A Patchwork Planet
by Anne Tyler
List Price: $12.95
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0449003981
Publisher: Fawcett
Anne Tyler's fourteenth novel presents Barnaby Gaitlin, the latest of
her quirky characters trying to cope with a less-than-perfect life. Barnaby
has been in trouble ever since adolescence. He had this habit of breaking
into other people's houses, not so much to steal things, but because he
liked to read other people's mail and pore over their photo albums. But
for eleven years now, he's been working steadily for Rent-a-Back, renting
his back to people who can't move thier own porch furniture or bring the
Christmas tree down from the attic. Still, when the chips are down, he
learns that his family and friends really don't trust him, and his world
falls apart.
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1. "I am a man you can trust." Barnaby begins and ends the novel with this statement. How
has Barnaby's understanding of this characterization of himself changed
over the course of this story?
2. "Just because we were related didn't mean we were any good at understanding each other,"
says Barnaby after yet another frustrating conversation with his mother.
Communication problems abound within the families depicted in this novel.
Discuss the nature and source of these problems. Why do we often have
so much trouble talking to the people we love?
3. Even as adults, many of us, like Barnaby, still view our families through the eyes of
a child. How does this blind us? How do we heal the old wounds? Can we?
4. During a family dinner for his birthday, Barnaby asks himself, "How come I always got
the feeling that somebody was missing from our family table?" What do
you think Barnaby was missing? And why is his mother so insistent upon
including his childhood friend, Len Parrish, in the festivities?
5. How does Barnaby's understanding of and relationship with his daughter change over the course
of this story? How does it mirror his relationship with his own parents?
6. Barnaby's daughter is upset upon meeting some of his clients, and Barnaby is criticized for
this. Do you think he was wrong to bring Opal with him on his rounds?
7. While Barnaby tells us a great deal about his marriage to Natalie, we learn little about her
views of things. How do you think Natalie would describe their relationship,
and how would it differ from Barnaby's account?
8. "And I was beginning to suspect that it made no difference whether they'd married the right
person. Finally, you're just with who you're with. You've signed on with
her, put in half a century with her, grown to know her as well as you
know yourself or even better, and she's become the right person." Discuss
the meaning of this summary of marriage according to Barnaby. Do you agree
or disagree?
9. Barnaby's brief career as a juvenile delinquent involves snooping in other people's personal
effects and "collecting" their personal mementos. What do you think motivated
him to do this? Have you ever felt the compulsion to look in other people's
private things? Why or why not?
10. Have you ever encountered a stranger on a train who intrigued you as Sophia intrigued Barnaby? Have
you ever done anything about it as Barnaby does?
11. Barnaby seems surrounded by smug and self-satisfied people--his mother, his ex-wife, his brother,
to name a few--who he never seems to measure up to. Barnaby feels much
less comfortable in his own skin. Do you think this is a trait only he
possesses?
12. What motivates Barnaby to re-pay his parents, and why does his mother try to give the
money back?
13. This novel explores the bittersweet struggles of older people to maintain their dignity and
independence in the face of advancing age. What do you think about the
fact that Barnaby knows more about the lives of his clients than many
of their own families do? What does this novel suggest about the treatment
and place of elderly people in our society?
14. Barnaby's clients deal with the indignities and problems associated with aging--e.g., failing
health, isolation--in many different ways. How do their approaches vary,
and what accounts for this?
15. Do you think Sophia was actually Barnaby's guardian angel? Why or why not?
16. Why is Barnaby able to overlook attributes in Sophia that infuriate him in other people
for so long? How does his attitude change and why?
17. Which character(s)
did you find to be the most compelling and why?
18. What is the significance of the title of this novel?
19. Why did your group choose to read this particular work? How does this novel compare with other works your group has read?
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"Set A Patchwork Planet on top of your...reading list and visit it as fast as you can....Gracefully written...intensely satisfying."—Austin, TX Chronicle
"A Patchwork Planet makes the tender promise that you need not pay all your life for the mistakes you make when you are young. This is vintage Tyler."—Chicago Tribune
"If this novel were a painting it could be called Portrait of America. Anne Tyler writes it like a great landscape artist....[A]ttention to detail combines with brilliant chiaroscuro to produce a modern classic. The picture is so rich and original that it will be revisited again and again."—London Times
"Tyler's books get wiser, funnier and richer as they go."—Seattle Times
