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Breathing Lessons: A Novel
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345485595
ISBN: 0345485599
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: September 26, 2006
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: September 26, 2006
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Editorial Review:
Maggie Moran's mission is to connect and unite people, whether they want to be united or not. Maggie is a meddler and as she and her husband, Ira, drive 90 miles to the funeral of an old friend, Ira contemplates his wasted life and the traffic, while Maggie hatches a plant to reunite her son Jesse with his long-estranged wife and baby. As Ira explains, "She thinks the people she loves are better than they really are, and so then she starts changing things around to suit her view of them." Though everyone criticizes her for being "ordinary," Maggie's ability to see the beauty and potential in others ultimately proves that she is the only one fighting the resignation they all fear. The book captured the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1989.
Maggie and Ira Moran have been married for twenty-eight years–and it shows: in their quarrels, in their routines, in their ability to tolerate with affection each other’s eccentricities. Maggie, a kooky, lovable meddler and an irrepressible optimist, wants nothing more than to fix her son’s broken marriage. Ira is infuriatingly practical, a man “who should have married Ann Landers.” And what begins as a day trip to a funeral becomes an adventure in the unexpected. As Maggie and Ira navigate the riotous twists and turns, they intersect with an assorted cast of eccentrics–and rediscover the magic of the road called life and the joy of having somebody next to you to share the ride . . . bumps and all.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Horribly boring
This is one of the most boring books I've ever read. I wanted to quit reading it many times, but I always hate quitting a book before it's done. The book takes place over one day and is way too descriptive. The characters are extremely annoying. They say and do things that are so stupid I wanted to choke them. Besides that, it doesn't even turn out well. I was so bored I didn't even read the last page, I finally gave up on it.
Rating:  - Biting the Bullet
Readers will sigh as they take on the bumpy and confusing ride aboard the hectic tale of the Moran family and their many dilemmas. Tyler examines the chaos of family life as Ira and Maggie Moran retell the family conflicts of their past whilst readers get an excessively detailed account of every predicament that affected the family from the couples first acquaintance to their son Jessie's divorce to the estranged relationship with their grandchild. The readers will quickly become annoyed of ... Read More
Rating:  - So real it reached out and bit me
The greatest thing about this book, and the most difficult to write, is all the dialogue is so convincing and natural, you begin to feel this could be your own family. Anne Tyler actually writes it the way someone would speak and not the way someone would think, very difficult, indeed, and most masterfully done, in creating and generating an understanding of each character through what they say, and in some cases, don't say. A great read.
Rating: - I kept wondering what I was missing
I went to a local library book club meeting to discuss Digging to America. No one liked it much but there was a good ending that tied all the details of the characters together. It was suggesed that Breathing Lessons was better. But it didn't even have the punch at the end. The only person I felt truly sorry for was Ira and would have felt sorry for Leroy but she was largly ingnored by the author. Maggie was what a mother is - not seeing the faults of her son but imagines him as a better person. ... Read More
Rating: - Two for the Road
The more things change the more they stay the same. Maggie and Ira Moran are a 50ish couple, married back in the 1950's. Like all couples, they had their hopes and dreams, and many of them have come true, though not exactly as they had envisioned. Marriage is not a Doris Day movie, but the Morans are often as polarized as Doris and Rock ever were. She is a still a dreamer subject to pulling the wool over her own eyes, while he is a dyed in the wool pragmatist without an ounce of whimsy. Typically middle ... Read More
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