Anne Tyler’s characters are always weird and quirky, but they are also mostly lovable and worth rooting for. I reached for this book because I needed something lighter, happier, more positive than the books I have been reading lately, and wouldn’t you know, this is the one Anne Tyler that just doesn’t give you that.

Jeremy Pauling, the main character of Celestial Navigation, suffers from agoraphobia. He is afraid to leave his house, he trembles and shakes and collapses if he makes it farther than the end of the block. He has lived with his mother all of his life in a home that serves as a boarding house. Her death means changes for Jeremy, and therein lies our story.

He is an artist, and I believe we are meant to think he is special, and this is where Tyler generally excels, but with Jeremy I think she fails. I did not love him. I found him far too self-centered and clueless to the needs or feelings of others.

When his agent, Brian, talks of a boat he has purchased, he says he intends to said her by celestial navigation, and Jeremy is awed. His boarder thinks, “Oh, Jeremy, I wanted to tell him, you too sail by celestial navigation and it is far more celestial than Brian’s.” I knew exactly what Tyler wanted me to think of Jeremy, but, alas, it was not what he came across as through his thoughts or actions.

So, I was disappointed and not cheered up by the quirkiness of this character. I may have exhausted my love for Anne Tyler as I have exhausted her literary canon, but I’m glad to have made her acquaintance and it is with sadness that I say goodbye.
( )

As usual, Anne Tyler's writing was excellent. It was worthwhile to learn about these characters, but also very sad. If only supportive services had been provided for them. At times, there was too much mundane information provided to keep my interest. ( )

one of the strangest books I've ever read, all characters bizarre. no plot really. ( )

Jeremy Pauling is an adult male still living with his mother in a Baltimore rowhouse. There are lots of boarders, some older, some younger. His mother lives in the room downstairs. Jeremy is an artist and never leaves the house.
Jeremy's mother passes away and a young woman, Mary, moves into the house with her daughter, Darcy. Mary has a tendency to take care of Jeremy, who always seems a little lost in life. They become a couple and have many children.
There is really no connection, it seems, between Jeremy and the children or Mary for that matter. It seems that life just happens around Jeremy. The only connection for Jeremy are his art pieces.
Sadness.

This was a good novel. ( )

Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors. She has been writing fiction for over 50 years and I have read every one of her books since "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant"(one of her best). I found this early work of hers(1974) in my box of unread books. As with all Tyler books, the characters were very quirky and are the focus of the story.Tyler's books usually focus more on the characters than on a plot. This book was a hard one for me. Jeremy Pauling is a 38 year old man who suffers from many mental health issues. The key event in the book is the death of his mother with whom he has always lived in her boarding house. The book shows how his life evolves over the next 10 years. He is an artist but because of his mental health issues he is a very difficult character. Eventually he connects with Mary a young boarder(22) with a child who is escaping her marriage. Eventually, they come together and over the course of 10 years have 5 children but are enable to act "normal". You see everything through the eyes of the characters in alternative chapters with shifting time frames. The book was frustrating because Mary and Jeremy would play out an inner turmoil but neither would really communicate honestly with the other. If you enjoy seeing how people with personality issues act and think than you may enjoy this. The writing is excellent and this does show Tyler from her early period. The later Tyler is far superior so unless you have read a lot of Tyler and are a big fan, I would skip this as an introduction to her and start with "Dinner......Homesick Restaurant". ( )