Clock Dance: A novel

As a child, Willa Drake lives in a seemingly happy household that only she and her sister, Elaine, know is not quite as it should be. Their mother is volatile, sometimes physically violent, and often disappears for days at a time. Though Willa loves her father, she distances herself when she leaves for college, and distances herself still further when she marries Derek, a man of whom her parents do not approve. Two decades later, Willa is a young widow with two teenage sons; years beyond that, she is married again to a persnickety man named Peter, feeling the years pressing down on her and wondering what she has to live for. A phone call from a stranger requesting her help turns Willa’s world upside down–and leads her to a life her younger self could never have imagined.

Divided into sections that represent key stages in Willa’s life, Clock Dance is a moving portrait of a woman adrift–capable of loving and caring deeply about others, even though they don’t always reciprocate, and determined to find a purpose for her life. Anne Tyler’s narration and world-weaving seem effortless; the characters she creates breathe on the page. Fans of Tyler’s many novels may count this among their favorites.