Breathing Lessons: A Novel

Bookarrived quickly. Condition was ok. Arrived ahead of delivery date, but I have not yet had an opportunity to read it as yet. It was a good price and after reading some of Anny Tyler's other works I wanted to check this one which received some positive reviews.

This made little or no impression on me. I know she is considered to be a wonderful writer, that is why I got the book. But to me it seemed like a self indulgent introspection of someone who doesn't have a lot to say.

This was one of the most boring stories I have read in a long time. If it was supposed to be humorous I missed the jokes and if it was supposed to be narrative, I didn't care. I certainly did not get attached to any of the characters. It's a short story gone wrong that just couldn't shut up about itself. There are a lot of boring people in the world who never make the news. Inventing boring characters on purpose is never going to make good reviews. Anne Tyler can write well. She needs more interesting subjects.

I am trying to figure out why I wasted hours on this book. Finally I gave up just pages before the end. I hate the heroine and the husband is so weak. What was the point? She is a gossip and a control freak and there were just pages and pages of their worthless wondering and worrying. I could just write down my ugliest thoughts on any Saturday and get more uplift than from this. Ugh

This along with Spool of Blue Thread have got to be the most annoying depressing books I have ever read . The author also does that annoying high brow writers trick of ending the books without finishing the story . I will never read another book by Anne Tyler .

Anne Tyler is a very good writer. She can create a character so real, so believable, that in reading her books I feel like I am right inside the character’s skin. This can be very uncomfortable, though, especially if the character is a bit too much like me in the first place.

In “Breathing Lessons”, the protagonist, Maggie, is a middle-aged woman who is on the verge of being an empty nester. Empty nest for Maggie threatens to mean an empty life. She works in an old folks’ home, surrounded by disability, dementia, and death. Her children are almost her last link to youth. And as the novel opens she and her husband Ira are on their way to the funeral of Maggie’s best friend’s husband, whom they have known since high school, so the prospect of death is even closer than usual.

Maggie is a fixer – the kind of woman who can’t help trying to help other people. This seemingly admirable trait gets her into trouble, as she has a habit of telling people what they want to hear, even if it means stretching the truth. The central challenge of her life is the broken marriage of her son Jesse, and the broken link to her most youthful contact, her grand-daughter from that marriage. The story hangs on her last ditch efforts to repair this break, and the road to hell which opens from her good intentions.

I’ve also tried to be a fixer. This story hit real close to home.

My own personal trip with this book was a lot like the seemingly never-ending pre-air conditioning road trip vacation days of my own youth. The first hundred miles/pages were a delight. Good energy, everyone is peppy, things are rolling along. Maggie and Ira were fresh and interesting, I loved the premise of adventures, misadventures, and musings on a road trip.

Then there was that middle part where the whole things starts to get monotonous and dull, and someone does something stupid that grates horribly on one's nerves. Attempted sex in the widow's bedroom was completely unrealistic and unnecessary to the plot, and didn't fit the characters one iota.

From there, it's all downhill. You just want to get to where you're going. Enough already. I absolutely hated the entire section about Fiona and Leroy, and the monotonously long, detailed remembrance of Jesse's teen years, a boy band, meeting Fiona, yadda yadda yadda, baby is born, blah blah blah, Fiona leaves. And then to drag boring Fiona back to the house and have such a completely drab and unrealistic ending to the book made me regret ever opening the book in the first place. Bait and switch! I do not comprehend why this book deserved a Pulitzer, unless the committee members only read the first 100 pages or so and, swept up in the magic of a road trip, decided "Yup! This is it!" It makes me want to smack them upside the head and shout "Don't make me turn this car around!"

If you're going to be trapped in a car for 320+ pages with a couple of fictional characters, you'd better be able to find something about them that's likeable or you're going to want to pitch yourself out the door at the first stoplight. Especially if they're a quarrelsome middle-aged married couple. She: a clumsy busybody with a penchant for meddling and doctoring the truth. He: stand-offish, occasionally judgmental, often condescending.

Fortunately, the author driving this novel is Anne Tyler and in her skilled hands this day trip through a marriage is by turns heartwarming and humorous, sad and sweet.

The story takes place within a period of twenty-four hours. Ira and Maggie Moran are going to a funeral--the deceased is the husband of Maggie's best friend from high school. On their way back home, they will drop in unannounced on their son's ex-wife to see the seven-year-old granddaughter they haven't seen much of since the divorce.

But between Point A and Point B, Tyler will take you on a tour of all the major landmarks in the Moran's long relationship and in doing so she paints a portrait of two seriously flawed yet nevertheless loveable people who somehow make sense together. By the end of "Breathing Lessons" you somehow forgive the faults of these two people as they no doubt have forgiven them of each other. You come to understand that, at heart, where it really matters, they are doing their best within the confines of their limitations, that they are inherently good, decent, human beings, and that you can't do better than that.

This is the lesson that Ira and Maggie have learned--they've learned how to give each other room to breathe within their often claustrophobic marriage and to trust each other not to take up all air. It's not a lesson easily learned, however, as their son and daughter-in-law can unfortunately attest to.

In Ira and Maggie Moran, Anne Tyler has created two of her most unforgettable characters, uniquely particular yet, at the same time, utterly universal. You'll become fond of these people; you'll be sad to bid them farewell; even after being trapped in a car with them and listening to them bicker for over 300 pages. And that's saying all you need to say about what a rarely gifted writer Anne Tyler is.

The term "Breathing Lessons" - derived from the prenatal classes shared by protagonist Maggie Moran and her daughter-in-law Fiona - fools the reader into thinking that this book would engage in familial bliss. It does not.

This book starts with the funeral of Maggie's best friend's husband, evolves into an impromptu visit with the daughter in law who divorced Maggie's son years ago, and amid that matrimonial squalor is a collaterally damaged child left scarred by parental fury toward one another - which is aggravated by grandparent interference where worse things can be said or done.

Ira Moran, Maggie's husband, admits to having no friends, having a lousy relationship with his son, and knows he is disrespected by his soon-to-be-a-coed daughter. The weather forecast for their lives in the Baltimore suburbs appears to be "rain every day."

These 50-somethings in mid-life crisis, soon-to-be-empty-nesters, have to contemplate what their lives have been. And, the answer is not pretty. "He was just as sad as Maggie was, and for just the same reasons. He was lonely and tired and lacking in hope and his son had not turned out well and his daughter didn't think much of him, and he still couldn't figure where he had gone wrong." Gray weather is more than a forecast; gray weather is the funk these people live and exude in this novel.

After trudging through the continual blues these two creatures constantly endure, the author finishes the book with one more off note: "[M]aggie had a sudden view of her life as circular. It forever repeated itself, and it was entirely lacking in hope."

The Morans are seemingly similar to Updike's Rabbit Angstrom, Revolutionary Road's Frank Wheeler, The Moviegoer's Binx Bolling or more mid-century main characters who seem out of it. But, unlike those books, this book revolves around parents who stayed the course and raised their children, together, to adulthood. But, whether defeated before parenting (Bolling), or when starting parenting (Rabbit or Wheeler), or upon ending parenting, these other authors and Anne Taylor received fanfare. Bitter lives can make Pulitzer material. But, be forewarned, this is not light or fun stuff these people live with or through. There is comedy sprinkled about, but much more misery and doldrums.

If you can read hundreds of pages about people who live without hope, knock yourself out. Personally, this is hard for me to do. Maybe it is because I am Maggie's and Ira's age. Maybe not

This novel follows the Moran family through one day of their very ordinary lives. Maggie, the mother, wants so much for her family to be whole again after the divorce of her son. Most of the book is through her eyes, and her yearning to be a complete family. She tries to patch everything up through half truths, and her bumbling efforts often do more harm than good. The book was difficult to read at times, because you are reading the conversations of a married for couple for an entire day. They bicker constantly, so it just made you feel grateful your marriage is different. It definitely wasn't my favorite book.

Tyler's signature style is to tell the story of several generations of the same family. "Breathing Lessons" is about a woman's misguided
efforts to reunite the parents of her granddaughter - her drifter son and the former daughter-in-law - fudging the truth along the way to accomplish the goal. A good reminder that some situations can't be undone. People move on, no matter how much you wish you could turn back the clock.

I'm a fan of Anne Tyler. I think she is one of the most interesting character writers out there. Her characters and situations are realistic and true but she has such insight into human nature that she can make anything from adoption (Digging to America) to marriage (The Amateur Marriage) interesting.

I found a copy of Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler at the library book sale last month and I snatched it up. I finally got a chance to read it this week. It is similar to the other books that I've read by Anne Tyler, in that the main characters, Maggie and Ira, are just a normal married couple.

In Breathing Lessons, Maggie and Ira take a quick day trip to attend the funeral of Maggie's best friend's husband. While in the car, they deal with several marital and family issues that have been secretly or subconsciously bothering them--their youngest is headed to college in the morning and their son is divorced and separated from his child.

Tyler writes dialogue so well and real, that it's almost uncomfortable for the reader. It seems almost voyeuristic--spying on your neighbor's life. Have you ever looked at a married couple and wondered 'how in the world did those two end up together'? Tyler writes tales about how some marriages happen, why they fall apart or how they manage to stay together. Even though Breathing Lessons was written and published over twenty years ago, the story still rings true because it shows human nature. The book is well written and I enjoyed it.

Anne Tyler's award-winning novel, BREATHING LESSONS, is literally a day in the life of Maggie and Ira Moran, a fiftyish married couple in the late 1980s with a rocker son and a college-bound daughter. Maggie and Ira, for various reasons, have "settled" for what life has brought them; they allowed circumstances to dictate or circumstances dictated to them their lot in life. Maggie is dogged by a reputation for being accident-prone, and is unambitious, except for working tirelessly to get her son Jesse reunited with his estranged wife, Fiona, to the point where she is estranged from reality. Ira is resigned to running his father's frame shop his whole life, having had to abandon his hopes for college. He treats Jesse with disdain and outright hostility, perhaps, in part, because his son represents the freedom Ira never had.

The story moves along due to three catalysts: the funeral of Maggie's best friend's husband, followed by an auto incident involving an elderly African-American, and finally, Maggie's attempt to take Fiona and daughter, Leroy, back to the Moran home to have dinner with Jesse. The narrative, which covers the span of a day, is very near real time. Even the flashbacks and the dreams seemed to have been accounted for in the passage of chronological time.

The novel is written first from the perspective of Maggie, and then from the vantage of Ira, and finally from a sort of combination of the two views. What you don't get is any objective reality: for instance, what do we really know about Jesse? or of his sister Daisy? The novel is, then, very much about Maggie and Ira and their marriage. This couple is not going to strike every reader as appealing. Their lives, in fact, seem downright depressing and meaningless. Ultimately, though, Maggie and Ira accommodate one another; there is, when all is said and done, a tenderness between them that's moving. The story is funny and touching at times, but some readers may get impatient with the Morans and their rather desperate lives.

Let me tell you why I liked this book. It gave me a different perspective. Although many people (both readers and characters in the book) have criticised her for being one-dimensional I found her to be quite extraordinary. Her sensitivity and sense of place within her family is touching. The reason why her image radiates ordinariness is because everyone has labelled her that way. I found this to be true in the way that people often create labels for others and then the label is accepted as some kind of truth. Maggie may not be a likeable person or even a realistic person you can picture in your life, but certainly everyone can empathise with the tendency people have to suffocate other people with images they have created for them. I don't think Maggie is that simple. If she were than she could never imagine a life outside of her own. But, when she and Ira get in a fight in the car and she demands to be let out she imagines a completely different life for herself. This is the imaginary flight that is carried out in actuality in Ladder of Years. You could say that this is the off-handed daydream of a flat character because it is just as immediately forgotten as it is conjured. However, I think this suggests a more complex state of mind. One which can envision other states of being but consciously rejects them. Incidentally this is a very ordinary trait, one that I imagine many people can sympathise with. In some ways she is more ordinary than most people because she is always actively trying to normalise other people. She is not only suppressed by other people's images of her, but she is trying to mould everyone into the image she wants them to be. Her intentions are always positive. She wants them to be better people and fulfil their potential, but at the same time she is stifling their sense of individual identity by imaging them to inhabit an image that isn't realistic. This is a common difficulty with people who are "well-wishers". A major reason for why I appreciated this novel so much is because of its comic perspective. While dealing with the difficult relations between people, especially family, it is able to not take itself too seriously. There are incredibly comic moments such as the car accident and when Maggie and Ira are caught making out in the friend's bedroom. Anne Tyler is able to balance the serious and the comic while making shrewd observations about human nature. She shows us we all have the ability to be just like everyone else and wholly our own person at the same time.

I am a huge Anne Tyler fan - I want to read her entire collection. Because this novel won a Pulitzer, I was concerned it would not live up to the hype. My concerns were unwarranted. Tyler is a highly skilled writer who is able to take ordinary people and make them both unique and interesting. She has a very important message to give readers about love, marriage, and life. The main characters are at a stage in their lives where they are looking back and trying to figure out how they got to be where they are, and where to go now.
I know many dislike Maggie Moran, but I didn't. I felt an incredible amount of empathy for her. She is a good person who only wants to give the people she loves hope. She sees the best in people and wants them to live up to the potential she knows they have. She is the eternal wide- eyed optimist. Clearly, Maggie is feeling lost at the thought of having an empty nest. If she doesn't someone to take care of, she doesn't know who she is or how to live. She's lost at the thought of facing middle age. Ira is also a great character. He's Maggie's opposite. He's a pragmatic, grounded, realist. They both have regrets about their past choices, and they need to find a way to let those go and keep moving, so that the rest of their lives can have meaning.
I loved the use of flashbacks in the novel. Tyler really showed the different perspectives of the characters, and she enlightened the reader as to how they came to be the people they are. I couldn't imagine Maggie or Ira turning out any differently, given their families of origin. I didn't like how Ira treated his son, Jesse, but I could understand it, because Tyler gives me enough background about Ira's youth to make it fit. I could feel the love and connection between Maggie and Ira, even when they were at their most frustrated with each other. There's a wonderful line in a Reader's Digest essay on love I once read that sums up Maggie and Ira's marriage: "We sometimes could have killed each other, but we never could have left each other." Maggie and Ira need each other's different perspectives.
There were a few things missing from the novel. I did wish at times that we could've had more information about what really happened between Jesse and his ex-wife. I still don't quite understand why they broke up, and I was intrigued by those characters enough that I want to know, even though I realized that this is Maggie and Ira's story. I also wanted to know more about Daisy. What was her place in the family? How did she interact with her mother? This is one of the few novels I've read that actually could have been longer.

I find that the greatest novels are those which find meaning and give insights into the lives of real people. Anne Tyler certainly does that in this wonderful novel full of complete characters, humor, and loads of insight.
This is the story of one day in the life of Ira and Maggie Moran. They are on a car trip to a friend of Maggie's husband's funeral. Along the way, you get the story of their marriage. You also learn so much about their characters. Maggie is the eternal optimist; she believes that the best will happen for the people she loves. She sees only the best in those people, and she tries to manipulate their lives for her vision them. Ira is the opposite. He is cynical and stoic on the outside, but inside, feels deeply for everyone. The two deeply love each other even though they don't always realize it. Maggie's primary concern on the trip is to stop by and see her ex-daughter-in-law Fiona and her grandaughter Leroy. Maggie deeply believes that Fiona is still in love with her son Jesse, and she wants to try to convince them to get back together.
And that forms the outline for the whole book. Tyler gets to study the institute of marriage from three angles: that of a couple who has lived together quietly and happily for many years, that of the couple where one has passed away, and that of the young couple who didn't make it. The result is amazing. It is thoughtful, sad, funny, and basically, entertaining on any level. Breathing Lessons is a fine novel which should be read over and over. Also, I must recommend The Spectator Bird and other novels by Wallace Stegner to people who enjoy Anne Tyler.

There is something about Anne Tyler's novels that is magic. She is one of the best writers able to bring light from the ordinary lives of common folks. Probably that is why most readers have a lukewarm response to her books. People are expecting to read about the glamorous and rich -- and these are not the center of her books.

To fully appreciate an Anne Tyler book, one most be totally open to accept that her characters could be our parents, ours friends or even ourselves. It is rare to read one of her novels and not feel that one or two characters are just like us. Her Pulitzer Award winning "Breath Lessons" is not different. Her main characters Maggie and Ira Moran could be anyone's neighbors.

Throughout the narrative readers have a glimpse on one day in their lives from morning till dawn. It is a Saturday when they will travel to attend a friend's husband's funeral service. Not an ordinary Saturday in their lives although the most ordinary things happen -- with no ordinary meaning.

Maggie is the type who interferes in everybody's lives -- always for good, at least, so she thinks. But not everyone (mostly no one) is willing to have his/her life changed by a stranger. She tries to comfort her widowed friend, she tries to bring her son and daughter-in-law back together and she tries to please her husband. She fails and succeeds in different levels in different tasks. What Tyler is exploiting with that is hardly that the road to hell is paved with good intentions --as people say. The writer shows that no matter how good are our intentions, they can be relative. What Maggie thinks is good for her husband, for one, is not necessarily what he thinks is good for him -- and they both can be right.

With her simple style Tyler can achieve much more than many elaborated writers attempt to. The story is told in a very matter-of-fact fashion, and even the flashbacks pop up smoothly. There aren't many digressions or flights of fancy -- in this way she is very realistic. And funny. There is a very bittersweet sense of humor in her words. She is not trying to be funny, or pushing her characters to be funny, the laughs come naturally from the strangeness --or commonness-- of the situations. Take the second part of the novel, for instance. It is impossible not to laugh tenderly at Meggie's behavior and guilty.

"Breathing Lessons" is an ode to life and to the chances and opportunities that life brings and we accept or decline. There is always the aftermath and the consequences one must face. In the end of the Saturday Meggie's life seem to be not so different. Maybe it is not. But certainly her --and our-- soul has changed.

Here's a good litmus test to show how good a book like "Breathing Lessons" is--nothing extraordinary happens and yet I did not want to put the book down. There are no conspiracies to rule the world or cover up some dark secret. There are no car chases, explosions, sex scenes (barely even any kissing), or exotic locations. No one changes or has an epiphany. Almost NOTHING happens--Maggie and Ira go to a funeral and when they come back they try to reunite their son and former daughter-in-law but nothing changes at all. To the average reader this book probably would seem really dull. Heck, if someone told me the plot of this book I'd think it was really dull too, but I didn't want to put it down.

The reason is that Maggie and Ira are so well-drawn and so familiar to me that they seem like people I know or COULD know. I think I could go to the supermarket and run into Maggie and Ira, that's how real they seemed to me. I suppose ther reason is that Tyler allows me as the reader to know just about everything regarding these two characters and their two personalities just come through so transparently in the story that they don't seem like CHARACTERS acting their parts; they seem like real people.

Because of this, even though very little happens to Maggie or Ira and even though neither of them changes by the end of the book, I cared so much about them that I wanted to keep reading right through the end so I breezed through the novel in a few days. In all honesty, what I really appreciate about this book is that it seemingly disproves almost everything I've ever read about how to write a book. This is purely a character-driven novel with very little "plot" except for the death of Maggie's friend's husband that gets the ball rolling. Everything else seems to happen so naturally as an extension of Maggie's personality more than any artificially-generated plot twists.

It's hard for me to find any real faults with this book, except for the lengthy flashback near the end that perhaps goes on too long. Some people may call this boring or dull, but I would call it purely exceptional. I LOVED this book and highly recommend it.

ISBN 042511774X - In most cases, you open a book expecting to like a character. Not necessarily a specific character, just anyone. You anticipate feeling empathy toward someone between the covers. Breathing Lessons disappointed me on that front. Not for good, but at first. In the first few pages, Maggie is just a scattered-brained, somewhat self-centered nitwit and Ira seems like an idiot to put up with her. This is an odd way to introduce characters, and if you are like me, you'll be tempted to close the book quite early. Resist the temptation - it's worth it! I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the plot, which has been hashed over several times in reviews here. The characters drive this book, anyway. Literally.

In Breathing Lessons, Maggie and Ira go through a fairly normal day in their lives on a drive to and from a funeral. Even the detours they take are clearly normal to them! They are a pair of caretakers. Maggie discovered this in herself as an 18 year old window cleaner at a nursing home - slowly, she began to spend more time communicating with the residents than cleaning the windows, finding she's good at this. Not only that, Maggie likes being needed - she likes fixing things for people and really seems to believe that they won't notice or mind! Her compulsive behavior - and her childish view of the world - is highlighted as they drive along and pass an Odometer Test. One eye on the odometer and one eye on the signs, Maggie starts flipping out when the two don't seem to jive perfectly. Telling Ira to slow down, she says "I'm not sure we're going to make it. See, here the seven comes, rolling up, up... and where's the sign? Where's the sign? Come on, sign! We're losing! We're too far ahead!" and when they pass the sign, "Whew! That was too close for comfort!", as if someone's life had been at stake.

Ira, on the other hand, is a caretaker by force. The day after Ira's graduation from high school, his father cried "weak heart" and proceeded to turn over the job of supporting the family to Ira. Two sisters, one mentally retarded and the other afraid of almost everything, and his father rely on Ira for everything. Without warning, the plans he'd had for his future are no longer possible. From this initial diappointment, he's gone on to learn that he can't control everything, that some things just are what they are and he has to accept them. On the other hand, Ira's responses to Maggies interfering ways seem to range from annoyance to awe ("How do you accomplish these things?" he asks, when she manages to convinced their former daughter-in-law to spend the weekend with them.)

They've reached a place in their lives where their continued usefulness is in question and their accomplishments seem smaller than they'd meant them to be, back when the future was more in front of them than behind. Their daughter is about to leave for college, Maggie faces losing her job to better qualified employees, even their slacker son has finally moved out. Each one of them has been confronted by a similar thought. Their daughter asks Maggie, "Was there a certain conscious point in your life when you decided to settle for being ordinary?" Their son: " "I refuse to believe that I will die unknown," he had said to Ira once, and Ira, instead of smiling tolerantly as he should have, had felt slapped in the face." Patterns emerge, as Fiona leaves... twice. Maggie and Ira have gone in a circle, leaving and returning home - and they have plans to do it again tomorrow. Father-less daughters, sons and fathers who don't see eye to eye. One small thing I really enjoyed was Fiona - she was really the only one to call both Ira and Maggie on their behavior, but she got to seeming too self-righteous. When she began shouting at Jesse at the end, making up nonsense that Maggie hadn't said (that he slept with her soapbox, etc), by embellishing the truth (she'd said she saw him smelling it once), Fiona showed herself to be not-so-different from Maggie.

Having served a purpose for so long, having made that purpose central to your reason for living, and having had that purpose come to an end, what do you live for? At what point do you have to accept that all the plans you'd made for yourself and your future have to be put behind you - that whatever you've accomplished so far, that's the sum of your successes, the rest is just unfulfilled dreaming? In the end, Maggie asks the question and Ira answers and the eloquent way that solitaire - a running background theme throughout the book - becomes a metaphor for life was really very well done. This book requires some patience, but if you've got that, Breathing Lessons is a nice read.

- AnnaLovesBooks

Anne Tyler's Breathing Lessons is a giant of a book, a giant because of the way in which it gently wraps you into its character's world and allows you to feel their lives being lived. It's a giant of a book in a very small world, a world inhabited by Maggie and her husband, Ira, and, it seems, by precious little else. They are long married, happy, perhaps without really knowing it, and replete with generally unacknowledged failure.

Breathing Lessons starts with Maggie picking up the family car after its repair job and spruce up. She immediately runs into a truck and doesn't stop. She and Ira then head off on a long drive to a funeral of a long lost friend. Memories revisit high school and adolescence as the widow attempts to recreate her wedding service to bid farewell to her husband. The songs her friends originally sang turn out to be highly inappropriate, depending on your point of view, and some don't want to try to recreate their youth and so become dignified spoil sports. Some old scores are re-tallied, none settled, of course.

Then Ira and Maggie set off home and decide to call in on their son's estranged wife and their granddaughter, a girl of seven, it turns out, they haven't seen since she was an infant. On the way there is a strange encounter with a fellow traveller. Maggie invents a story, for some reason, which he believes. She pursues the scam, is as duplicitous as hell and carries the whole thing off as if it had been gospel from the start. A strange episode.

Maggie is surprised that she does not recognise her granddaughter. Perhaps Anne Tyler is suggesting that the only really important things for Maggie are those she keeps within the confines of her head. Fiona, the estranged daughter-in-law, seems surprisingly accommodating, even more so when details emerge of how poorly treated she has been by Maggie and her son, Jesse. Maggie and Ira clearly weren't too good at being parents, or grandparents, either.

Maggie convinces herself that she can get the separated couple back together and cajoles her daughter-in-law and granddaughter to motor back to Baltimore with them She phones her son and arranges for him to call round later that day, after the travellers have reached the family home. It seems that everyone except Maggie is both indifferent and sceptical, but, for some reason, everyone goes along with her suggestions. And, of course, it all goes nowhere. None of these folk, by the way, could be described as intellectual. Not one of them ever seems to have read a book or, indeed, ever suffered the trauma of a moment of self-reflection since birth. All anyone ever does is react, and then usually wrongly.

Maggie is the book's central and essential character. Ira, her husband, for the most part busies himself driving, playing solitaire or teaching Frisbee. But basically he seems to hover around the edge of Maggie's universe, occasionally putting his foot in it by pointing out the odd reality here and there, realities that Maggie expends massive resources trying to ignore or deny. She makes mistakes. She crashes the car every time she drives (two out of two in the book). She constantly imagines herself as God's gift, a sort of Mrs Fix-It for everyone else's problems. But she is singularly unable to organise her own existence. She is overweight and yet over-eats. She is full of self-justification, almost invariably based on obviously false premises. And she seems to have developed absolutely no powers of self-analysis or reflection, even when reality occasionally forces its way into her existence to contradict her assumptions and undermine her intentions.

I have to admit that I tried to start the book at least three times without success. For me, Maggie's character was just not quite credible and, if it were credible, I could find no reason why I would want to read about such a person. I persevered this time, however, and the result was a rewarding insight into an uncultured and eventually valueless approach to life that, I suspect, Anne Tyler suspects may be widespread, though I feel that she would not be as judgmental about it as myself.

In the end, all of the characters in Breathing Lessons are failures, who consistently render their own lives a chaotic mess, both inside and outside their heads. They are surrounded by their own mistakes and missed opportunities. These are people who really work at their incompetence and succeed brilliantly. I can't help feeling that at least one of them, in the normal run of things, would display an intellect superior to a demented parrot and a facility for self-reflection greater than a sooty fireback. But no one ever does. Perhaps that's the point.

Not all stories have happy endings but that's alright. Not all stories need happy endings. And the best stories reflect the fact that, in real life, there are really no such things as endings at all. What we see as endings are just new beginnings in disguise.

That's a big part of what this book is about. It begins with a funeral. There are other "endings" throughout the course of the novel but the story continues on. Just like life.

As always, Anne Tyler's characters shine. They live and breathe and, by the end of the book, you will feel like you've known these people for years. Tyler won a Pulitzer for this novel and it's easy to see why. This is one of those books that belongs on your "must read" list.

"Breathing Lessons" is a very subtle and touching novel about the Moran family. Maggie Moran is a loveable yet meddling woman who makes it her business to interfere in other people's lives. When Maggie and her husband, Ira, embark on a road trip to attend the funeral of a friend, Maggie hatches a plan to reunite her son Jesse with his estranged wife and daughter.

In some ways, this book kind of drags because not much happens in the story. The events in the novel take place over the course of a single day, and at the end of the book, nothing about these people's lives has really changed. However, I think the fact that the Morans are so ordinary is what makes the story work so well.

"Breathing Lessons" is about loving people in spite of their many differences and shortcomings. Certain passages are quite funny, but much of the novel is bittersweet and even slightly depressing at times. I enjoyed the book, although I have to admit that there are other Anne Tyler novels I liked more.

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 class, they have their 2 children, own a little house, and go of to their ordinary jobs each day. They bicker, hold their tongues, sleep in the same bed, cope with the outrageous demands of their extended families, and grapple with the potholes and rocks that life throws in their path. Like road rage. And being caught in flagrante (or in outrageous lies.) As the reader becomes engrossed in the 18 hour microcosm of their lives, it is easy to dismiss this couple as dysfunctional. But what they are, really, is functional. Not wildly successful, not always happy, far from perfect, but together, and reliably there for each other. Are they going to change? Not likely. But they are in this for the long hall, and that's what I believe this book is all about.

I now understand why I am not a book editor, publisher or critic. I absolutely became totally involved in Ladder of Years, The Accidental Tourist, The Amateur Marriage, and even Morgan's Passing, and I would have easily nominated all for the Pulitzer. Therefore, I was most disappointed with Breathing Lessons, I kept looking for more. I found it to be disjointed, too simple and too many words wasted on events which seemed so unimportant and unimaginative. Clearly, I missed what many others thought to be a superb novel. And evidently, I missed the "message."

I am an avid fan and I cannot put Ms Tyler's books down once I begin reading, but Breathing Lessons is actually the last one I would recommend when attempting to convince anyone to join me in my loverly (sic) addiction to Anne Tyler!

As my title implies---this book described "a-day-in-the-life" (lives) of a family, in which each member seems to regret the 'way' their lives have turned out. One character that I feel was NOT fully 'fleshed-out', was the daughter----Daisy. There seemed to be a lot more to her than Ms. Tyler was willing to 'tell'! For some reason, other (less major) friends/aquaintences were given more *space* (in the book) thyan Maggie's own daughter. Maybe Ms. Tyler's point was to show the lack of "closeness" they had..... Also---her husband Ira, as someone else pointed out, at first seems to be a very noble husband...but then one notices his "habit" of exposing other's "secrets/confidences" at most inappropriate moments. (passive/aggresive?) This entire book takes place during one Saturday,with plenty of 'flashbacks' to Maggie's/Ira's past. I found some of the character's behaviors so aggravating! lol I wanted to :::shake::: some sense into each of them at various times, when it seemed so obvious they were making a wrong/foolish choice!! Despite the sometimes *too* lengthy descriptions of certain events/situations----for some reason, I STILL enjoyed the book immensely (sp). I could recognize myself and other people I know in many of the characters. (At least their 'feelings/emotions').

Most people love a lover. Also, most of us would like more love in our lives. If you read nonfiction books on the subject, they tell you to be more loving to others to receive more love in return. But most of us feel frustrated in that quest. What would it be like to pursue love in a more unrestricted way? That's the subject of Breathing Lessons.
Now, this could be a pretty heavy subject so Ms. Tyler wisely chooses to leaven her lessons with humor. Her protagonist, Maggie Morgan, will remind many of other fictional characters beginning with the lovable red head, Lucy Ricardo, in I Love Lucy. Those who have Dreamed the Impossible Dream while watching Man of La Mancha (or while reading Don Quixote) will recognize elements of Don Quixote in her character. The humor plays the same role that the fools play in Shakespeare's tragedies, to lighten the atmosphere from profoundly sad situations.
Maggie is a klutz who doesn't let her klutziness stop her. She's a one-woman pile driver intent on her purposes of spreading love and connection among all she meets. Her husband, Ira, plays the foil (the Desi Ricardo/Sancho Panza role) to help us know what the real situation is. Ira is almost all reason while Maggie is almost all love. You will find Ira to be interesting for examples of how reason needs to accommodate love.
Breathing Lessons shows a typical day for Maggie and Ira in an atypical environment . . . while on an out-of-town trip on a Saturday for a memorial service for the husband of Maggie's old friend. That environment turns the day into a quest (like Don Quixote) and they meet many interesting characters on whom Maggie has an unforgettable impact.
Many will look for a heroic ending featuring accomplishment. But did Don Quixote have such an ending? Ms. Tyler redefines heroism in terms of continuing to love and hope for the best . . . even when everything crumbles into dust. I think anyone will be inspired by the example of Maggie to do the right thing.
As you probably know, this book won a Pulitzer Prize which it certainly deserved. Seldom has a book created such a new an ennobling expression of human potential in the context of our all-too-human tendency to err.
Many will find Maggie's klutziness to be overdone . . . and possibly annoying. I, too, found it a little overdone, but enjoyed the book nevertheless. Ms. Tyler doesn't want us to miss the point that we should make the most of our talents . . . however modest or great they are.
Nice job, Ms. Tyler!

Almost everyone enjoys Tyler's wit, sagacity and style. Her books are mostly about people enmeshed in the ceremonies, traditions and frustrations of contemporary relationships.
Maggie and Ira Moran, married 26 years, are on their way from their home in Baltimore to the funeral of an old friend in Pennsylvania. In the scope of one day and in 200 miles, Tyler explores the ties that hold a family together with warmth and a sense of irony.
Maggie's a bungler, an incorrigible meddler concerned with everyone's problems but her own, trying to make everything turn out all right for others while her marriage flounders. Ira is the typical middle-aged failure, a man to whom ambition is a long-dead memory but who agonizes over his mediocrity.
Through leaps back and forth through time and imagination, Tyler draws a message that comes through loud and clear: how important it is to realize how much we love those nearest and dearest to us. It's a look at aging that won't shock those who are experiencing it as much as it will younger folks who haven't thought this far ahead. The lessons are important.

As Maggie and Ira Moran drive to and from an old friend's funeral, readers get insight into their entire 28-year relationship. The type of woman who tells grocery store clerks her entire life story, Maggie is now determined to take a detour by her former daughter-in-law's hometown, where she will attempt to cajole Fiona into reuniting with the Morans' son Jesse. Ira - Maggie's polar opposite - firmly believes in letting the past remain the past, and not meddling in others' business.

As the story of Fiona and Jesse further unravels, it becomes apparent that the two had the deck stacked against them from the start. Pregnant with daughter Leroy at 17, Fiona was coaxed into marrying Jesse and moving in with the Morans, despite her reservations. Yet even after the marriage fell apart, Maggie is dead set on getting her family back to the way she thinks it should have been.

Like most Tyler novels, there are no easy fairy tale endings here. In fact, when the story ends, I found it difficult to say whether the protagonists had learned anything from their experiences...or whether everything had stayed exactly the same as it was before the drive to the funeral.

I enjoy looking forward to reading, but with this book I seemed to find a million other things to do instead! I gave it up once and came back hoping for a revival, but after only 37 pages I am done! Waste of time when there are so many good and interesting books out there waiting to be read and here I come!

Breathing Lessons is a novel that celebrates ordinary people. Anne Tyler places us in one day of the lives of Maggie and Ira Moran. Maggie and Ira have been married for 25 years; they have raised two children and have a grandchild. By most accounts, they are very ordinary people.
The ordinariness is what brings this novel to life. The reader is often granted a glimpse of Ira and Maggie's past memories that have been triggered by the days current events. The memories illuminate what circumstances influenced both of these people and shaped them to who they are today.
Maggie is scatterbrained and seeks to manipulate almost all situations, in ways that suit her. Ira, is very strong willed and sensible, haunted by a family that he cannot escape. Breathing Lessons asks the question, what holds this marriage together. Ira and Maggie are completely different, both seem somewhat unhappy. Throughout the course of the novel, we begin to understand the relationship and unravel the strengths amidst the weaknesses.
Overall, a great novel, once again Tyler does not disappoint. If you are looking for something fast-paced and dramatic, this novel is not for you. To fully appreciate Breathing Lessons, one must understand the flavor of this novel, ordinary. I am currently on a journey through all of Tyler's work; she is truly a master of her craft.

It was fitting that I read it in one sitting because the book takes place over the course of a day. This married couple goes to a funeral, offends an old friend, tries to get their son and his broken family back together, all the while testing the boundaries of their own relationship.

The conflicting points of view-over things that have happened in the past-leave you wondering what is true. What has been lost to the pliability of memory or what have the characters invented? In the end, you don't really know what/who to believe. Breathing Lessons is a fast-paced tale of how this family ungracefully collides and doesn't exactly bounce back unharmed.

I recommend it, especially if you are traveling.

Maggie and Ira Moran used to have a daughter-in-law, Fiona. Maggie believes she hears Fiona say on a radio show that she is going to marry for security, this time.

People view Maggie as a klutz. She is a certified geriatric assistant. She and Ira attend the memorial service of Max, the husband of Serena. Friends are shocked when Serena arranges to have a reprise of the couple's wedding, with friends singing the same songs.

Ira worries because Maggie refuses to take her own life seriously. He believes that she is always inviting other people into their lives. The term breathing lessons refers to the exercises undertaken by Fiona to assist in the birth of her child, Leroy.

Maggie learns that the voice she heard on the radio speaking of remarriage is not that of Fiona. What's past is never past, entirely. Jesse, Maggie's son, and Fiona missed connections in former days, and Maggie's interventions muddied their affairs. In the last eighth of the book the author provides the reader with the back story.

Anne Tyler highlights the eccentricities of her characters as she spins a realistic tale. Artistry is evident in the fact that she is able to make the reader care about the fictitious outcomes.

"Breathing Lessons" perhaps should have been entitled "How to Continually Make Life a Wreck." Ira and Maggie Moran are on the road to attend the funeral service of her old best friend's husband. Through the adventures on that trip and remembrances of twenty-eight years of marriage, the reader is constantly startled at the rationalizations, miscommunications, bizarre behaviors, and disconnections from reality that the characters exhibit, especially Maggie.

In Tyler's novels, life is not a bowl of cherries; coping and readjustments are required. But Maggie seems incapable of coherently directing her life. She comes across as mostly inept in virtually all areas of living. There is little affection and support in her family. Her husband Ira is the reticent type. Her son is essentially a failure, and her daughter has practically disowned her. Maggie operates in a mode of always trying to patch up her mistakes and shortsightedness, as well as life's complications, with little success, if not actually making matters worse.

Maggie is a somewhat sympathetic character despite her wacky behavior, but she just seems a bit overdrawn at times. The happenstance nature of Maggie and Ira marrying is remindful of "Amateur Marriage," Tyler's most recent work. In both books, the marriages were handicapped from the start, but "Amateur" is a more persuasive examination of family incompatibilities.

I liked this simple tale of two middle aged partners in marriage. The whole story takes place during one day as the husband and wife spend most of the time in their car driving to and from a friend's funeral. Of course, there are detours on the way, but most of the "action" takes place while driving where the author elegantly combines current conversations with their individual reflections of the past - mainly of their sweet and awkward courtship.

The husband and wife seemed very real to me (however, I must confess that for some reason I started picturing them as Kitty and Red Foreman from That 70s Show...). Anyway, I found myself rooting for their "happiness" - sentimental, I know, but the story did not sink to the level of sappiness. Also, their difficult relationships with their widely different children was given a bittersweet sense of reality as well.

Not a profound book, but still a very enjoyable read. I will definitely keep on the lookout for more of Tyler's books in anticipation of another rainy Sunday afternoon.

Anne Tyler is one of my favourite writers, but of the twelve of her books I have read, this is one of my least favourite. As ever the writing is of a high quality and there is the usual assortment of quirky characters and gentle humour, but this book never really took off for me. Maggie is just a bit too annoying and unbelievable. As a child she liberates a pet hamster only for it to be eaten by the cat. Maggie appears to have spent the next forty years doing similar things, yet never learning. Tyler's best characters, however eccentric, develop during the novel. Maggie does not. I thought the best section of the book was the short second part which is seen through her husband's eyes. Maggie, for all the faults he observes in her, is a more sympathetic and likeable person when seen through Ira's eyes rather than through her own.

After reading the perfectly depressing "Amateur Marriage" I re-opened this novel, which I had read nearly two decades ago. In an instant, I was transported into the sad yet zany and hopeful world of Maggie: she meddles and fumbles, but has a good heart and never really messes anything up seriously. All of these lives are displayed with an arresting charm, through illusions, lost hopes, and the real value that there can be in a marriage that lasts in spite of all its frustrations and even its mediocrity. At least for me, this is very very moving and nakedly realistic, even wise. It is also charming in Tyler's hands and often comic without ever traducing the realism. Indeed, this novel has all of the virtues that "Amateur" lacked and I think it is a far better performance that addresses many of the same realities - just with characters that are more likable, more interesting, more fun.
Warmly recommended as a masterpiece of the mundane. Tyler makes Baltimore - of all places! - immortal. I loved it.

This is probably one of the strangest books I've ever read. It's the story of one day in the life of Maggie Moran, a woman obsessed with having everything her own way. She goes about with the stubborn determination and skill of Lucille Ball, making a mess of everyone's lives, all the while telling herself that it's all for the best. I'm not sure if the story was supposed to be humorous, but I was not amused.
According to the flyleaf, this is supposed to be about marriage: "the expectations, the disappointments; the way children can create storms in a family; the way that wife and husband can fall in love all over again; the way that everything--and nothing--changes." Well, okay, that pretty much sums it up, but I found this book neither endearing nor enlightening. It was a long, dreary walk through the mind of a woman who is selfish, confused, and manipulative. She fabricates and embellishes truth to suit her purpose, makes excuses for her lack of parenting and the slacker son she ends up with as a result. She has an excuse for everything she messes up, and in her mind it's all okay so long as things turn out the way she wants them to. The end justifies the means.
The story winds through a convoluted day with her husband tagging along offering up very little resistance to her schemes and plans, and even at the end when he tells her that it's over and that she just has to accept things, she still begins planning what she will be doing the next day to "fix" things.
I'm not sure what the author's intent was. If she wanted me to dislike Maggie, to be frustrated at her inability to face the truth and her dogged determination to manipulate everyone in her life, to be bored senseless with her vapid, selfish thoughts, then she succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. If this was supposed to be about marriage, I feel sorry for anybody whose marriage is like this! If I was supposed to feel that her husband, Ira, loved her in spite of herself, I didn't quite get there. I felt that he mostly was resigned to his life and had learned to put up with her. If I was supposed to feel some sympathy for Maggie, who was suffering from middle age crisis and empty nest syndrome, I'm sorry, I didn't feel one bit sorry for her. She created this horrible mess and people were deserting her faster than rats on a sinking ship. If I'd lived in that house, I would have been the first one to bail.
I couldn't find a single redeeming feature to this story. It wasn't fascinating, it wasn't funny, it wasn't representative of anything resembingling real life. I've known some manipulative people in my life, but no one as extreme as this. I didn't hate it, but I can't recommend it. 2 stars.

This book by Tyler is a wonder. I wonder how she can write so well about a dizzy person. It would be impossible for me to even consider such a novel. What a wonderful justaposition of two persons in a marriage. I really enjoyed it.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" "To Whom It May Concern" and "Tell me about the United Methodist Church"

...but I just could not. The predictability of Maggie's inability to drive the car without running into a truck or a mailbox, her consistent misprepresentation of what other people had or had not done in order to get them back together --- these are just two of the things that made it difficult to care for or even about the protagonists. The book jacket talks about their making 'extraordinary discoveries' about themselves on the road to the funeral. I reached the opposite conclusion - they end up very much as they started, behaving at the end exactly as they did in the beginning. I have the feeling that, if this were made into a movie, and a great actress were cast in the part, it could make a big difference. My mental image of Maggie is that she is a meddlesome, tiresome klutz. I know that is not how other readers see her, but that is how she came across to me.

If I'd realized in advance that this book had won the Pulitzer Prize, I might have been spared the angst of reading it, since I'm convinced that the people who get to define "literature" in this world are depressed, middle-aged white men. I avoid literature every chance I get. Anyway... I'm not a teenager; I'm about the age of Maggie in this book, and if I could have reached through the speakers of my car to get hold of her throat, I would have killed both her and Ira. And I'd like to do the same to Anne Tyler for subjecting me to this. Generally I read a few pages or a couple chapters of a book, and I can tell whether I'm going to like it or not. Then I either get rid of it or finish reading it. This book had enough truly hilarious stuff that I kept on reading, hoping that SOMEBODY would get a clue before the end. But the book dribbled to an end and I was left asking myself, "I wasted 8 hours of my life on THIS?" If my husband had said the things to our son that Ira says to their son in front of his own child, he'd have been in a divorce court so fast his head would have spun. But Maggie says, "I'll never forgive you." And ten minutes later she's got her head on his shoulder and all is forgiven. The people in this book sometimes seemed very real, but whenever it got to crisis time, they behaved in a way that no one I know would behave. A way that ensured that nothing got solved so that the book could struggle onward a little longer.
I'm sorry, but I believe that the only people who will like this book are those who like unhappy endings and believe that to be realistic and "literature" a book has to have an unhappy, unresolved ending (i.e. depressed, middle-aged white professors of English literature).

So many reviewers have gone over the plot, so I shall spare you yet another repetition. Like many, I was annoyed throughout at the level of dysfunction displayed by all the characters and not just Maggie; but this proves a point. Like most reviewers, including those who disliked this book, Anne Tyler thoroughly involves the reader in her story. I enjoyed this book as I have other Anne Tyler's books, basically because I find them "easy reads", stories that hold my attention, make me laugh and keep me turning pages. If I am any judge, then I feel that Breathing Lessons comes through as a deceptively simple story, as Anne Tyler is a master in control of her novel which is technically brilliant, humorous and filled with completely credible characters.

Maggie and her husband Ira are going to the funeral of the husband of Maggie's childhood friend, Serena. As they travel, their opposite personalities are revealed. Maggie is a well-meaning "fixer" of situations and people, whose plans often go awry. Ira is a much more reticent person, who is constantly frustrated by what he sees as his wife's interference in the lives of others. The funeral they attend is a reunion of many of their old friends and they soon discover that Serena is attempting to recreate her wedding at the ceremony. When that is behind them they head for home and on the way they have an encounter with an elderly black man. Their last stop is at the home of Fiona, their former daughter-in-law where, in true Maggie fashion, she tries to patch up Fiona's marriage with their son. This is a difficult book to rate, because it all seems so hopeless and unchanging. However, the accurate insights into marriage, relationships, and life are definitely above average, which is why I gave it 4 stars.

It is incredible to think that this awful book was awarded a Pulitzer prize. If anything, it should have been awarded a prize for having the most annoying and irritating main character inflicting the pages of a modern novel. Maggie is the kind of person who meddles, interferes, and sometimes helps destroy people's lives, as was evident in her interference between Fiona and Jesse. She reminds me I've people I've known and avoid like the plague. Were we supposed to feel sympathy for her? And we never really understand why she gave up a chance to go to college and make something of herself--instead, she chooses to work as an aid in a nursing home. Nothing wrong with that, but since she had the opportunity, she could have advanced herself into a career where she could provided a greater service to that population. This kind of book, filled with depressing people, unfulfilled lives, and an ending which leaves you even more depressed--that we can read about in the newspaper. In books, there should at least be some sort of message, a lesson, something that gives us food for thought, a resolution.

I Like a book with frequent breaks. This one kept going on and on until I realized I was hooked. A meddling woman with good intentions trying to make things turn out right creates at times hysterical consequences. Despite all, her husband tells it like it is, accepts the situations and amazingly accepts and loves her for who she really is!

I read this novel because it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Anne Tyler has a gift for portraying ordinary indivdiuals who live ordinary lives. Yet her novel is anything but ordinary because her characters are simple, yet real and their dialogue rings true. Moreover, Ms. Tyler, like Hardy and Miller before her, clearly believes and successfully posits that her mundane characters are heroic because they survive, perservere and present (albeit unknowingly) moral and spiritual lessons that are universal to us all. But my hesitation in giving this novel 5 stars is that, while it is great fiction, it is not the greatest fiction of its time. And this raises another issue. Why have so many Pulitzer Prize novels, such as "Gilead," "The Known World," "Empire Falls," "The Hours," "Kavalier & Clay," and "Middlesex," disappointed me recently? While these are compelling and at times superb works, they are not, in my opinion, deserving of the Pulitzer Prize. Of recent winners, only "The Shipping News" merits that distinction. Perhaps I will focus on National Book Award winners, since they seem more uniformly satisfying.

I think I must have missed something with this book. It won the Pulitzer and was also the Time Book of the Year for 1989. I really don't get it. I mean, it was fine. It was just the story of an average married couple, traveling to a funeral and back. Nothing terribly exciting happens. The characters were completely forgettable and felt really cut and dry for me. Not a lot of depth.

Overall, I didn't get bored or annoyed while reading the book, but it left pretty much no impact on me.

I enjoyed the characters in this book and how well the author displayed them deeply; their best and worst, basically their humanity. I sought out other books by this author because of how much I liked this one.

Chose to read this book because of its Pulitzer status. I knew it was a character study vs a suspenseful read; however, I could no longer tolerate it when too many details about high school relationships, boyfriends, music, and wedding details took over this story that takes place in one day. Sorry.

I got this book after reading A Spool of Blue Thread, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This book was a quick read but it seemed the author was all over the map with her story and characters. The ending was especially disappointing.

Ann Tyler specializes in opposites and what attracts them to each other. The bulk of Breathing Lessons takes place during a car ride from Maryland to Pennsylvania that a middle-age couple, bound together by who-knows-what, take to attend a funeral. Most of Tyler's characters are misfits or eccentrics. In Breathing Lessons, she focuses on a couple so average as to be boring, and nothing much happens to them by the end of the trip/book. But we, her readers, come to understand the serious business of relationships and the ties that bind. Hilarious in spots, as all of her books are, it is the poignant insights into the moments that show this couple in all their everyday uniqueness that we remember long after closing the book.

For the most part I believed the book was exciting and well worded. The only thing about the book is that Tyler made it difficult reading when she switched from the present to the past in a matter of a sentence. I felt excited towards the end. I couldn't put the book down, I had to find out what happened between Fiona and Jesse. The ending was the ending that probably would have happened in real life, so I enjoyed it. I haven't read many books at all and I picked this one for my English class and I am glad I chose this book, I Would recomend it to anyone.

While very well written, there is not a character in the book to care about, nor does any one of them learn anything or exhibit any growth over the course of the book. Reading the book therefore becomes a tedious exercise in waiting for something -- any thing -- to happen that will make you glad you picked it up in the first place. It became so clear to me that that wasn't going to happen, that I put it down and went to sleep with only 10 pages left to read. I'm sorry I wasted my time on it. (Incidentally, I picked this up because I loved "The Beginner's Goodbye" which is full of characters who you do come to care about.)

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 the protagonist Maggie whose prying and spontaneous manner is the source of much conflict in the family. Maggie causes the readers to become highly sympathetic towards the children in the Moran family as she repeatedly interferes in the lives of each family member, only making each problem significantly worse. Tyler allows the reader to accompany the Morans as they discover that at times family troubles are best left alone and meddling does not always lead to a solution.

While Tyler's use of excessive detail was intended to make the reader relive the events along with the Morans, it actually bores the reader as the comprehensive explanations of ordinary events of daily life such as what Maggie is going to cook for dinner does not really help the storyline nor entice the readers. At times readers were forced to skim through excessive explanations to get to the main point. The novel ends with the family situation just as it initially was demonstrating that families must learn to accept each other despite of any faults because not every problem can be solved. While there are some glitches in the style in which the novel was written, I recommend the novel on the basis that it gives a realistic glimpse into the conflicts of an average American family.

In Anne Tyler's pulitzer prize winning novel, Breathing Lessons, Tyler focuses on the everyday experience of marriage and the deep development of her prime character, Maggie Moran. One difficulty that students such as myself may encounter while reading this novel is that the trials and hardships of marriage displayed throughout it are not anywhere near relating to the kind that we must face at school. They are two totally different ball games. The situations to be faced at school may include smaller issues such as forgotten homewrok, while the main focus of this novel is forgotten love. Of course, that is not to say that the novel is totally incomprehensible for a student, but it is not one that a student can relate to as easily as other novels. The novel's plot remains stationary throughout while the development of characters is established by taking side tracks and back tracks through the past experinces and thoughts of Maggie Moran and her husband Ira Moran. Maggie often makes it a personal hobby to meddle in the business of others and is often found guilty as being the root of the problem itself. One of Tyler's main purposes in this novel is to show the trials of marriage while simultaneously illustrating that one should not meddle in the business of others. This novel was well written but I would not reccommend it to anyone who is very fond of plot advancement, because you will it to be a dissapointment.

First of all, if flashbacks bore you to death, better not pick this one up.
It all started when Maggie Moran and her dreary husband, Ira, travelled all the way from Baltimore to Pennsylvania to attend the funeral of her best friend's husband. Soon, it became a reunion for Maggie & Serena's batchmates. After several pages of flashbacks on the development of romance between Maggie & Ira, the couple was "forced" to leave at Serena's house because of the "accidental" & disrespectful incident.
After leaving, the story turned again to a lot of reflections and flashbacks. They bore two children, Jesse, (a drop-out from high school who was a rock band member, a separated husband and had a daughter out of wedlock) and Daisy, an incoming freshman who never became close to Maggie. (Wow, I can't believe Maggie's still there!) All of a sudden, Maggie insisted to visit Fiona (Jesse's ex-wife). But Ira said that she only wanted to visit her so that she would see their only granddaughter, Leroy. After pages of flashbacks (still there?), Maggie suggested to Fiona that she and Leroy would spend a night at their home. She hoped that Jesse & Fiona's marriage could still be saved. When she agreed, Maggie called up Jesse and told about Fiona. Jesse couldn't believe it but he went there anyway. In the end, well, the plot went nowhere.
I still can't get the essence of this story. Okay, probably this- this is all about one nosy and caring mother who couldn't prosper the values she wanted to instill in her children and unmoved husband.

I bought this book when it was first published and let it sit on my bookshelves getting old and musty. What a shame, because this was the perfect book to read over the Thanksgiving holidays. It's about a day spent with a meddling, but lovable woman and her self-righteous, but equally lovable husband as they travel from Baltimore to Pennsylvania and back. Ride along in the backseat with them. It will drive you nuts, but in a fun way.

Pulitzer Prize winners should have deeper social meaning than this trifle, or at least have a better plotline and memorable characters. This one, a day in the stubbornly ordinary lives of Maggie and Ira Moran, is imminently forgettable. The old couple bickering will wear you out by the halfway point, and the characterizations of Maggie as the eccentric wife and Ira as the long-suffering husband have been done before, and much better. There is a great deal to be said about the drama of ordinary life, but I don't see any of it here. Take a look at some other Pulitzer Prize winners instead of this one: Annie Proulx, Richard Russo's "Empire Falls," and even Marilynne Robinson's flawed "Gilead" have much more intelligent things to say about life lived out of the fast lane, and are much more poignant and memorable than this bickering couple standing on the side of the road.

Breathing Lessons is a great book about how ordinary people can be extraordinary. The novel tells a story about the lives of Ira and Maggie Moran. They are an ordinary couple with ordinary lives. Ira works in a frame shop and Maggie at a nursing home. They have two children and a grand-daughter. The novel follows their trip to Pennsylvania for a friend's funeral. Along the way, Ira and Maggie reminisce about their lives and how they ended up the way they did. They also encounter many hilarious adventures, including being thrown out of the funeral and scaring an old man. In the end, Maggie and Ira find out how extraordinary their ordinary lives really are.

Breathing Lessons has great characters. For example, Maggie Moran is your average grandmother, but also very unusual. She is clumsy, but tenderhearted. She will say/do anything to get things to go the way she thinks that they should go. Many times throughout the novel Maggie gets caught up in her lies and causes trouble when all she wanted to do was help. Maggie's husband Ira is also an interesting character. Ira tries to seem tough, but is very dedicated to his wife and family. He doesn't like to show emotions, but you can always tell what kind of mood he is in by the songs that he hums. Anne Tyler did a very good job creating these characters. It seems as though the characters are real because Maggie and Ira are complete opposites, but neither could go on without the other. They made and interesting couple to read about.

Anne Tyler's purpose for writing Breathing Lessons is probably to teach a lesson. Throughout the novel we learn of all the times that Maggie has tried to make things better. When she is trying to convince people to do the things that she wants, she always adds something extra to make it sound better than it really is. Later the person finds out that she made up what she told them and it always makes the situation worse than it was before she got involved. From this novel I learned that sometimes it is better to just stay out of things because if I get involved and things go wrong, I will be the one blamed.

Overall, Breathing Lessons was a good book and I enjoyed it. I think that the novel could have been a little more organized and it could have had a better plot. I also didn't really like the ending because it just ended without letting you know what had just happened. However, the novel would probably appeal more to an older reader. If you don't like a book that doesn't have an organized plot, then you probably won't like Breathing Lessons. The story skips around a lot due to the memories Maggie and Ira have of their pasts. If you like a story that is funny, easy to read, and heartwarming, I would definitely recommend Breathing Lessons.

I've read ten of Anne Tyler's novels, and this is by far my least favorite. Arguably her most anomalous because (a) It's not entirely set in B'more, and (b) it's the only Anne Tyler I'm aware of where a house or similar building does _not_ play a significant part in the story. A device in which Ms. Tyler loves to load up with heaps of junk or curious mementoes to flesh out a Macon Leary, the Tulls, or more recently _Patchwork Planet's_ Barnaby, who finds links to his past in (a splendid variation) the attics of other people's houses.
Anne Tyler's other motif is the notion of people becoming caste at some point in their lives, and that's definitely here too in the form of a bickering middle-aged couple stuck on the road in a beat-up car. And that's it. Making this book for a longer ride than expected.
The prose is unmistakably hers, but I'm shocked that this is her Pulitzer Prize winner, which makes me think she was given the award belatedly for her chronologically previous novels, _Accidental Tourist_ and _Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant_, which for the majority of Anne Tyler fans are generally considered two of her best novels.

There are phrases and quotations that stick with you for the rest of your life. My childhood was molded by "tis land that is the only thing that lasts" and "after all, tomorrow is another day. like any good southern girl. But the book passage that has most shaped my adult life is the daughter's question to the mother, "when did you decide to be ordinary?"
Besides having such a powerful effect on my life, the story is extraordinary and I could not put it down.

Anne Tyler's book Breathing Lessons uses countless motifs to convey her message that no human being is perfect, nor is any relationship ideal. It tells the story of Maggie and Ira Moran, involved in a relationship that has gone stale after 28 years of marriage. Maggie, depicted with the repeated "frizz" motif, is characterized by her ditsy, scatterbrained personality. She tries in vain throughout the whole novel to selflessly mend everyone's problems, mainly in efforts to save her son's marriage. Ira, her pessimistic, chiding husband simply engrosses himself in negative views about the "wasteful" human race and avoids Maggie if possible, otherwise remains quietly tolerant of her extremely obnoxious chatter. Even Maggie describes him as "one of those people who are born competent" (Tyler, 234.) The basic plot includes the couple's trip to an old friend's funeral, their insignificant adventures along the way, and a flashback to earlier years during their marriage. Although the flashback section tends to get tedious and wordy, it includes some of life's most meaningful lessons. It depicts the Moran's son Jesse's devotion to his wife and child after living a contrasting rebellious teenage life (continually symbolized by a "black" motif). Mainly, the book is packed full of the contrasting views of Maggie, the idealist who sees everyone with good intentions and pure hearts, and Ira, the realist who sadly often sees things in the sad state they truly are in. The motifs "hot" and "sticky" are used to foreshadow arguments betweeen the two. Their optimistic/pessimistic views are the main spark for their arguments, though it is also what keeps their marriage alive. The book ends with the quote, "Then she slipped free and moved to her side of the bed, because tomorrow they had a long car trip to make and she knew she would need a good night's sleep before they started" (Tyler, 338). This statement symbolizes their journey in the future as a married couple, and leads the reader to believe that their marriage will survive. The book follows a loosely structured plot and focuses on comical situations between two fairly unhappily married people who succeed in the end. A reader who enjoys psychological, yet easy to read love stories about the flaws of human nature would definitely enjoy this book.

Anne Tyler has been praised by writers of the caliber of John Updike for her unique talent to write wonderful "domestic" novels, and Breathing Lessons is an outstanding example. Rarely have I encountered a writer who manages to infuse such love, humor and observation into their work. In Breathing Lessons, Tyler fleshes out characters that will stay in your heart long after the last page has been turned. With their flaws and quirks, their strengths and weaknesses, one feels Tyler could be writing about our own lives. Maggie Moran, and the world she inhabits with her stalwart husband Ira, is another addition to the marvelous cast of characters that Tyler has given to us in her 14 novels. Read anything by Tyler, she is a consistently top-notch writer (Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, The Accidental Tourist), but use Breathing Lessons as your port of entry. You'll thank your luck for finding such a gem.

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. The book was a good portrayal of a middle class existance, something I don't have much interest in reading as it is mandane. I could understand why Daisy would not want to spend much time at home.

Maggie goes to a funeral of her best friends husband andentangles herself in nearly everyone's life. Maggie is a meddler notabove twisting the truth to bend life to her vision of it. In the endthe tangled web annoys and angers nearly everyone around her and isjust painful to read. I'm familiar with the "if it's painful andyou hate the characters it must be good literature" school ofthought and maybe it is, the pulitzer people thought it was. But formy money and time I'd skip it

It is interesting to see how people review this book and how some loved it and some hated it. I personally love Anne Tyler and this book is an amazing work.
The book has just the right amount of humor and drama. I felt by the end that I really knew the characters. I read it when I was 15 and reading it three years later I have learned to appreciate it more. I don't feel Maggie was condescending at all, she just desperately wanted to hold onto the past. Ira, although tactless, truly believed the truth would set people free. He was just that kind of person. Maggie had such high expectations for her son and truly believed he could do no wrong, whereas Ira probably saw a person who was living a life free of responsiblity. The book was so intricate with people's lives it seemed so real. I know people just like them. No one had bad intentions, no one was malicious, they just all had faults and I think the moral was that you just love people for who they are.

Breathing Lessons is a simple story of life. It is not the controversial, limit-pushing MTV excitement, but a real look at marriage and parenthood without sex, vulgar language or murder. Maggie is a typical mom--overlooked, under-appreciated, almost abused. Some people might call her a "meddling mother" but she spends her life showing how much she loves her husband, Ira, and her children. She just wants to help others--constantly. Seeing Maggie in this way makes you stop and think, even if only for a moment, that you should thank your mom for all she has done for you. Remove yourself from the hustle of 2000. Allow yourself to fall into this story and appreciate a simple time when families stuck together marriages survived. Now THAT is a lesson!

As I was reading others' reactions to this novel, I found that many complained about Maggie's annoying character and how her scatterbrainedness seemed to detract from the story. Although I have to agree that this character enraged me at points in the story, I would also like to inform these critics that IF AN AUTHOR CAN CHARACTERIZE A PERSON IN THE STORY SO WELL THAT A READER IS REPULSED BY HER, SHE CERTAINLY DESERVES RECOGNITION, and this is the conclusion I have come to in my process of assessing this novel for my English class. Yes, it went slow; yes, the characters were sometimes aggravating. But Tyler's books are some of the most skillfully written which I have ever had the experience of reading. She reinforces the sacred institution that marriage is, gives us a model in Ira's patience, and shows us how important a person at whom you can, as Serena told Maggie, steal a glance when others are bothering you and you can't complain out loud. Rather than complaining because this book isn't the shallow, exciting "story" that typical readers expect, let's praise Anne Tyler for her skill.

I recently read this book for the second time and still love it. At times it may be hard to be inside Maggie's head so often (especially when you don't agree with her) but the story completely pulls you in. These are some excellent and complex characters. My favorite thing about the book is how it lets you see numerous sides of the same event. We see how Maggie and Ira each see things from such different perspectives, yet still truly love each other. One of the most amazing things about this book is how it so clearly portrays the fact that families are collections of very different people who somehow get stuck together and love each other.

I've read Breathing Lessons twice, and even saw the Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie. I thought it was truly heartfelt and very real. In response to what the others had to say about it, it's simply the story of an aging woman. She's getting used to all the changes that were taking place in her life. Please remember that Maggie didn't grow up in a time when there was such a thing as a single mother. I think it's hard for Maggie to understand how Fiona's mind works. You have to understand that Maggie is just concerned about her son--remember her plan is to patch things up between Fiona and her son. The husband of Maggie's closest friend also passes away. It's startling for Maggie to go to that funeral and see how all the people she used to know have changed. I think the meandering plot line is symbolic of Maggie's personality. Not everyone is going to like it, but at least give it a chance. It's so funny! (Obviously this book wasn't written to impress teenagers! They need to stick to Sweet Valley High or Nancy Drew Mysteries)

Breathing Lessons, by Anne Tyler, was not a very interesting book. It had no focus or plot in my opinion. It had very little story line. It began with Maggie Moran and her husband, Ira, on a trip to her best-friend, Serena, deceased husband's funeral. It started that way then it left me with them helping an elderly black man. Then it switches in mid stream to a long flashback that gives the reader and idea on what's happening in the present. Not quick switches, just I couldn't find a point to the switches. The characters, I thought, were well developed and you could picture them, but it's like, they have no mission. You could find their flaws and how the views where so different but you knew who was wrong and who didn't look at the whole situation. I would recommend this book to people you like things simple. It doesn't take a lot of thought, because there's no mystery. I'd also like to recommend it to people who like ordinary life. The simpliest of life's mistakes are seen throughout this novel.

This was my first time reading an Anne Tyler novel and it was a good read. The book displays an ordinary couple, Ira and Maggie Moran, a typical American family and illustrates the complexity, the aggressions and loneliness of a family and what becomes of their relationship in the end. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever felt lonely.

I enjoyed this one, as I have always enjoyed Tyler's books. The amusing bit about the husband who whistles `appropriate' tunes during `appropriate' (?) moments had me in stitches! Mrs. Moran is sooo full of quirks that I wish I could shake some sense into her. If I could have done that, I would have given a better rating of the book! (just kidding)

I enjoyed Breathing Leassons very much. It is a simple story about a day in the life of Maggie Moran. Being the kind of woman Maggie is, set that her picture of the world is the only way of looking at things, you know that this day is surely not that different from any other.
People may find Maggie an annoying character, but that is part of the charm of the book. That at the end of the day this woman who may not be the ideal still goes home to one man, and a family who may not agree with her, but love her just the same.
If you are expecting a high action book, or something that will change your life, you will be disapointed. But if you are interested in a book that just might give you an insite so someone you have in your life (I think we all know a person like Maggie) and remind you that what is important is who you love not who they are, then you will enjoy Breathing Lessons.

The amusing title of the book led me to further reading. This seemingly mundane plot reveals that we all need lessons or at least a re-learning in life of what we deem we know by heart. Tyler also makes brilliant use of dialogues and symbolisms that pop up naturally throughout the novel revealing that she is by her rights a prized writer.

Just not my cup of tea. I should stick to what I know I like. There was nothing really moving the story along for me. I kept waiting for a climax of some sort in the story and there just wasn't one, so when I did get to the end, it was kind of a let down.

A day in the life of Maggie - who is rather naïve and interfering (albeit for the right reasons) - and her husband of 25 years, Ira.

Although the novel only covers a day, it flashes back into their lives and glimpses into the dynamics of their marriage.

Though the book is beautifully written, its pace was a little too leisurely (borderline annoying) for me.

When a friend of mine, a huge fan of the Danielle Steelesque, beach book type of novel, gave me a copy of Breathing Lessons, I was a bit skeptical of its merit. However, the fact that it was a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize compelled me to give it a try. As a psychology major, I am intrigued by in-depth character studies, and hoped this would satisfy my interest. As I labored through the novel, I kept wondering when it would magically transform itself from a glorified soap opera into a true work of literature. It never happened. The most annoying thing about this novel was the character of Maggie Moran. Rather than being an object of sympathy, someone I grew to understand as the book progressed, she got constantly more irritating. Her thought patterns and actions appeared to be those of a child, not an adult's. Ira, on the other hand, was a much more intriguing character. His past was developed in great detail, yet the reader was never given much of a glimpse into his thoughts. He was seen only through the obtuse eyes of his wife. With his interesting past, I would have enjoyed getting a better idea of his motivation and personality, but for some reason, I never did. In general, the late 80s must have been slow years in terms of fine literature. I cannot see why else this book would have been honored in such a way.

I did not enjoy this book at all. Just an incredibly long day of listening to a married couple talk to each other. I really don't understand why people like this book. Anne Tyler is a talented writer, but this story was just plain boring.

After being totally delighted by "Back When We Were Grownups" and "A Patchwork Planet", I eagerly ordered "Breathing Lessons" expecting it to be even better since it won the Pulitzer prize. I loved the first two books because the characters were so wonderfully human. By no means perfect, they managed to be lovable despite their flaws. Their daydreams and moods and perceptions were very recognizable to me. I also thought that the situations they found themselves in, though perhaps a bit on the quirky side, were quite realistic. I found the characters in "Breathing Lessons" annoying and unappealing for the most part and the plotline farfetched. I don't know how two people who got along as poorly as Maggie and Ira could possibly stay married for 28 years. They belong in "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" more than in a novel by Anne Tyler. Their lives come off as dreary, depressing and pointless. I kind of liked Maggie but I found myself wondering about her contact with reality. I thought Ira was meanspirited and moody for the most part, and his treatment of his son Jesse was horrifying. I think Maggie and Ira are lucky Jesse is only an unmotivated slacker and not a mass murderer considering the emotional and verbal abuse Ira dishes out to him. My other complaint about this book is that none of the action really rang true. I mean how many people manage to crash their car twice in one day by mistaking the gas peddle for the brake and not have their driver's license revoked? Why is Maggie estranged from Fiona and Leroy in the first place? How many people would be willing or able to perform at a funeral without any prior notice or practice? Just to mention three of the many unlikely situations in this book. I'm glad that "Breathing Lessons" was not my first experience with Anne Tyler because I'm afraid it would also have been my last.

I was irritated by certain aspects of this book, namely, the character of Maggie. She is a self absorbed, interfering, scheming, immature person. Ira was almost unaware of himself and really didn't lend much to anything in the story. Everytime Maggie did something that didn't work out the way she perceived it, it was almost telegraphed; you could see it coming a mile away. It just seemed to plod along. I was expecting these profound discoveries about themselves as a person and hoped that it would evoke a little change in themselves. The characters ended up exactly the same as they had always been. I am a little dumbfounded that this was a Pulitzer Prize winner.

I really enjoyed Anne Tyler's new book "Noah's Compass" so I went back to reading some of her older novels. I picked up "Breathing Lessons" at a library book sale for fifty cents. I am glad I didn't pay more. I don't understand the point to this book, it wasn't interesting and didn't have any surprises (like Noah's Compass). I found it to be rather depressing. The only part that was interesting was after Maggie watched the film from her friend's wedding and realized her original feelings for her husband.
I don't think I can read another of her novels.

This is the first Anne Tyler I've read since Accidental Tourist. I like her humor. The main character probably would annoy many people, but I guess I saw myself and others in parts of her quirks. It was a "fun" read. Not deep, not enthralling, just fun.

Got off to a bad start with this book; the main character irritated me right from the beginning. You meet enough foolish and interfering people in real life, don't want to spend my leisure time reading about any more!

The plot? basically, there wasn't one, unless the idea was to show how, in some people's lives, nothing happens.
Ploughing through this novel (yes, I got to the end) was a lesson in patience.

I must say, this book was the worst book I have ever read. Where to begin? Ah yes! It seems only logical to start with Maggie. She is what I envision when someone mentions a human tornado. Maggie moves through life trying to manipulate people into some ideal that she has, but only succeeds in ripping their lives to shreds. Her conniving succeeds in bringing about catostrophic arguments between her son Jesse and his ex-wife Fiona, which one can imagine will scar their poor daughter, Leroy.
I would also classify Maggie as the type of person who is known for snatching kids out of carts at the grocery store. She only wants Jesse and Fiona to get back together so that she can take care of Leroy. God only knows what she would do when Leroy grows up, but I can imagine her snagging some child off the playground.
Ira is also a distructive force in the novel, but his comes from pent-up self hatred. Ira detests the way his life has gone, but rather than blame himself, he blames his wife, his son, and his father and sisters. He doesn't say much in the novel, but when he does speak, the comments are usually derisive and harsh. He airs other poeple's dirty laundry (such as when he tells Fiona that Jesse has been sleeping with another woman), and he calls his own son hopeless and worthless. All in all, I can't say that he gets my vote for Father of the Year.
The only people I felt sorry for in this pitifully tragic work were Jesse, Fiona, and especially Leroy. Jesse and Fiona are the pawns in Maggie's insane game, beeing lead arround by her in an ever more devious lie. Leroy is even more innocent, for she is a child with high hopes of meeting her father (hopes planted by Maggie) only to have those hopes dashed by a severly tramatizing family argument.
This book is supposed to be this great insite into marriage, but I found it to be more of a glimpse into how far a person will go to make their make-believe wonderland come to life. I can't say as I would recommend this book to anyone.

Several years ago I attempted to read Breathing Lessons but just gave it up because the characters were just too one-dimensional, boring, and unbelievable. After recently reading several other of Tyler's books (Ladder of Years, Patchwork Planet, Homesick Restaurant) and really enjoying them, I decided to try again. Sorry, but this book is a stinker! How it won a Pulitzer is beyond me. Unlike her other books, this one has no real hook for the reader, that is, nothing to keep him turning the pages. I finally (again) became so disgusted with the main characters that I (again) gave up. If you want to start reading Anne Tyler, don't start on this one because you may never read another. Perhaps this book was written as an example of a certain kind of writing for some esoteric literature class, but not for the general reader.

True, Anne Tyler paints a colorful, vivid picture of the Morans, their marriage, their concerns for family and friends. And, at times, her writing is funny--many scenes would translate well on film. I'm just not sure its message is all that memorable.

I had high hopes for this book based on the fact that it won the Pulitzer Prize. Unfortunately, I found a tedious unbelievable story about two boring characters that really had nothing important to say for 324 pages. I read the whole thing hoping something interesting would happen. Instead, as the book progressed I found myself rolling my eyes and wishing for the end. Maggie is a meddler that ruins peoples lives and Ira is a loser that can't control his passive aggressive behavior to bring others down to his level of misery. There is nothing poignant in their lives that even remotely hopes to bring tears to your eyes or make you laugh out loud. This book ranks up there with The Pilots Wife - a book that has nothing to say and is a shameful waste of time.

I have a recurring nightmare. I'm on my way to perform some task, but repeatedly get sidetracked by other events. When I wake up I have a vague sense of dissatisfaction. That's pretty much how I feel about Breathing Lessons - it's a tedious journey to nowhere.

It speaks to the author's talents that she can create characters, dialogue and situations that are realistic. But this was not an enjoyable book for me. Maggie set my teeth on edge - she is a dithering chatterbox who drives her family (and the reader) crazy.

I read this book when it first came out and then shelved it. I took it down again to read last week to see if my appreciation of it had improved with time.

Nope.

I had only read one of Anne Tyler's books, A Patchwork Planet, and I happened to mention to a friend that I didn't see what the big deal about her was. She told me I'd read one of her minor works, and that I should give this "wonderful author" another try. So I picked Breathing Lessons, figuring I couldn't go wrong with a Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

Well, I still don't get what the big deal about Anne Tyler is, and I'm baffled as to why this novel received the Pulitzer. It's dull and not particularly well-written--an average novel about some very average people.

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.

Try as I might, I simply couldn't get through this book. The characters are well defined, but that's because it seems to be all Ms. Tyler does. The dialogue between husband and wife on the way to the funeral was darkly comic and mildly amusing, but page after page later, I felt that it was too much of the same. For those reading this review, please keep in mind that my commentary only refers to the first part of the book, as I couldn't get past the redundancy any further than that. Considering this book won the 1988 Pulitzer, it must be worth delving further into the story; I hope you can make it.

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.

This entire novel takes place in just one day (with a lot of flashbacks). I won't go into the whole story here because you can get that elsewhere, but let me just say that the characters are well-developed and the structure (one day in the life of) works really well here. It is poignant and funny at the same time.

Tyler presents a novel that peeks into the private life of a marriage that must deal with the plights of middle-age. In just one day, we see the past and the future of a couple that must learn to rely on eachother. A ninty-mile car trip soon becomes the vehicle in which Ira and Maggie learn that life is neither pruning nor wastefullness, but rather a journey of love

This book fit my tired and stressed mood in a life that is changing too much too fast with my job and my friends and my love life. It isn't really a book you can describe by plot. Nothing specific actually happens. This older couple is taking a roadtrip for a sad reason. They are thinking about things as they go. It's good if you don't want things to change. The writing is really nice and the dialogue too.

Having read her other books I thought that I'd enjoy Breathing Lessons. I struggled, found the people irritating and remembered it as a disappointment.
I tried again recently, thinking it would seem better now I wasn't expecting it to be good, but I couldn't even finish it this time, I was so bored!

This book was clearly written for those who believe that the ordinary is extraordinary. True, simplicity can be beautiful and illuminating, but banality is just boring. While the characters are amusing, the plot lacks direction and focus. On a good note, the prose is smooth and highly readable.

I was looking forward to reading another Anne Tyler book. What a shock. I found her main character Maggie tedious, unlikeable, totally ctossing everyone's boundaries. I honestly don't know why I finished reading it. I can'tbelieve it won a Pullitzer. Her husband seemed totally lacking in personality

Did I miss something? I kept waiting for something to happen. I would have stopped reading it but I kept waiting for something to happen. This woman, Maggie, was everything a mother should not be: too permissive, a push over, dim-witted...the list goes on and on. This book is not worth your time.

Breathing Lessons is a landmark for literature. It paints the life of a married couple perfectly. In this book, Anne Tyler says what we already know...however, she says it with a different slant, in ways we never thought of.