The Accidental Tourist

AT: I did mean that to be his honest answer. If anything, her son was a negative quality — at least in the beginning.

Q: This novel explores the vexed nature of romantic relationships. Do the couples that have formed over the course of this novel stand a chance?

AT: Yes, of course they do. These are flawed relationships — as all are — and they require compromise — as all do. But at least one member of each couple has found a way to make those compromises.

Q: The Learys are at once remarkable comic figures and deeply human characters. How difficult is it to achieve this delicate balance and neither veer into parody nor a humorless character study?

AT: In early drafts, when I didn’t know the Learys all that well, I did veer over one or the other edge from time to time. But the most rewarding experience in writing a novel is the gradually deepening understanding of its characters; and once I knew the Learys better, the balance came naturally.

Q: Is the Leary siblings’ geographic dyslexia treatable?

AT: Speaking from personal experience, I would say absolutely not. It’s biological.

Q: Will Rose and Julian’s relationship survive the transplant to the Leary homestead?

AT: Yes, Julian will become a funny sort of quasi-Leary, purely out of love for Rose, and a helpful liaison to the outside world.

Q: Is there any hope for Porter or Charles?

AT: Well, not much hope they’ll truly change, of course. But they seem contented as they are.

Q: Do you have the narrative fairly well mapped out before you begin writing a novel, or do you find yourself taking detours? For instance, did you know all along how this novel would end?

AT: I map my books out in a very cursory way — say, about a page for each novel — and I always think I know how they’ll end, but I’m almost always wrong. In the case of The Accidental Tourist, I actually began a chapter in which Macon stayed with Sarah. But it didn’t work; something in the characters themselves persuaded me the ending would have to be different.

Q: Do your characters ever surprise you?

AT: All the time.

Q: What do you most enjoy about your life as writer? And least?

AT: The best part about being a writer is the experience of learning, gradually, what it is like to be a person completely different from me. The hard part is that for years on end, I am working in a vacuum. Is this a story anyone will believe? Anyone will care about? I won’t know that until I’m finished.

Q: If you could invite any writer, living or dead, to attend a reading group meeting to discuss their work, who would it be? What would you most like to learn from her or him?

A: I would rather read the writer, not hear him or her talk. I know that from being a writer myself: what I have to say, I have already said through my stories.

Q: What are you reading right now?

AT: Lately, I have fallen in love with Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto. It’s a mesmerizing novel, moving, amusing, and enlightening. And I am telling everyone to watch for Mary Lawson’s Crow Lake, a soon-to-be-published novel about a family of orphans in the northernmost reaches of Canada.

Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion

Would you characterize yourself as an accidental tourist in your own life? Do you know anyone you might consider an accidental tourist?

What kind of traveler are you? Would you find Macon’s guides helpful?

Macon has come up with a technique to avoid contact with others on airplanes. Public transportation can lead to an awkward intimacy with strangers. How do you handle such situations? Does Macon’s approach work for you?

There was no memorial service for Ethan in Baltimore. Whose idea do you think that was? Do you agree with Garner, Macon’s neighbor, who chastises him for not having one?

Macon’s style of mourning offends many people, including his wife. Do their complaints have any merit?

According to Macon, “it was their immunity to time that made the dead so heartbreaking.” Discuss the meaning of this statement.

What is the significance of Macon and Susan’s conversation about Ethan? What do they each gain from it?

Why doesn’t Macon repair his house after it is seriously damaged by water?

The loss of a child can be devastating to a marriage. How do you think a relationship survives such a cataclysmic event?

Macon believes he became a different person for Sarah. How much do we change in the name of love? How much should we change?

Do you think Sarah ever really understood Macon?

Macon realizes that while he and Sarah tried too hard to have a child, once they had Ethan, it made their differences that much more glaring. Do you think they would have remained together if Ethan had lived?

Macon remarks that he just didn’t want to get involved with Muriel and her messy life, but somehow he has. Does this ring true? Did Muriel simply overwhelm him?

Initially, Macon and Alexander are very wary of each other. Discuss the nature of Macon and Alexander’s relationship and what they have to offer each other.

Rose decides to love Julian despite her brothers’ obvious disapproval. What do you think drives her to make such a difficult decision?

Julian describes Rose’s retreat back to the Leary house as though she’d worn herself a groove or something in that house of hers, and she couldn’t help swerving back into it. Do you think Rose has made a mistake?

Do you find yourself as fascinated by the Learys as Julian is? Why or why not?

When Rose declares that she and her siblings are the most conventional people she knows, Macon cannot explain why he disagrees with her. Can you?

Do you think the Learys will ever purchase an answering machine? Do you think Julian might slip one in the house?

Do you or does anyone you know suffer from geographic dyslexia?

Why does Sarah return to Macon? Do you think they could have worked it out or had they used each other up?

Macon does not think he has ever taken steps in his life and acted. Do you think this insight is accurate, or is it a product of the helplessness he feels in the wake of his son’s death?

Do you think Macon has made the right decision in the end? Will the relationship work out?

Do you think any of the couples in this novel stand a chance?

In the end, Macon comforts himself with the thought that perhaps the dead age, and are part of the flow of time. Does this idea comfort you?

If you could learn more about a particular character in this novel, which would it be and why?

Would your group recommend this novel to other reading groups? How does this novel compare to other works the group has read?

About the Author

Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis in 1941 but grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated at nineteen from Duke University and went on to do graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University. Anne Tyler’s eleventh novel, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She lives in Baltimore.