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The Accidental Tourist
The Accidental Tourist
Author: Anne Tyler
Macon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. He is grounded by loneliness and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts when he meets Muriel, a deliciously peculiar dog-obedience trainer who up-ends Macon’s insular world and thrusts him headlong into a remarkable engagement with life.
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ISBN-13: 9780345452009
ISBN-10: 0345452003
Publication Date: 4/9/2002
Pages: 352
Rating:
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 82

3.5 stars, based on 82 ratings
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

caviglia avatar reviewed The Accidental Tourist on
Helpful Score: 5
I really enjoyed this book. Stories about really shut-off, emotionally cut off people who find some sort of happiness always warm my heart. It's funny and odd.
Patouie avatar reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 132 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
A funny, well-written book, Accidental Tourist describes characters who are each on the verge of stereotypes, moving in and out of personality ruts. The reader is sure to recognize traits in himself and in people he knows. Many of the characters are uncomfortably familiar, but just when you're sure you know someone's "type," the author gently offers the possiblity of at least minor transformation.
mizparker avatar reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 87 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I started out lukewarm with the book because I found the main character so stuffy and unrelatable to me, but as the book continued, I found Macon Leary less annoying than endearing, less stuffy than quirky. I enjoyed the story.
reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 49 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Macon is someone who himself travels through life accidentally. Things just happen to him-he doesn't seek them out. His only child has been killed in a senseless accideent; his wife for no apparent reason asks for a separation, leaving him to fend for himself;a broken leg conveniently thrusts him back home with his sister and brothers in the family house where he started out. Surely it is an accident that he gets involved with the astonishing Muriel, the frizzy haired, stiletto heeled, nonstop talker who does the bookings at the kennels where Macon boards his unmanageable Welsh corgi, Edward, when he has to go on one of his fact finding trips. But gradually what seems like accident is tinged with purpose, and the comfortably familiar is disturbed by the impulse toward escape.
reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 141 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
good story
Read All 39 Book Reviews of "The Accidental Tourist"

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reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 17 more book reviews
I read Anne Tyler because I like to consume everything wrrtten in, around or about Baltimore--or that is written by a Baltimore author. But I'd have to say I found this to be one of her "darker" books. If you're familiar you know she likes to expose the darker side of the human psyche. But she does it well. Have to say the end surprised me.
reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 38 more book reviews
Never met an Anne Tyler book I didn't love.
reviewed The Accidental Tourist on
Great book. I've seen the movie countless times but the book has underlying themes that don't convey in the movie. Enjoyed reading it again.
reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 5 more book reviews
This book actually held up over the years since I read it last. I enjoyed it immensely!
reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 27 more book reviews
Great modern classic.
reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 74 more book reviews
If you enjoyed Breathing Lessons you will enjoy this book too. It has the same quirky charm.
catsmom avatar reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 25 more book reviews
Loved this book, even better than the movie.
reviewed The Accidental Tourist on
Interesting enough story of a man's method of coping with the death of the child, even if I did not love all the characters.
reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 110 more book reviews
A beautiful, incandescent, heartbreaking, exhilarating bool....
reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 43 more book reviews
Meet Macon Leary - a travel writer who hates both travel and strangeness. Grounded by loneliness, comfort, and a somewhat odd comestic life, Macon is about to embark on a surprising new journey. It's called love - and it arrives in the unlikely shape of a fuzzy-haried dog-obedience trainer who promises to turn the Accidental Tourist into a happy traveler.
LeahG avatar reviewed The Accidental Tourist on + 320 more book reviews
The Accidental Tourist kept me captivated from beginning to end. I love the way the author describes each character, their thoughts and differences and quirks, which there are plenty of. Plus it has a very satisfactory ending.


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