Hello!
This week I have chosen to read Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler from the Booker Prize Longlist 2020. It is the story of Micah Mortimer, an average forty-something who works as a self-employed tech support, ‘Tech Hermit’, a ‘super’ for his apartment block in Baltimore, ‘sweeping, shaking out the mat or conferring with a plumber’.
The second person narration in the opening line, ‘You have to wonder what goes through the mind of a man like Micah Mortimer’ has the feel of a chatty busybody whispering in your ear, almost asking if we should care about Micah. The narrative continues in the third person providing a distanced view of Micah and his current girlfriend Cassia Slade, ‘He has a girlfriend, but they seem to lead fairly separate lives.’ Similarly, his former girlfriend, Lorna Bartell is described as ‘so very, very sure of her principles’ again suggesting the space between them.
Micah is the story. There are no big plot twists or crashing conflicts. Rather, Micah’s life is quietly laid bare, with subtle storytelling that equals the balance he strives for in his life and is exemplified in the description of his daily routine, ‘At seven fifteen every morning you see him set out on his run. At about ten or ten thirty he slaps the magnetic TECH HERMIT sign on the roof of his Kia.’ The narration continues to follow his every step, including systematic spotless cleaning, as he keeps his life in perfect order, even keeping faithful to the ‘Traffic God’, pretending to adhere to an ‘all-seeing surveillance system’ when he drives.
The meaning of Micah’s life, and life in general, is addressed in the opening ‘Does he ever stop to consider his life? The meaning of it, the point?’ leading the reader to wonder if he will ‘spend the next thirty to forty years this way’, a state of paralysis and in somewhat of a minor existential crisis.
Interspersed between Micah’s routine are descriptions that languish in the fullness of building character and setting. Micah is described as ‘a tall, bony man in his early forties with not-so-good-posture – head lunging slightly forward, shoulders slightly hunched’. His client, Yolanda Palmer, ‘a dramatic-looking woman in maybe her early fifties with a flaring mane of dark hair and a mournful, sagging face.’ Equally, scene descriptions vividly portray the family life of his sisters in ‘the general impression, as always, was a tumult: noisy, unkempt people wearing wild colours, fog barking, baby crying, TV blaring, bowls of chips and dips already savaged.’ This depiction is in direct contrast to Micah’s ordered life. However, there is a certain degree of closeness between the siblings despite Micah being the youngest and his older sisters’ teasing him for being ‘finicky’ and asking if it is ‘vacuuming day’ or ‘dusting day’ or ‘scrub-the-baseboards-with-a-Q-tip day’.
Enter Brink Bartell Adams, ‘a young man in a tan corduroy blazer’. Brink is described as a ‘rich kid’, ‘handsome’, ‘a boy, really perhaps not out of his teens’. As a catalyst, Brink creates disarray in Micah’s life by claiming to be his son. Micah is forced to confront not only his past in the form a prior relationship with Lorna, but his current relationship with Cassia.
As his routines unravel, Micah struggles to understand his family and girlfriends. Although eccentric, he is a loveable character. Will his world fall apart, remain static or will he be able to propel himself out of paralysis and take action? Redhead by the Side of the Road is a love story that is delicately written, compellingly ordinary and easily identifiable in its realistic depictions as well as disrupted routines, with which we can all identify.
Themes: love, friendship, habits, routines, second chances, misunderstandings, hope, family, sadness, loneliness.
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