Book review: Clock Dance, by Anne Tyler

Somerset Maugham gave one book of short stories the title The Mixture As Before; and so indeed it doubtless was. There’s no reason why novelists should be expected or required to strike out into new territory. Painters, after all, are permitted to return to the same scenes or subjects repeatedly. Some writers do likewise – Ivy Compton-Burnett and, in a different style, Iris Murdoch being examples. Anne Tyler doesn’t need to seek out new themes; it’s enough to devise variations on familiar ones. This is one reason why people love her well-mannered novels. They are as generous as they are perceptive. Most have been set in Baltimore where she lives – but only the last section of her new one. Her Baltimore is very different from the violent crime-ridden city of The Wire; she describes it as “a very kind-hearted city, friendly and gentle”. Clock Dance offers four episodes in the life of Willa Drake. The first three dated 1967, 1977, 1997 constitute Part I of the novel; Part II, the last, and longest episode, which is set in Baltimore, is dated 2017.