowly

By Janet Maslin

• Dec. 23, 1988

Anne Tyler's fiction is as revealing of the tiny intimacies that bind people together as of the larger gaps that keep them apart. A key revelation of character, in one of Miss Tyler's novels, is more apt to occur while someone is driving a car or putting away groceries than during a more conventionally dramatic situation. Her writing is beautifully attuned to the minutiae of daily routines, to the seemingly trivial habits that both define and circumscribe her characters' lives. But in the film version of ''The Accidental Tourist,'' which opens today at Cinema 2, it's the broad strokes that stand out.

''The Accidental Tourist,'' which was unaccountably voted the best film of 1988 by the New York Film Critics' Circle this month, is about a man whose professional life defines his psyche: Macon Leary (Willam Hurt), who has written a series of travel guides for businessmen who wish they could stay home. He roams the world in search of soft bedspreads and American-style restaurants, considering it a victory to ''locate a meal in London not much different from a meal in Cleveland.''

Macon has trained himself to travel light and leave no footprints, and he has channeled all of his fastidiousness into perfecting this as a science. ''There are very few necessities in this world,'' he has written, ''that do not come in travel-sized packets.'' Macon is also, at the time that the story begins, mourning the loss of his only child, a 12-year-old boy who was shot in a restaurant holdup; as a consequence of this, Macon's long marriage to Sarah (Kathleen Turner) has come to an end. But there is reason to believe that this quiet, methodical, pleasure-denying loner wasn't substantially different before these tragedies occurred.

''The Accidental Tourist'' observes the long, slow reawakening that occurs in Macon after he has hit rock bottom. Though this process is presented in tiny, artful increments in Miss Tyler's novel, it's not the kind of transformation that can easily be captured on the screen. For one thing, Macon barely seems to change at all until this lengthy and meandering film is almost over. Mr. Hurt flinches his way through the story with a pained morose expression that doesn't lift until the film's final moments.

''The Accidental Tourist,'' which was directed by Lawrence Kasdan, is the kind of literary adaptation that forgets that films have a language of their own. A lot of Miss Tyler's dialogue is used in the film, but its effect here is very different from its effect on the page. ''There's something muffled about they way you experience things,'' Sarah tells him. ''It's as if you were trying to slip through life unchanged.'' Speaking of the design on the cover of Macon's travel books, she says, ''That traveling armchair isn't just your logo. It's you.''

A novel can successfully incorporate such pronouncements into its larger scheme, but a film is better off conveying the same ideas in more visual and indirect ways. But ''The Accidental Tourist'' often relies on Miss Tyler's methods without tempering them, and gives a tone of crashing obviousness to material that need not have seemed that way. In addition, the screenplay by Mr. Kasdan and Frank Galati doesn't do much to compensate for moments when Miss Tyler's dialogue lacks a conversational ring.

If ''The Accidental Tourist'' is essentially a one-theme story, it nonetheless has a diffuse and rambling plot. Abandoned by Sarah, and living at home with a very unruly dog, Macon eventually breaks his leg and moves in with the rest of his family. In the ancestral house, presided over by Macon's prematurely middle-aged sister, Rose (Amy Wright, who turns this contentedly eccentric character into the film's brightest light), the other Leary brothers have already come home to roost.

Together, the siblings alphabetize things in the pantry, play card games no one else can understand, refuse to answer their telephone and otherwise reinforce the habits that have made it impossible for them to live with anyone else. Only in these family scenes (with David Ogden Stiers and Ed Begley Jr. playing Macon's brothers) does this dark, somber film have any glimmer of vitality or humor.

Also on the scene is a dog trainer named Muriel Pritchett, a pushy, loudly dressed woman whose nonstop chatter serves as the conversational equivalent of shooting herself in the foot. Muriel doesn't hold much allure for Macon at first, but this doesn't stop her; she sets her cap for him anyhow and hounds him until she breaks down his resistance.

The novel treats Muriel as a charmingly offbeat character, but she's abrasively cute even on the page. On film, in the person of Geena Davis (who tries hard but is sandbagged by her role), she is quite insufferable, as is the notion that she represents Macon's emotional salvation.

Kathleen Turner is a welcome presence in the film, but her scenes with Mr. Hurt never suggest the weariness and familiarity of a 20-year union; without this, the wife's function in the story is less clear than it could be. Bill Pullman is nicely enterprising as Macon's publisher, who visits the Leary household as a curiosity seeker and winds up with a lot more than he bargained for.

''The Accidental Tourist'' is rated PG (''Parental Guidance Suggested''). It includes discreet bedroom scenes and mildly off-color language. Leaving No Footprints THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST, directed by Lawrence Kasdan; screenplay by Frank Galati and Mr. Kasdan, based on the book by Anne Tyler; director of photography, John Bailey; edited by Carol Littleton; music by John Williams; production designer, Bo Welch; produced by Mr. Kasdan, Charles Okun and Michael Grillo; released by Warner Brothers. At Cinema 2, Third Avenue at 60th Street. Running time: 122 minutes. This film is rated PG. Macon ... William Hurt Sarah ... Kathleen Turner Muriel ... Geena Davis Rose ... Amy Wright Porter ... David Ogden Stiers Charles ... Ed Begley Jr. Julian ... Bill Pullman Alexander ... Robert Gorman

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Film / The Accidental Tourist

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The Accidental Tourist is a 1988 American drama film starring William Hurt , Kathleen Turner , and Geena Davis . It was directed by Lawrence Kasdan and scored by John Williams . The film's screenplay was adapted by Kasdan and Frank Galati from the 1985 novel of the same name by Anne Tyler.

Macon Leary (Hurt) is a Baltimore writer of travel guides for reluctant business travelers. His marriage with his wife Sarah (Turner) is disintegrating in the aftermath of the murder of their twelve-year-old son. Sarah eventually leaves Macon, moving out of their house and into an apartment. After he falls down the basement stairs and breaks his leg, Macon returns to his childhood home to stay with his eccentric siblings.

Macon is pursued by Muriel Pritchett (Davis), an animal hospital employee and dog trainer with a sickly son. Macon eventually hires Muriel to put his dog through much-needed obedience training. Although Muriel at first seems brash and unsophisticated, Macon finds himself slowly opening up to her and trusting her, and he spends most nights at her house, which makes things complicated when Sarah becomes aware of the situation and decides they should move back together.

One of the most acclaimed films of 1988, it was nominated for four Academy Awards , including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Supporting Actress for Davis, which she won. John Williams was nominated by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for Best Original Score.

The book and film adaptation contain examples of:

• Adapted Out : Macon's nephews and nieces, Muriel's parents and sister.
• Black Sheep : Muriel, explored in the book where it's learned she became a screw-up in her family's eyes (but not her sister's.)
• Calvinball : What the Leary siblings' card game "Vaccination" seems like to everyone outside their circle, with complicated, almost random rules.
• Determinator : Muriel's main hat. To Macon, she at first seems like a Stalker with a Crush , but it's soon apparent she has the same determination with everything. Her parents think she can't make it on her own with a baby? Screw it, she's going to scrimp by by herself, darn it. Macon tells her not to go to Paris? Hah. She books herself a budget excursion to Paris.
• Sarah complains to Macon that he showed absolutely no emotions about Ethan's death, acting like nothing had happened, and even tried to sell off Ethan's beloved belongings like his bike. Macon retorts of course he's broken up about it, but Sarah is right to some degree. Macon's become so unemotional even Macon's wondering if he has lost the ability to care again. The only hint he shows that he has some emotion left is he refuses to get rid of Edward.
• Even before Ethan's death, Macon wasn't approachable. He later learns from his niece that Ethan mocked his father to his cousins in such a way as to make him seem less like a robot and more like a quirky dad.
• Macon and his siblings, in that they have no sense of direction and constantly get lost.
• Macon and Porter are against that Porter's wife let her teenage son drive several hundred miles alone with his siblings.
• Empty Shell : Macon was never the most emotional person, but Ethan's death turns him into this, and leads to his divorce with Sarah, who says he's no longer just stoic — he's ossified .
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job : In the book, Muriel has several jobs, like running errands and doing laundry for others, because she's barely getting by, and lives in the poor part of Baltimore. Even her dog training job is part-time.
• First Girl Wins : How Muriel assumes the relationship between Macon and Sarah will end up. It nearly does, but Macon chooses Muriel in the end.
• Grief-Induced Split : After Macon and Sarah's twelve-year-old son was murdered, Macon seems to have lost the ability to care, making Sarah leave him. However, when she learns he is dating Muriel—and is getting better—she wants to reconcile.
• He Cleans Up Nicely : Macon loosens some of Muriel's over-protectiveness of Alexander. When Macon lets him buy whatever he wants, he pops out of a dressing room with an oversized t-shirt and jeans. Macon notes that he no longer looks like an asthmatic wimp, but a normal kid with floppy blond hair and huge smile.
• Identifying the Body : Grieving, emotionally shocked Macon has to identify his son Ethan's body. Almost unemotionally, Macon says, "Yes. That is my son." In the original book, Sarah asks him what it was like, and Macon says that the body was Ethan, but the thing that made Ethan Ethan was gone.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl : Muriel Pritchett is a quirky dog trainer who helps both the dog and his owner, Macon Leary. Upon meeting Muriel, Macon's life changes in ways he comes to view as healing. However, in the novel, Muriel is more manic depressive - she sometimes becomes moody and sour, even neglecting her son.
• May–December Romance : Though it's more April-August in the book and even closer in the film. Macon isn't the first older man Muriel's had a serious relationship with.
• In the book, Muriel is an overprotective parent, so Alex is gaunt with close-cropped hair. Ironically, this only leads to bullying in school.
• Also in the book, Muriel describes this of her parents. When her sister starts complaining about it because they stopped focusing on Muriel and are now smothering her . Muriel tells her to stand up to them.
• No Antagonist : Especially so in the film version, which cuts out the closest thing to an antagonistic figure, Muriel's captious mother. The story is, like many of Anne Tyler's works, character-driven.
• Opposites Attract : One of the major themes of the story. Invoked In-Universe by Sarah in the book, who says that Macon and Muriel will be one of those couples at a party whom no one can figure out why they're together. Macon is briefly distracted by this thought, having had those thoughts about others and now was a living example.
• Oven Logic : Inverted : To keep the Thanksgiving turkey moist, Macon's sister cooks it overnight at only 140°F (60°C). Macon think's she's insane, and that it'll breed bacteria. It comes out disgusting (gray, with the chest cavity having caved in), but Julian has two helpings, and apparently no one got sick from it.
• Plot-Triggering Death : Ethan's death before the story begins hangs over the entire story.
• Posthumous Character : Ethan has already been killed in a senseless robbery at sleepaway camp when the story begins.
• Pretty in Mink : Muriel wears a few furs, including a purple rabbit jacket.
• Replacement Goldfish : For Macon, Alexander seems to be one for Ethan. Sarah brings it up to Macon. In the book, she suggests that maybe they could try again — Macon thinks it would be a bad idea.
• Revenge : In the book, Sarah talks about a fantasy in which she would show the murderer how empty and wasted her life is, make him have a deep Heel Realization , before blowing him away with a gun .
• Rummage Sale Reject : Muriel's standard look, and it's justified in the book because she shops in thrift stores to survive.
• The Stoic : Macon tries to be, and largely succeeds. It makes him seem more unemotional than Mr. Spock, however.
• Stalker with a Crush : Macon's second impression of Muriel, only hinted at in the movie.
• Unreliable Narrator : In the first few chapters of the book, Macon's started setting up contraptions and time-saving habits now that he's got the house to himself, such as using Ethan's skateboard as a laundry delivery system and sewing up blankets to create "bod pod" that is easier to wash. It seems natural and inventive to Macon, but later in the book, people are astonished at how off the deep end Macon went, and the reader realizes, yes, Macon was going crazy .
• What Could Have Been : In-Universe , Macon ponders if Ethan would have grown up to be like the French boy who helps him into a taxi. The film manages to convey the moment perfectly.
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The Accidental Tourist (1988)

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Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday.

There’s not that much news from me this week, but I’ve been doing a ton of prep for TechCrunch Early Stage taking place in Boston on April 25. It’s going to be a fantastic show, and you still have time to grab tickets at early-bird prices , if you’re quick.

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Microsoft has orchestrated a heist worthy of a Hollywood plot, snagging the co-founders and much of the staff of Inflection AI, along with the rights to use their tech , for a cool $650 million. The deal, which to me seems more like a ransom payment than an M&A push, includes $620 million for the privilege of using Inflection’s tech and an extra $30 million to ensure Inflection doesn’t sue for Microsoft’s bold talent grab. Reid Hoffman, Microsoft board member and Inflection co-founder, took to LinkedIn to assure everyone that Inflection’s investors would sleep well tonight, with early backers getting a 1.5x return and later ones a modest 1.1x, despite the math not quite adding up. It’s pretty bold to describe a 1.5x return as a “good upside,” by the way — most early-stage funds would be pretty displeased .

• They said your data would be safe:  Facebook (now Meta) was caught red-handed with its digital hands in the Snapchat cookie jar. Dubbed “Project Ghostbusters,” Facebook’s covert operation aimed to snoop on Snapchat’s encrypted traffic, seeking to decode user behavior and gain a competitive edge.
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Stability AI CEO quits because you’re “not going to beat centralized AI with more centralized AI.” Image Credits : David Paul Morris / Bloomberg

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Canoo delivers a Light Tactical Vehicle back in 2022. Image Credits : Canoo

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Image Credits: Lyudinka/Getty Images (modified by TechCrunch)

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The Accidental Tourist

William Hurt and Kathleen Turner star in a romantic comedy-drama about a reluctant travel writer whose world is turned upside-down when his wife leaves him.

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Description.

Nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of Best Supporting Actress for Geena Davis (TV's "Commander in Chief," "Thelma & Louise"). Starring Davis, Academy Award-winner and Golden Globe-nominee William Hurt ("Syriana," "The Village") and Academy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Kathleen Turner ("War of the Roses," "Body Heat") in a romantic comedy-drama about a reluctant travel writer whose world is turned upside-down when his wife leaves him. Co-starring Bill Pullman ("The Grudge," "Igby Goes Down"), Emmy and Golden Globe- nominee Ed Begley, Jr. ("St. Elsewhere"), David Ogden Stiers ("Lilo & Stitch," "M*A*S*H,") and Amy Wright ("Crossing Delancey," "The Dear Hunter"). Based on Anne Tyler's best-selling novel and directed by Academy Award-winner Lawrence Kasdan ("Dreamcatcher," "The Big Chill"), Siskel and Ebert call this "one of the year's very best films.... Great performances by William Hurt and Geena Davis...a masterpiece."

Cast and crew

Lawrence Kasdan

William Hurt

Kathleen Turner

Geena Davis

David Ogden Stiers

Ed Begley Jr.

Bill Pullman

Robert Hy Gorman

Bradley Mott

Seth Granger

Amanda Houck

Caroline Houck

London Nelson

Gregory Gouyer

Bill Lee Brown

Donald Neal

Peggy Converse

Maureen Kerrigan

Jake Kasdan

Paul Williamson

Walter Sparrow

Todd J. Adelman

David Q. Combs

Jonathan Kasdan

Frank Galati

Additional information, released year.

Parental guidance

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