Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

Anne Tyler published Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant in 1982.



Author Biographical Information
Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1941. She was raised in the South, in North Carolina. She published her first novel, If the Morning Comes, in 1964. Tyler's ninth novel, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant established her reputation as an American writer. The novel remains one of her best loved- novels. The novel follows the progression of an American family in the twentieth century. Anne Tyler is a well known author today from her greatest novels.

Setting: Historical Information
The beginning of the book opens up with Pearl Tull lies dying in her Baltimore home. The book takes place in Baltimore, Maryland were most of the time the story is told from a place where the characters feel home, or supposed to feel home. The novel portrays child abuse which occurred a lot in the 1980s.

Genre
The novel shows a lot about Pearl remembering her past while she is dying. It is depressing when she is describing her past because she knows she is dying. The novel is depressing because she has three children and she has to take care of them on her own because her husband left her.

Plot Summary
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is the story of the Tull family of Baltimore, Maryland, told first from the perspective of Pearl Tull, and then from the perspective of each of her three children, Cody, Ezra, and Jennifer. The novel is told from several different points of view from her children. Cody is the oldest of the three. Then there is Ezra who seems to be favored the most by Pearl. Jenny is the only girl and she is the most scholarly of the three. The novel mainly discusses what all happened in Pearl’s past. The beginning of the book opens up with Pearl lay dying in her bed at her Baltimore home while her son Ezra sits next to her. Pearl is mainly recalling her life from one memory from the next. She first recalls how she almost lost her first child Cody as a baby who made her want to have more kids. Pearl then describes her relationship with Beck Tull a traveling salesman. Her marriage had a downfall and Beck tells Pearl that he doesn’t want to be married anymore. She then turns into a single mother taking care of her three children. A recurring scene in the novel involves Ezra's unsuccessful attempts to bring the whole family together for a sit down meal at his "Homesick Restaurant", which shows Ezra’s his desire to help the family come together. At Pearl's funeral, her ex husband Beck showed up to see the family for the first and a long time. However, they weren’t able to get through a single dinner without conflict, this time with Cody arguing to his father.

Characters

 * Person One - information about your character
 * Person Two

Author's Style
This book started out slow, but was pretty engaging once you got into it. Each chapter is some part of the family story and each one is told from a different point of view. The mother, the father and the three children are all so very different from one another, but are held together somewhat by their family ties. Anne Tyler makes the reader not really favor on character in the novel because they have all done wrong in a certain way.

Setting
The story mainly takes place in Baltimore, Maryland in the 1960s. Most events in the story come from their home. The story is told from the views of Cody, Ezra, and jenny who are Pearl’s three children. Most of the book is Pearl discussing her memories with her family from the past at several different places. The beginning of the novel opens up with Pearl Tull lies dying in her Baltimore home.

Themes
1.	When someone leaves in a relationship doesn’t mean you should be depressed and live in sorrow for the rest of your life. Pearl still carried for her three children when Buck died and she moved on from the past. Her main focus was to help her children and help them grow up as mature adults.

2.	When a loved one is sick do your best to take care of them. Pearl’s three children didn’t do their best taking care of their mother while she was dying and they all wished they could go back and change what they’ve done when they were at her funeral.

3.	Don’t be negative about a situation because that can just bring the ones around you down. Pearl wasn’t really complaining about her being on her death bed because she knew that would just make her children miserable.

Symbols
1.	The restaurant is symbol in the novel because it represents how the family is trying to become closes again.

2.	Pearl’s illness is a symbol showing how the family is falling apart and her children aren’t taking care of her like they should be.

3.	Buck living the family symbolizes emptiness because the family isn’t the same anymore and the children have to live their childhood with him gone.

Significance of the Opening/Closing Scenes
The opening scene of the novel begins with Pearl Tull dying in her bed at her home. The opening scene is depressing because it is always sad to know that someone is dying. She relates to all her memories she had throughout the book of all the good and bad things that have happen. It is sad that she doesn’t have a husband anymore to help her through her illness.

The ending scene is very sad because Pearl dies. Beck shows up at the funeral and he hasn’t seen his children in a long time. When Beck shows up it gives hope that he will become closes with Cody, Ezra, and Jenny but a lot of conflict arose when they were at the restaurant. Most of the arguing was coming from Cody toward his father. The end of the book is sad because Pearl dies and the children were having trouble with their father.

Memorable Quotes
All she wanted was to be allowed to get on with what mattered: chalk the windows; weather strip the door. With tools she was her true self capable and strong.

All she wanted was to be allowed to get on with what mattered: chalk the windows; weather strip the door. With tools she was her true self capable and strong.

“When you have children, you're obligated to live.”

A mother would never give up anything for their own children. A mother’s job is to care for her children and to help then turn into mature adults. Pearl’s most precious gift was her three children and without them she would have nothing.

“...it's closeness that does you in. Never get too close to people, son.”

If you are really close to someone at even given time something can happen. It’s hard to forget about the person and it is more hard to get out of the relationship than it is to get in. One of the hardest things in life is trying to get over someone so it is best to not get hurt at all.